On the Word 'Kanake'

Typically, if you are in a working-class German pub or hang around non-intellectual Germans....the word 'Kanake' gets used.

German-word PhD enthusiasts will say in a blunt way that Kanake (the word) is racist, and often a discriminatory word.  Journalists will hype that and urge non-use. 

So, where did the word develop?  This is an odd story.

Back in the 1800s, German ships sailed the seven seas, and even made it out into the Pacific Ocean.  Ships would often take on regional 'employees' from the Polynesia area.  With the language barriers, the German sailors would often make up words and Kanake comes from this period. Oddly enough....it wasn't meant as a negative word or discriminatory.....it was actually a word of respect for a Polynesian crew associate who was 'respected' (an equal or a peer).

The word people will tell you that the phrase was used by various groups between Polynesia and Hawaii, and it tends to mean 'human'.  The German sailors simply borrowed the word and used it in a different sense (respected co-worker). 

How did the word Kanake move from the Pacific usage back to Germany?  Unknown.  I would make a guess that some German journalist probably picked it up in the 1800s, and used it in several articles, and it got introduced into German to note a foreigner.

Later, it was reshaped to be a negative word for foreigner, and then we reach today's world where it's a racist word. 

Do German journalists realize the path of the word?  I doubt it.  If you told some German sailor from the 1800s about the word's path, and the meaning today....they'd laugh and think you were making up some fake story.