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What's a GOOK?
 Gook
is American slang with a murky past. It is a term of contempt for
foreigners, especially those of darker skin in southeast Asia,
according to the 1989 Oxford English Dictionary. During the 1900
Filipino Insurrection, Yankee soldiers and their Filipino Scout
allies called the Moro rebels, a different tribe, ‘Gu Gu’s,’ a
reference to evil demons.
The U.S. Marines sent to Haiti to restore peace and order in the
1920's called the locals ‘Goos’ and worse.
In pre-WWII Shanghai, U.S. Marines and soldiers changed it to ‘Gu
Gu-uck’ and ‘Gu-uck.’
To be fair, there are benign origins suggested for this mutating
slang expression used by GI’s in the WWII Pacific Theater of
Operations, the U.S. Occupation of Japan, the Korean Conflict and in
Viet Nam. In Korean, gu’k means ‘nation,’ so Chungkuk is Chinese
nation and Mi-kuk is American nation.
But THE GOOK LOVER’s central theme is more truthful and scathing.
The Japanese soldiers who brutally occupied Korea called all Koreans
chosenjin which was the ‘gook’ equivalent of the American ‘N’ word.
The Japanese invaders called the Chinese Shinajin, another ‘N’ word
curse synonymous with gook. In response, the Chinese called the
Japanese invader-occupiers ‘dwarf bandits.’ The Koreans,called the
Japanese wae-nom, which translates as ‘f****** dwarfs.’
In nearly all languages there are nasty ‘gook’ words for the weak
whom the strong wish to despise, brutalize and or subjugate. In
defense, the oppressed respond with nasty labels of their own.
This is more than name-calling. Demeaning another individual or
population segment makes it easier for nations to rationalize their
uncivilized, harsh policies and acts.
The childhood rhyme, “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but
names can never hurt me,” is not true. Calling another human being a
gook is the first step to darker deeds and diminishes us all. And
the curse says more about the curser than his target. |
