Why the N word is not a racial slur

[Varis]

I think the whole word is just confusing I hate it when you're talking about a person of darker skin hue, and since in Finland the word neekeri (******) has been common language once, people still (by accident mostly) blurt out the word and offend people. We'd be much better off without it.

 

[Dense_Electric]

What follows is a honest query, by the way. I'm not attacking your sense of identity, but I wonder... "African American", aren't you just 'American'? What's the added value of feeling 'rooted' in a continent and (in a sense) in a past that's so far removed from your daily experience?

Yeah, I actually have to agree with this. I've never understood the label, "African American." I mean I don't refer to myself as "Irish American" - I'm not from Ireland, I've never been to Ireland, and while I wouldn't mind going there if the chance presents itself, it's not on the top of my priority list. I've always just been "white." I've never been offended by the label "white," I don't see what's wrong with "black." Of all the "African-American" people I've ever known, exactly one is actually African-American (I think he's from Côte d'Ivoire).

Honestly, if I were being completely objective, (and this would never catch on today just because too many people immediately associate these terms with racism, much like "******"), "yellow" should be a perfectly acceptable designation for persons of Asian ethnicity, "red" for persons of native American descent, etc.

Of course in an truly ideal world we wouldn't even need these terms, as race would be 100% irrelevant ALL THE TIME, but I don't see that day on the horizon just yet.

 

[Uhura]

Hey Uhura thanks for reading and responding to my post. I didn't mean to imply that racism and racial profiling doesn't exist. I understand that the word has a negative connotation and no I can't dictate how other people perceive my words, but if someone takes offence to something I say when I meant no offence then they are wrong to do so. It doesn't make them a bad person, it's just a misunderstanding. All the examples you are thinking of are the n-word being used in a derogatory manner with intent to offend. I would still argue that it isn't the meaning of the word that causes offence (outside of an automatic response) but the intent to offend. The actual meaning of the word is either true about that person or not. If it's true then whats the problem? If it's not then what's the problem? The answer to both questions is the intent of the speaker to cause hurt.

I think our difference of opinion comes down to whether or not words can carry an emotional characteristic... I would argue that they do not without a human intent.

There is no real life situation where I could, or would, go up to a black man and drop the 'n-bomb'. This is because as you pointed out I cannot guarantee that he will not be offended but that's irrelevant in my case as there is no situation where I could say it where I wouldn't mean it with ill intent. But with friends I can and on occasion do. It would be such a shame if someone were to take offence. What a waste of their own potentially happy time.

Hope this made sense. Don't want to seem like I'm making light of people being treated badly for the stupidest of reasons.

They are not really in any way wrong to get offended. Getting offended isn't usually a voluntary act. When you utter a racist slur, the hearer doesn't spend minutes in analyzing your body language and trying to figure out the intention behind your words and then decide to get offended. It takes less than a second for the sound waves you hear to travel to the area in your brain that processes language. The hurtful feelings are evoked in the brain before a person has time to consciously analyze the comment. Furthermore, ****** is commonly considered a racist slur and every native English speaker knows it. It's a word that has a long and painful history, a history that words like "asshole" and "douche" don't. It cuts deeper and it has nothing to do with the intention behind the word. Most people know fully well what they are doing when they use that word.

I don't think you're trying to be intentionally insensitive here, but I don't think you fully understand the history and the heaviness of that word.

 

[TheIronRuler]

****** has a different meaning now because of the way people use it nowadays.

Listen, you can go on a campaign to reclaim the word, but whenever I read people like you I think of this one:

 

[Wraith]

Not really, a storm is coming (in the literal sense). Or well, a storm to Dutch standards, anyway.

What follows is a honest query, by the way. I'm not attacking your sense of identity, but I wonder... "African American", aren't you just 'American'? What's the added value of feeling 'rooted' in a continent and (in a sense) in a past that's so far removed from your daily experience?

Aren't you really (ab)using history to legitimize certain claims in the present? Perhaps not to victimize yourself, but still to ground your own sense of identity against the identities of others? As I hinted above, using the phrase "African American" already refers to a past long dead.

And, if a word, a phrase, an image is aimed to offend, do you have to feel offended? That's the part (be it Jews and the Holocaust, Christians and Jesus, Muslims and Muhammad, the Chinese and Nanjing, etc. etc.) I am never able to understand. Do you not allow yourself to be 'put down' by a simple symbol?

Truthfully, I am just American if you want to get technical. I was born and raised here in the US, but whenever I need to point out my race in legal documents I have to check the box that says African American/Black. My ancestral roots come from Africa, so with that I have gained noticeable physical traits from the people there. (Skin, hair and eye color.) It may sound odd, but because people from different areas do tend to have differentiating physical appearances, saying African-American will put into a person's mind the physical characteristics that come with that term.

So African in African-American is for race, and American in African-American is for nationality, in a way. When people read that they automatically picture a possibly dark skinned fellow, who lives in America, with ancestral roots in Africa. And since I literally am a dark skinned fellow, with ancestral roots in Africa who lives in America, the term African-American fits for me and I accept it. I can't exactly tell you what the added value is, because I don't really care for a person's race, but since everyone else seems to care I have to use it to identify myself.

For your other question, no I don't have to be offended by the word. But it does offend me regardless. Different people are offended by different things. I may be offended by "******", but the next black person may not be. The reason the word effects me negatively is because I am being insulted not because of my actions, but because of something I have no control over. I am being insulted because of my skin color and/or heritage. And since that word is meant to attack people with those traits, it is also insulting everyone else of my race.

I hope that made sense and answered your questions. I am usually terrible at expressing my thoughts.

 

[TheIronRuler]

-snip-

.
Would you be offended if I had called you black?

