|
Discussion: Use of the Word Ni**er...
Member Since: 6/7/2011
Posts: 22,128
|
I don't personally use the word, but I don't care too much if other people do.
I think the best call for people that have a habit of using the word is to make sure that the people they surround themselves with don't mind it. But obviously, you have to be careful with it, because there are a ton of people that will become infuriated at the mere thought of it.
As Cap10 mentioned, don't be surprised if you get attacked for using it, though.
|
|
|
Member Since: 12/28/2010
Posts: 26,529
|
i dont like it. and it erks my nerve especially when someone from the urban communtiy uses it. very ignorant to use that word. im not a slave.
|
|
|
Member Since: 7/21/2007
Posts: 17,522
|
Any black word person who uses the word is a hypocrite when it comes to racial discrimination. There are some blacks who use it in every other sentence, and this makes people think its ok.
|
|
|
Member Since: 5/4/2011
Posts: 2,464
|
Quote:
Originally posted by RainMan
Any black word person who uses the word is a hypocrite when it comes to racial discrimination.
|
False. Because you're assuming that every black person who uses it has views regarding racial discrimination that are hypocritical.
|
|
|
Member Since: 6/4/2010
Posts: 38,919
|
Quote:
Originally posted by KoreanDream
As Cap10 mentioned, don't be surprised if you get attacked for using it, though.
|
Right. I have seen gerls get booked for saying it.
|
|
|
Member Since: 4/7/2009
Posts: 34,961
|
Quote:
Originally posted by Nii.
I also hate it when it is one person "trying to be" another ethnicity. People with good upbringings act a certain way, ones with rough upbringings act another way. It doesn't matter if you are black, white, etc. You act the way you were brought up. The time period you were brought up, the area, and the place all also deal with how you act. It isn't decided by race.
|
That gets on my freaking nerves.
"stop acting white", "stop trying to be black"
WHAT!?
|
|
|
Member Since: 1/8/2011
Posts: 27,650
|
Quote:
Originally posted by Hi.Def
Right. I have seen gerls get booked for saying it.
|
I give white people the most funniest look when they use it though, some of them look scared
|
|
|
Member Since: 6/4/2010
Posts: 38,919
|
|
|
|
Member Since: 6/1/2010
Posts: 65,177
|
I remember when I went to school in Florida for four months, I was on the school bus, and this white guy called another white guy a "n**** lover." I just couldn't. I was about to say something, until I realized I wasn't in Louisiana and my mom said she didn't want any **** from me at that school.
|
|
|
Member Since: 6/23/2011
Posts: 6,234
|
I don't see a problem with the word. It honestly just kind of bothers me how black people can say it to other black people casually and it won't be considered bad, but if a white person says it casually (without being racist - I completely understand if they're using it in a racial tone. That's un-called for) they get **** for it, yet the person giving them **** for it was just using the same word in the same context. In the dictionary, the term means ignorant, anyway, but I still can understand how some black people get offended by it.
|
|
|
Member Since: 5/14/2011
Posts: 2,353
|
Words are words... people are people.
|
|
|
ATRL Moderator
Member Since: 3/18/2009
Posts: 35,164
|
I think it's unfortunate that it continues to be used in common speech at all. I know saying "n*gga" instead is a way that black people have taken back the term as an empowering thing, but when the word is tied to such a complicated and ugly history, it can still be discomfiting to hear it all the time.
That said, the word can only continue to hold such dangerous cultural power if we allow it to. As a society, we should be saying "n*gger" instead of referring to it as "the n word," because that euphemism causes us to cower in fear and still gives it power over us. We should be taking back that power and working to overcome the word's impact by truly believing and treating it is a horrible, racist name from our past that we will no longer support and that we are fighting against now. Hold people accountable for hurling it as a derogatory epithet, but don't give them a reason to think it's an insult that can mean anything anymore. What we really need to eliminate is the type of thinking that brought the pejorative "n*gger" into being in the first place.
|
|
|
Member Since: 7/23/2010
Posts: 6,705
|
I come from a country where English is the second official language and people here know nothing about the N word nor it's meaning. I guess it only concerns the US.
|
|
|
Member Since: 9/28/2009
Posts: 9,353
|
I would never use slurs in *real-life* and I don't think anybody else should. They are absolutely filthy words and residues of discrimination. Although, I do occasionally use **** online (never in a hateful context).
|
|
|
Member Since: 1/8/2011
Posts: 27,650
|
I hate that
They think they slick sometimes. But no offense, and I'm not saying it's right for blacks to use it but when white people use it they sound so dumb
|
|
|
Member Since: 8/16/2011
Posts: 19,718
|
I think it's safe to say that most of you guys found it offensive/ridiculous for both whites and blacks to use the word. I used to think that too until I read this article that kinda put into perspective for me. This article showed the many different uses it had in the black community and at the end explained why it prevailed to this day.
