One example I’ve seen is someone talking about being coconut-pilled.

  • LSNLDN@slrpnk.net
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    4 months ago

    This is interesting to me as a complete outsider to these elections, but having known ‘coconut’ to be used as a slur against non-white ethnicities who act the same as the average white oppressors of history despite us presuming them to know better. Coconut ie 🥥 brown on the outside white on the inside…. This is something mentioned a bunch in the recent uk elections especially with the whole Palestine situation happening

    Clearly this is a different reference judging from other comments here but thought it was interesting. Don’t suppose they’re trying to reclaim the word before it’s used against them.

    • Coffee Addict@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Yeah when I first heard the reference myself I was pretty confused until it was explained to me. I didn’t make the connection to it being racist - mostly because I saw it being posted by left-leaning and liberal personalities - I was more just confused people were posting coconut and palm tree emojis and having no clue what was going on lol.

      I do think it arose pretty organically and was pushed by genuine Harris supporters. People were saying they were “coconut-pilled” to show they were supportive of Kamala for at least a few weeks before Biden officially passed the torch.

      I do expect the right to try and co-opt it into being racist, but I am not sure how effective that will be considering a lot of Harris’s supporters (and people who are just excited Biden passed the torch in general) seem to be having fun posting it.

    • indomara@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Very interesting, here in Australia it isn’t a slur. An Indian friend of ours travels a lot for work, and recently told us that every time she gets a taxi to or from the airport and the driver is also Indian, they always start asking questions.

      Where are you from, who is your family, etc etc. She exasperatedly said “I’m a coconut! I don’t know, I just want to get where I’m going!” when describing this to us.