There’s an article in the Sunday Mail, ‘Students quit over anti-US slurs’, that I found really annoying. And that was just from reading the headline.
American students have told The Sunday Mail the verbal attacks are unbearable and threatening to escalate into physical violence.
Griffith University student Ian Wanner, 19, from Oregon, said abusive Australian students had repeatedly called him a “sepo” — short for septic tank. “It is so disrespectful. It’s not exactly the most welcoming atmosphere here,” he said.
Are you shitting me? If every American student left the country for being called a seppo, the population of Brisbane would be about half of what it is. The fact is that when you are given an irreverent nickname it is often a sign that you’ve been accepted, and I don’t think this kind of humour is peculiar to Australia.
It’s also true that if you are a humourless douchebag and take offence at being called a name, then no matter whether you are in Brisbane, or Portland, people will keep doing it. Don’t you dare come over here and expect my country to tiptoe around your fragile ego.
Unless things have really changed since I was at University—which is still ongoing, but I’m referring more to my 2½ years at a residential college—people are not generally openly hostile toward Americans.
Since then, the war in Iraq has happened, and it was supported by our government just as much as theirs. So I’m going to assume the people abusing American students know why that’s stupid, and move on.
Queensland Anti-Discrimination deputy commissioner Neroli Holmes said the alleged labelling of students as “sepos” could be classed as racial vilification under anti-discrimination laws.
No, dickhead seppo would be vilification. Seppo is just cockney rhyming slang meaning an American person. As with most other ethnic soubriquets it really depends upon the intent of the speaker. I just hope this journalism student hasn’t done any real damage to our city’s reputation, because I happen to feel that American students are treated pretty well here.