It's not abuse if the person is not offended.
That doesn't seem right.
If I used abusive language, or an abusive style, and directed it at you, is it not possible to deem my behaviour to be offensive, without even knowing whether or not you just laughed it off?
In this situations it seems that its the do gooders and PC people who do the complaining.
Er, in this situation the army claims to regard the behaviour as unacceptable enough to warrant an investigation. Do you consider the army to be a do-good or PC organisation?
Compare with bro's from the hood calling their kindred by the "n" word. If they don't mind, then why should others mind when someone else calls them by the "n" word?
Because it's deemed to be offensive if the offence was meant, or if the use of the term was inconsiderate.
I think Harry's behaviour has been blown up out of proportion, but use of a racist term is automatically abusive because of the special prominence given to racism, not least owing to specific legislation.
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What is offensive about Pak1 anyway, its only an abbreviation? If a Yank calls me a Brit, its the same thing.
It very much isn't, because of the legacy of the term "Paki", which at one point in England's recent history was
intended to be extremely abusive and/or demeaning.
Of course it's possible to use
any word as a term of endearment, in private, which it seems is what Harry did, but it's just completely foolish to use a word that everyone knows is
capable of causing offence, and then claim with wide-eyed innocence that you never meant it that way. This is the same person who wore a symbol of Nazi Germany, during an era in which the same behaviour wouldn't be acceptable in Germany itself.
The onus isn't on ethnic minorities to feel treated as equals - it's on everyone else to treat them (and everyone) as equals.
If you don't regularly call your best friends "Brit", then what possible justification can you have for calling a supposed friend a "Paki"?
Racists need to think up some new excuses - the old ones are wearing very thin.