Okay we've all heard about that n-word and all of the controversy that comes when non-African Americans use that word. But is the n-word really that bad? I know that at one time in history this word was meant in a negative and degrading way, but in today's world and society is the word really so horrible? I feel like it IS a term of endearment, African-Americans should be able to use the word. But I do have a problem with people of other races using the word. I feel like that word is not theirs to use. Other races didn't go through the same experiences that African Americans and their ancestors went through, so they don't have a right to use that word.
One thing that I've noticed is that when used publicly (the n-word or something negative that is about African Americans) alot of attention suddenly gets paid to African-Americans, hip-hop/ rap music, and the words they use. Why is that? Many people then find the need to give interveiws "supporting" the Black race and pointing out the things that African Americans need to improve within their race. And for a few months there's almostlike this big "race movement" to improve the Black race and its image. After these few months, how many people actually feel the need to give positive and influential interveiws about African Americans. Only when the African American race is in the spotlight is attention really paid attention to it or it is REALLY publicly boosted up!
That bad, horrible word!
By EriJA - Posted on April 12th, 2007
ok , but why do african americans still want to use that word with eachother. i mean if it represents the past leave it in the past. i am african american and i get annoyed when black people get mad when a lil gangsta white kid uses it just as casually as we do. thats all for now..
mizz b
There are SOOOO many things wrong with this post.
"I feel like it IS a term of endearment, African-Americans should be able to use the word."
Please tell me you are not referring to the "n" word as a term of endearment. That is the most ignorant thing I have ever heard...well....except for:
"Other races didn't go through the same experiences that African Americans and their ancestors went through, so they don't have a right to use that word."
Are you serious dude!?
No...Jews weren't the victims of genocide or anything...
Native Americans didn't have their land taken away from them only to be killed off and driven to little plots of land sparsely located around America...
English Christians, Early Pagans, and Catholics alike weren't persecuted and killed for their faith...
...In a dream world! Apparently you live there...is the weather nice?
The fact is that those things did happen. Every race has had to go through things that suck in their existence. Any group of people that believe something have to fight for it. That's just the way it is. What happened to African Americans and their ancestors sucks, but is also part of life.
...and hey. Do your research. Africans were actually tortured and persecuted in Africa by their own people. A lot of Africans were probably ecstatic about coming to America as slaves. And lest ye forget...A lot of the slaves in America were treated quite well, at least better than the over-all popular belief on the subject. Not that I'm condoning slavery...just trying to put it in prospective here.
Martin Luther King Jr. wanted equality for all races. What you're saying here is that Blacks should be able to use the word openly and freely, but no other race should be allowed to. Isn't that racism, my friend?
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"I'll be in my office...There's a lot of porn piling up on the internet...It doesn't just download itself!"
---Gregory House...My idol---
MM
You make a good point... but only because the blogger's argument wasn't well posed. It's not that African Americans are the only ones who have suffered. It's because they've suffered in a way that is unique to African Americans and therefore to the word "nigger." If they want to retake the word and make it their own, they have every right. Just like Irish people can make jokes about Irish people being big drinkers, and Mexicans can joke about parental dysfunction within the community, African Americans can us the word "nigger" to their heart's desire.
Also, it's really not just about being Black. Latinos, Asians, Natives and certain White people have earned the right to use the word. Living in the ghetto or the projects allows anyone the right to use the word. I know plenty of non-Black people who use the word, and it isn't in an offensive way. They don't use it to express racial supremacy- they use it to express racial and class unity. "My nigger" doesn't mean "you're my property" it means "you're another person here, in the ghetto." It just so happens that there aren't as many white people in low-income neighborhoods as Latinos, Asians, Natives and Blacks.
"It just so happens that there aren't as many white people in low-income neighborhoods as Latinos, Asians, Natives and Blacks."
Really? You have proof of this I'm guessing? So white people are just a part of a race that has everything handed to them from their rich families and live happily ever after outside the ghetto and in their nice houses? NO! There are just as many whites in low income areas as there blacks...or any other race for that matter! Look up the Stats of % of people living in low-income areas based on race. I guarantee you that you will be surprised to find that there are actually a lot of whites that fit that generalization.
