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tw // racial slur , racism , prostitution
why you should remove gook/guk/gguk/etc. from your usernames and dns — a thread made by a korean
— please please please correct me if i said anything wrong; i don’t want to misinform anyone!
why you should remove gook/guk/gguk/etc. from your usernames and dns — a thread made by a korean
— please please please correct me if i said anything wrong; i don’t want to misinform anyone!
“gook” is a racial slur that has been used frequently against eastern asians, mostly korean, vietnamese, and filipino people. it was mostly used during the vietnamese and korean wars by the united states military. it is an offensive derogatory term. there are other variations of
of “gook” such as “guk” and “gguk.” in korean, when words get romanized into english, there can be multiple spellings. for example, the name “전” can be spelled as “jeon,” “jun,” or “jhun.” i personally know korean people who hold each of those surnames. all of them spell it as
“전” in korean, even though they spell it differently in english. this is the same case for “gook.” “gook” and “guk” are both spelled as “국” in korean and is pronounced exactly the same. they’re basically identical, so please don’t use either of them. now, with variations like
“gguk,” it’s a little different. in korean, people like to replace characters with a 쌍자음 (double consonants) to make it sound cuter. like they will replace ㄷ’s with “ㄸ”, ㅂ’s with “ㅃ” etc. with “gguk.” essentially the “ㄱ” is being replaced with “ㄲ,” so “국” becomes “꾹.”
so i’m assuming the “gguk,” comes from people trying to make it sound cute (they probably weren’t aware it was a slur and thought it was just a name
). also, with “kook” and “kuk”: the “g” and “k” in korean can be interchangeable. as you can see, “국” is made up of “ㄱ,” “ㅜ,”
). also, with “kook” and “kuk”: the “g” and “k” in korean can be interchangeable. as you can see, “국” is made up of “ㄱ,” “ㅜ,”
and “ㄱ.” you can see that there are two ㄱ’s, one for the “g” and one for the “k” in “gook.” so technically, “kook/kuk”’can equal “gook/guk.” as you may know, there is an idol named j*ngkook, and the “kook” part of his name is written as “국.” but i will admit, there is a
possibility that kook/kuk is not a slur. there is a separate korean character, “ㅋ,” for only “k” and applying that to “국” to make “쿡” does not make the slur. so “kook/kuk” might not actually count as the slur; honestly it’s just iffy and personally i’m not 100% sure, but i’d
still be careful about it. additionally, i am aware that “gook” is actually a commonly used word in korean. it directly translates to “soup” and is included in a lot of words, such as countries like “한국,”which is the word for “korea.” it is also used in many names, like the
example i mentioned earlier. however, this does not change the fact that white soldiers took this normal word and made it a racist slur :// i’m not completely sure if the origins of this slur are 100% confirmed, so please correct me if i’m wrong: from what i know, this slur
originated from “미국,” which is the word for “america.” apparently, u.s. soldiers heard koreans using this term and heard it as “me gook” because that is how the word is pronounced. they then started to refer to koreans as “gooks” and after that, even used it to refer to
vietnamese and filipino people despite the fact that they came from entirely different countries. i think this kinda promotes the racist idea that all asians look the same. and thus, the racial slur was created. “gook” also once meant “prostitute,” so please understand why this
term can make some of us feel uncomfortable. on kpop twitter, i’ve seen this slur used in many usernames and dns, especially since it is used in idols’ names. you are free to say idols’ names and other words containing this slur because they obviously don’t mean it, but please
try to refrain from using it nonchalantly for aesthetic purposes. i hope yall understand that i am not trying to bash anyone with this word in their account; i am simply trying to educate everyone. so in conclusion, users with these words in your account, please be careful.
i didn’t think this would blow up- thank you for taking the time to read the thread
hi! i’m adding on to this thread to clarify something! this slur has been directed towards not only eastern asians, but southeastern asians as well (predominantly the korean, vietnamese, and filipino populations). i didn’t really make that clear, sorry!
here’s the explanation of the of the slur’s origin from another perspective! https://twitter.com/xuxiusers/status/1319091487737475073