 

[Timberwolf0924]

I think what makes things racist are the tones people say it.

When black people call each other nigga they say it in an usuall upbeat tone just like someone would call them a friend or what not.

But usually when other races refer to them that way it is wth a down tone, making them look less than the other races.

I have a friend who's black and I say "Whats up my nigga!" and we'll chest bump or whatever is manly at the time and he's cool with it. Though I know not to say it around his family or friends he has that I don't know.. he thinks its funny.. I think it's survival..

And don't think it's one way, he calls me his "*****" because I'm asian, I don't care it's all in fun. But when I had an old military vet call me that one time followed by "I wish we were still killing your kind" now that made me angry..

 

[Wraith]

-snip-

.
Would you be offended if I had called you black?

Not at all. I wouldn't be offended if you called me nigga, either. Just as long as it is the a version, not er.

 

[TheIronRuler]

-snip-

.
Would you be offended if I had called you black?

Not at all. I wouldn't be offended if you called me nigga, either. Just as long as it is the a version, not er.

.
I'm sorry but this reminds me of this video:
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This is just wrong...

 

[D-Soul]

not to be funny but I'm going to let The Boondocks handle this, with this clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC1Ma8YEQBE&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fresults%3Fsearch_query%3Dboondocks%2Bnigg

Captcha: better call saul

Who the heck is saul?!

edit darn got ninja'd

 

[Wickatricka]

not to be funny but I'm going to let The Boondocks handle this, with this clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC1Ma8YEQBE&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fresults%3Fsearch_query%3Dboondocks%2Bnigg

Captcha: better call saul

Who the heck is saul?!

edit darn got ninja'd

If I'm not mistaken that's a breaking bad reference lol

 

[Relish in Chaos]

-snip-

.
Would you be offended if I had called you black?

Not at all. I wouldn't be offended if you called me nigga, either. Just as long as it is the a version, not er.

Wait...how could you tell? I mean, verbally, there isn't much difference between "nigga" and "******", unless someone were to purposely emphasize the "a" or "er".

Anyway, I'm black, and I'm personally not offended by "nigga" because I have no reason to be. I never shared the experience of slaves, I don't identify as "black" in the first place, and I probably wouldn't even acknowledge it as an "insult" if I didn't read it in a history book or something.

However, my brother's different. He does use the word "coon" to refer to other black people that act in a stereotypical and/or stupid way that gives black people a bad name. Which is also odd, but whatever.

 

[Wraith]

Wait...how could you tell? I mean, verbally, there isn't much difference between "nigga" and "******", unless someone were to purposely emphasize the "a" or "er".

Anyway, I'm black, and I'm personally not offended by "nigga" because I have no reason to be. I never shared the experience of slaves, I don't identify as "black" in the first place, and I probably wouldn't even acknowledge it as an "insult" if I didn't read it in a history book or something.

However, my brother's different. He does use the word "coon" to refer to other black people that act in a stereotypical and/or stupid way that gives black people a bad name. Which is also odd, but whatever.

Yeah, usually emphases is they way to find it, but it's not that easy to confuse the two. You can just hear the difference and change of inflections at the end fairly well. Well, I can at least. If I am not sure of which version the person used, I'll simply ask them to repeat themselves.

I can relate with the brother thing. My older brother rarely says nigga, but he will use "coon", "porch monkey", "jungle bunny" etc. but I only hear them use those when he playfully argues with friends.

 

[Spinozaad]

Not really, a storm is coming (in the literal sense). Or well, a storm to Dutch standards, anyway.

What follows is a honest query, by the way. I'm not attacking your sense of identity, but I wonder... "African American", aren't you just 'American'? What's the added value of feeling 'rooted' in a continent and (in a sense) in a past that's so far removed from your daily experience?

Aren't you really (ab)using history to legitimize certain claims in the present? Perhaps not to victimize yourself, but still to ground your own sense of identity against the identities of others? As I hinted above, using the phrase "African American" already refers to a past long dead.

And, if a word, a phrase, an image is aimed to offend, do you have to feel offended? That's the part (be it Jews and the Holocaust, Christians and Jesus, Muslims and Muhammad, the Chinese and Nanjing, etc. etc.) I am never able to understand. Do you not allow yourself to be 'put down' by a simple symbol?

Truthfully, I am just American if you want to get technical. I was born and raised here in the US, but whenever I need to point out my race in legal documents I have to check the box that says African American/Black. My ancestral roots come from Africa, so with that I have gained noticeable physical traits from the people there. (Skin, hair and eye color.) It may sound odd, but because people from different areas do tend to have differentiating physical appearances, saying African-American will put into a person's mind the physical characteristics that come with that term.

So African in African-American is for race, and American in African-American is for nationality, in a way. When people read that they automatically picture a possibly dark skinned fellow, who lives in America, with ancestral roots in Africa. And since I literally am a dark skinned fellow, with ancestral roots in Africa who lives in America, the term African-American fits for me and I accept it. I can't exactly tell you what the added value is, because I don't really care for a person's race, but since everyone else seems to care I have to use it to identify myself.

For your other question, no I don't have to be offended by the word. But it does offend me regardless. Different people are offended by different things. I may be offended by "******", but the next black person may not be. The reason the word effects me negatively is because I am being insulted not because of my actions, but because of something I have no control over. I am being insulted because of my skin color and/or heritage. And since that word is meant to attack people with those traits, it is also insulting everyone else of my race.

I hope that made sense and answered your questions. I am usually terrible at expressing my thoughts.

I don't often say this, especially not in this forum, but: fair enough. I might not entirely agree or understand your position, but you seem to have reached it through a reasonable thought process, for which I'm thankful.

Nothing left for me, but to wish you a pleasant day.