Whoop, I edited mine a bit while you posted this.
I don't think he intended the term as disparaging
Actually I think he did. Gook is not used like aussie or scot... at least nowhere that I've been in the US.
I would refer to a Chinese Restaurant as a 'Chinkie'
Oh my, mention that to a waiter in Chicago and you might get cream of sum yung guy for free
in your order.
I've met blacks who refer to themselves as 'niggers' and Jews you refer to themselves as 'yids'
This is true, but then for them it is self-referential and turning the term on its head. And there are whites that use it too, and don't get slammed, but then it is in how they use it... my nigger, versus hey nigger.
He was obviously trying to use a denigrating term for a bunch of people whose asses we were going to kick.
holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)