Do you consider the word yank to be a

Color me   too.  I'm curious to see what people think about this word because it doesn't offend me.  Who is it supposed to offend?

Only if we're talking about the New York baseball team.

Yank/Yankee is a regional slur not a racial one. Ask her what race "yanks" are...
www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=yankee

I don't consider it to be racial at all, it has nothing to do with race. Perhaps she meant cultural or social? I have only ever heard it used as a short term for 'American' in general, just like Australians are 'aussies' or British are 'brits' or 'poms'

Eta: is she getting confused with the term
'Discrimination'? Which could be used as a cultural or social definition. Some people are unaware that discrimination and racism are different.

And does she want them to stop publishing Yankee magazine (I'd be mad if they did - I love it!)?

I definitely don't consider it a slur.

But here in the South it would be somewhat of an insult

This Texan is offended by the idea that all Americans are yanks.

I think people try too hard to find some kind of racial offense to a lot of words and things where none exists. IMO people like that need to put the energy into being offended into something more positive. It's like some people really dig hard to find something wrong where there isn't anything wrong. 

I agree.  I hear "Brits" use the term to mean Americans, and it doesn't bother me at all.

Different words used by different people indicate different things.  


But to say it's a racial slur makes absolutely no sense to me at all, no matter who says it.  If you are outside the US, and use to refer to those who live in the states, then you are using the term for a multitude of races.

If you live in the southern US and use it to refer to those in the northern states, then again, you are covering many races.

When I lived in Australia it was normal to refer to Americans as Yanks. Not in a derogatory way, just a geographical description. I know several British people who use the word Yank the same way. And the Brits call the Australians 'Aussies'.

I have never taken the word Yank as being a racist comment. Unless it was by a Southener in a period piece from the Civil War, cause they sound like they call each other 'yank' and 'southener' and not mean it in a good way.

Ask her what she thinks of the word "Goofball."
'Cause she is one.  


(I think "Yank" is a descriptor nonAmericans use for all Americans, and "Yankee" is a descriptor southerners use for northerners. So, in usage and origin of user, different.)