18-06-2025
This slur was used to abuse Concetta's father. For her, it's a proud identity
WARNING: Distressing language Concetta Caristo is a proud wog. But for her father, the word was spat at him in vitriol. 'I use it as a term of pride. I really do. And I obviously think it's based on tone. If I hear someone saying it to me in this vitriolic tone, I'm sure that would make me upset, I would be so taken aback by that, which to me really shows how far the word has come," the comedian and Triple J host told SBS Examines. "My dad who was born here was like, 'yeah, it was used with vitriol for being different.' So that is pretty a remarkable change." The term originated from the slur 'dago'. "Dago sort of slips out of usage and . . . is replaced by the slur wog," explained global diasporas expert and Greek Australian Dr Andonis Piperoglou. He said the term originally meant infestation or disease. Former Socceroo Peter Katholos, who came to Australia from Greece at nine-years-old, remembers wog being used against him. "There were moments where I was called a wog, many, many times," he said. "You were looked at as a stranger, like 'what are you doing on our land?' Little did they think that these people that came from overseas were here to work hard to basically help in building this country, which the migrants did." While the word wog has a complex meaning for many Australians, Dr Piperoglou said it's helped curate a new cultural migrant identity. "The diaspora of these groups from the Mediterranean can start to self-identify and claim a certain type of alternative Australian-ness, which rides up against and challenges some of those monocultural renderings of what constitutes a good Australian." This episode of SBS Examines celebrates 50 years of SBS, recognising some of the broadcaster's first migrant audiences and their contributions to modern Australia.