Quote:
Originally posted by Gloria Naylor
In the singular, the word was always applied to a man who had distinguished himself in some situation that brought their approval for his strength, intelligence, or drive:
“Did Johnny really do that?”
“I’m telling you, that ****** pulled in $6,000 of overtime last year. Said he got enough for a down payment on a house.”
When used with a possessive adjective by a woman–”my ******”–it became a term of endearment for her husband or boyfriend. But it could be more than just a term applied to a man. In their mouths it became the pure essence of manhood–a disembodied force that channeled their past history of struggle and present survival against the odds into a victorious statement of being: “Yeah, that old foreman found out quick enough–you don’t mess with a ******.”
In the plural, it became a description of some group within the community that had overstepped the bounds of decency as my family defined it. Parents who neglected their children, a drunken couple who fought in public, people who simply refused to look for work, those with excessively dirty mouths or unkempt households were all “trifling ******s.” This particular circle could forgive hard times, unemployment, the occasional bout of depression–they had gone through all of that themselves–but the unforgivable sin was a lack of self-respect.
A woman could never be a “******” in the singular, with its connotations of confirming worth. The noun girl was its closest equivalent in that sense, but only when used in direct address and regardless of the gender doing the addressing. Girl was a token of respect for a woman. The one-syllable word was drawn out to sound like three in recognition of the extra ounce of wit, nerve, or daring that the woman had shown in the situation under discussion.
“G-i-r-l, stop. You mean you said that to his face?” [Reminded me of ATRL]
I don’t agree with the argument that use of the word ****** at this social stratum of the black community was an internalization of racism. The dynamics were the exact opposite: the people in my grandmother’s living room took a word that whites used to signify worthlessness or degradation and rendered it impotent. Gathering there together, they transformed ****** to signify the varied and complex human beings they knew themselves to be. If the word was to disappear totally from the mouths of even the most liberal of white society, no one in that room was naive enough to believe it would disappear from white minds. Meeting the word head-on, they proved it had absolutely nothing to do with the way they were determined to live their lives.
|
http://blog.timesunion.com/books/bla...ia-naylor/348/
|
|
|
Member Since: 11/16/2010
Posts: 1,257
|
Quote:
Originally posted by VAN de
I think it's safe to say that most of you guys found it offensive/ridiculous for both whites and blacks to use the word. I used to think that too until I read this article that kinda put into perspective for me. This article showed the many different uses it had in the black community and at the end explained why it prevailed to this day.
http://blog.timesunion.com/books/bla...ia-naylor/348/
|
Sorry, but the article is complete rubbish. Black people say the N-word because it's a habit and we grew up saying it (even though I didn't grow up saying it, which explains why I don't like or use it today). The excuses of "term of endearment" and "taking the power out of the word" is just something black people say as an answer to "why can't we say it, too?" from white people. Plain and simple, black people say the word because we are used to it. N-I-G-G-A is no different from N-I-G-G-E-R. Black people say the "gga" version because a lot of blacks speak ebonics, which automatically drops the "er" off of words, including the n-word. That's why it's not uncommon to hear a black person say, "I'm walking out the doe to get in my ca to go to the sto." As you can see, all those words have an "r" at the end, which is automatically dropped when speaking ebonics. That's why black people pronounce the n-word "gga" and not "gger," not that "term of endearment" crap being perpetuated by proponents of the word.
|
|
|
ATRL Senior Member
Member Since: 11/14/2008
Posts: 24,988
|
For the life of me, I could never understand why us as a black community try to make the N***** into something "positive" or endearing and our "own?" The word has too much hate and bigotry behind it to be used so openly and freely among the black community. It's insulting and I'll be damned if ANYONE that's black, white, yellow, red, or whatever address me in such a manner.
There's no way you can make that word a formal greeting, not with the history that is attached to that word. This is only one of the many reasons why we as black folk cannot overcome obstacles, stereotypes, and stigmas attached to our race.
|
|
|
Member Since: 1/3/2010
Posts: 21,098
|
This reminds me of when my town tried to ban the word. Anyway, I don't use this stupid **** and I don't allow people to call me that no matter what color your skin is. It's really not ok for anyone to use it, but people will continue to be stupid.
|
|
|
Member Since: 7/9/2010
Posts: 31,471
|
If you say "*****" meaning friend, that's fine. If you use "******" as in black person (if you're white), that isn't okay IMO.
|
|
|
|
|