Furthermore, are you trying to say that I can't say the word because I wasn't raised in the ghetto? That only people who are raised in the ghetto are "Allowed" to say the word?
Listen, I'm not saying it's right or wrong. No one can say what is right or wrong for another group of people. I'm just saying that I feel that the word is used in a racist way by all races. Thusly, I refuse to use the word.
Suffering DOES NOT give you the right to bitch more than someone else, nor does it give you the right to be racist.
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"I'll be in my office...There's a lot of porn piling up on the internet...It doesn't just download itself!"
---Gregory House...My idol---
MM
I'm sorry. Suffering absolutely gives you the right to "bitch." Absolutely. Especially if your suffering comes from institutions such as slavery, legal disenfranchisement and social repression.
Fine. I don't know my percentages. In -my- neighborhood, which is fairly mixed but mainly minorities, we don't have that many white people. Furthermore, I don't think poor rural white folk can use the word as freely because there isn't the same contact with black Americans.
People can and should be allowed to say whatever they want legally. What is socially acceptable is a different story. Legally I should be allowed talk about whatever the hell I want, including about how the holocaust never happened, how blacks and latinos are inferior to whites, that all muslims are bad etc etc. None of that, however, should be socially acceptable.
I think it is socially acceptable for urban people who have experienced the same experiences as urban black people to use the word nigger within the confines of the community- but not for privileged white folk, or privileged folk of any ethnic background- as long as they use it in a way that isn't degrading to others.
"yo nigger, pass the chips"
Is not the same as "niggers should hang."
"shit, I stubbed my toe." is not the same as "you're a piece of shit."
I am not at all trying to force you to say this word- I was just expressing my opposite opinion.
Ok, without putting myself in the middle of this cat fight, which I already witnessed on another blog on this same topic by wmikemoon I would just like to point out one thing.
There is a difference between bitching and speaking up for yourself. There is no need to bitch, but people in unfair or difficult situations do have a right to stand up and speak out about it.
I think that what wmikemoon is trying to say is that it doesn't give them a right to just complain. Is that correct wmikemoon? Or am I completly off base?
JD
Sure. That works.
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"I'll be in my office...There's a lot of porn piling up on the internet...It doesn't just download itself!"
---Gregory House...My idol---
MM
Okay let's get this straight. For the first comment that you wrote,phranque has already said all of the main things that I was going to tell you. But should already know, that I've done my research, and I never said anything about people that live in the ghetto being the only people that can use the n-word. Furthermore not all Blacks livein low-income neighborhoods, I never specified the location or environment that a person had to live in to have the right to use the n-word.I know that there are many other races that live in poor areas! And I don't feel that the word is racist when used used in a positive conotation.
For your second comment:(first of all, why do you feel the need to comment on this blog twice in the same day? Do you really feel that this blog is THAT important?)And what I said is true; no other race has gone throught the same suffering that African Americans have gone through. I DID NOT say that no other group of people has ever suffered, because many different groups had. I mean I would hardly say that Jewish people haven't suffered or that Native Americans haven't suffered! I was just saying that other races haven't had that same experience. It's been different for each group. And once again, I know what I'm talking about, I've done my research, I know that African Americans were first tortured, enslaved, and treated very badly by their own people in Africa. And yeah, slavery may have been a little better for them in America, but that dosen't change the fact that slavery was still wrong and many African Americans were brutalized during this time (especially in the South). Also No, I don't think its racist to say that African Americans have the right above all others to use the n-word, as phranque pointed out, many other races have inside things like that.
...to debate about this...work and all.
But I will touch on a few things.
Yes. I think this is THAT important. I could be wasting my time on myspace or doing drugs...But i choose to be here talking about this and 15 other issues that interest me...not all of which deal with this very same thing.
Yes, every race has dealt with it's own oppressions in different ways because they were different oppressions. That still, in my opinion, doesn't give them the right to take words that were used to describe them in a derogatory way while being oppressed and make them okay words to use within their own group while claiming that they are being oppressed when someone outside their group uses the word. It makes no sense!
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"I'll be in my office...There's a lot of porn piling up on the internet...It doesn't just download itself!"
---Gregory House...My idol---
MM