Hori

Hori is an ethnic slur used against people of Māori descent. The term comes from a Māori-language approximation of George, an English name that was very popular during the early years of European colonisation of New Zealand. By means of synecdoche, the term came to be ascribed firstly to any unknown male Māori and then as a negative epithet to all male Māori. The usage as a derogatory term for Māori grew with the increasing urbanisation of Māori and is still common, though its usage may be less than in past decades. The level of offence implied by the use of the term has varied over time and with context. In the mid-1950s, there was a radio sketch "Dad and Hori" and in the early 1960s, the Pākehā writer W. Norman McCallum published several bestselling comedic books under the pseudonym "Hori". The pseudonym was chosen as a typical Māori name and the books depicted Māori as overweight, lazy, and happy-go-lucky. In recent years amongst Māori it has to some extent been "reclaimed" by the community which it was originally intended to insult – being often used as a term of endearment or as a signifier of "keeping it real". An example is the musical group AHoriBuzz, the frontman of which describes the term as embracing Māori humour. This "reclamation" over the last 20 years has progressed so far that many youth may have no idea that the word is a racial slur. Etymology In The Oxford Dictionary of New Zealandisms, the term Hori is defined as a direct "transliteration of George, a name adopted by Māori males from British royal use". Although initially used predominantly as the closest Māori translation of the word George, the term later evolved into an "informal offensive" descriptor for all Māori people. The exact timeframe in which the word Hori morphed from a simple transliteration into a universal racial slur towards Māori people is unspecified. Nonetheless, it is known that during the period of mass Māori urbanisation between 1950 and 1980, the usage and range of offensive and prejudiced Pākehā identifiers expanded. The newly urban Māori "were doubly alienated, as they were rejected by the dominant Pākehā culture", via the everyday use of racist slurs and characterisations such as Hori, and simultaneously removed from their cultural lands.