Greek culture was reintroduced and popularised through comedy, which led to many opportunities for Greece and its culture. Though, this is no longer the Australian context we exist in. Younger Greek-Australians nowadays have no issue putting the Greek flag in their Instagram bio, posting a photo of a lamb on a spit, and using their favourite Greek swear words with their friends, because these were the parts of Greek culture that were popularised to them through comedy, in an Australian context.
He did reshape the definition of the term, and boldly responded to a context of racism in an innovative way that inspired a generation. Though, this generation are no longer in the limelight, and any form of glorifying racism and segregation no longer has a place in Australian society. These jokes have become cheap, unrelatable and uneducated because we are no longer the source of racism and discrimination.
Though, in doing this, we also segregated ourselves and put our guards up as a response. Whether or not someone who uses it believes the recipient is inferior is inconsequential. The term offends me because my skin colour is used to mark me out as different, 'other', an outsider. Perhaps it is because she is white that Susie O'Brien's stereotypes left some readers cold. Maybe a white person can't unpick themselves from white privilege enough to be able to understand feeling different.
To be the girl in the predominantly white changing room with hairier legs. To feel the burning shame of being told you have smelly sandwiches in the canteen. Feeling 'other' is never nice. It makes you feel unsettled, like maybe a part or all of you doesn't belong and you have been allowed to attend by invitation.
Like you should be grateful. Just like when you tell a large group of people with deep and diverse historical heritage to be grateful when they are homogenized by your words. As the debate kicked off, tweets in Australia confirmed a suspicion of mine. Not all Greeks are okay with being called a wog. Just because one Greek decided it was tolerable, it doesn't mean all Greeks will.
It definitely doesn't mean all dark skinned people will receive it well, and it definitely doesn't mean that anyone should assume we all will, or become enraged when we don't. Alongside defending the term, readers also left comments suggesting I shouldn't be so precious.
The world has gone mad, they said. Why do we have to be so P. Greek, Italian and Lebanese communities happily refer to themselves as wogs and the term is general parlance for anybody from an approximately Mediterranean background. Soccer is sometimes known as "wogball" in Sydney, as it is overwhelmingly played by southern and eastern Europeans.
A "wog mansion" is a big, extravagant house with Corinthian columns. Sam Pappas of Sydney's Greek Orthodox Association insists there is nothing particularly offensive about the term: "If it's used in a 'Come on, you wog' - as in 'Come on, mate' - way, then it's perfectly OK. Racism is a prickly issue in Australia. A politician with responsibility for Aboriginal affairs recently came under fire for urging a community leader to move his "black arse". Another had to resign after describing an opponent's Filipino wife as a "mail-order bride".
But even race-relations professionals are relaxed on the wog issue. Warren Duncan, a spokesman for Sydney's Community Relations Commission, said: "Whereas in the past it was a word you couldn't use at all without being hurtful, it's lost a lot of that.
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