Bohunk - K

K

Kaffir, kaffer, kaffir, kafir, kaffre, kuffar

(South Africa) a. derogatory for a black person. b. also caffer or caffre: a non-Muslim. c. a member of a people inhabiting the Hindu Kush mountains of north-east Afghanistan. Origin is from the Arab word kafir meaning infidel used in the early Arab Zanzibarian trading posts on the Indian Ocean coast in Africa to refer to the non-Islamic black people living in the interior of Africa. The term is still used as a pejorative by some Muslims, particularly Islamists in such a context. The term passed into modern usage through the British because on early European maps Southern Africa was called by cartographers Cafreria (the name derived from the Arab word "kafir") and later Kaffraria. Thus the British used the term "kaffirs" to refer to the mixed groupings of people displaced by Shaka when he organized the Zulu nation. These groups (consisting of Mzilikaze, Matiwani, Mantatisi, Flingoe, Khoikhoi, and Xhosa peoples inhabited the region from the Cape of Good Hope to the Limpopo river) fought the British in the Kaffir Wars 1846–1848, 1850–1852, and 1877–1878.) See also Kaffir (Historical usage in southern Africa)

Kike or kyke

(US) a derogatory term for Ashkenazi Jews. From kikel, Yiddish for "circle". Immigrant Jews signed legal documents with an "O" (similar to an "X").

Kala

the nonspecific racist slur of "kala" (Burmese: ကုလား; MLCTS: ku. la:) is used against Muslim and Indian immigrants in Burma, especially when referring to Burmese Muslims.

Keling

people originating from the Indian subcontinent, used by native Malaysians and Indonesians - originally merely descriptive,it has come since the 1960s to be considered offensive by a majority of Indians

Kraut (from Sauerkraut)

(North America and Commonwealth) Derogatory US and British term for a German, most specifically during World War II.

Kona Paluwa

(Sri Lanka) an ethnic contumely for Muslims.