yellow peril
- noun
- /ˈjɛloʊ ˈpɛrəl/
- Slur
:
peligro amarillo
- He recalled the late nineteenth-century vision of the Chinese yellow peril and raised the specter of race riots and exclusion.
Examples
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But this act was also very much an extension of more than a century of racial prejudice against what was termed the "yellow peril."
Academic text (2018) -
Talk about the bloody yellow peril.
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In the late 19th century, the idea of the yellow peril fueled fears about Asian immigration in Western countries.
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Many historians discuss how the yellow peril stereotype influenced public policy against Asian communities.
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The concept of yellow peril often reflects deep-seated racial anxieties prevalent in earlier American society.
How Offensive
- Slur
- Offensive
450
5.3
- Offensive
313
1.3
180
4.8
2
4.4
224
4.6
Surface Forms
Morphology
Although a learner who knows 'yellow' and 'peril' might guess a literal 'yellow danger' or 'cowardly danger', they would not be able to derive the phrase's historical, racially charged meaning referring specifically to East Asian peoples. The expression's significance is culturally and historically specific and not predictable from the component meanings, so it is opaque to B1 learners.
Etymology
The phrase yellow peril may come from 19th-century Western fear, where yellow was used for Asian skin and peril meant danger, creating the image of an invading 'threat'. That's why it came to mean the idea that Asian peoples are a 'threat', and today the expression is seen as racist and offensive.