Plan B: 'Chav is a derogatory phrase'

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The word chav is used to refer to a certain group of people, more often in a negative way than a positive one. So yes, chav is a derogatory word regardless of what anyone says.

But like all derogatory words, they shouldn't be banned.

Reply 221

Dragonfly07

I know but I think that some people refuse to call it a derogatory word on the first page because they're scared that they won't be able to say it freely in public anymore or that it would be frowned upon.

Reply 222

Dragonfly07

I agree that it should be frowned upon. People need to be educated.

I have a lecturer in human biology that thinks the only thing that defines ethnicities is divisions between cultures, not their biology (she's firmly against using the word "race" to define groups of people and uses "ethnicities" instead).

That means that, for her, a white person growing up in a black neighborhood is black. Conversely chavs would be a different ethnicity to many other white people regardless of their similar genetic appearances to each other.

Look at the first page - people are saying that being a chav is a choice of behaviour, and that it includes being rude/dangerous to people. The way I see it they're just people from a certain background that have a different accent/way of dressing. They may or may not be violent, in the same way that black people may or may not be violent.

Reply 223

Converse Rocker

Original post by Dragonfly07

The way I see it they're just people from a certain background that have a different accent/way of dressing. They may or may not be violent, in the same way that black people may or may not be violent.

I think this is the problem then. People seem to be defining the word chav in different ways, and depending on what you think it refers to, changes your opinion of the word.

To me it's more relating to behavior than background, welath etc.