A bar bet I would have lost - Did Fred Sanford ever say the N -word on "Sanford & Son"?

Cafe Society
21

I learned the word from my rural-now-suburban classmates in Texas, back in the 50’s. Upon repeating it once at home, my grandmother swore she would wash my mouth out with soap if I ever used it again. She did have some advanced opinions–“who do they think cooks that food? but they won’t let them sit at the lunch counter!” Mostly, she didn’t want White Trash Grandchildren…

Later, a teacher chastised classmates for using an offensive name for a wildflower…

I remember Fred Sanford looking around a courtroom & exclaiming he saw more Ns than a Tarzan movie. Very funny–but he* was allowed to use the word.

22

In fairness, he could well have said that not because of George’s race, but his personality.

23

I can strongly recommend the below book on this very topic:

Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word

24

:smiley:

25

Define “recently”. I grew up in the 70s and it was not acceptable then.

26

Disagree. The politically correct want it to be that way while they do handsprings to make excuses when the right people use it in their approved way.

I was a kid in the 60’s and 70’s and I wouldn’t have said nigger in any way to a black person…no way, no how.

27

I think you said the sheriff is near.

28

You guys are lucky then. I was born in 70, and that word was ubiquitous when I was growing up. In fact, it wasn’t even apparent to me how hurtful the word was until I was over 18.

I mean, I knew it was bad, but I never said anything when my friends used it because it was more important to me to be accepted by my peers than it was to do the right thing.

29

on TVLand reruns they cut out the n-word on Sanford and Son but allow it on All in the Family
that’s racist

30

Amazingly hard to believe that not one teenaged boy in the 70’s never uttered that word in your presence.

31

It may not have been acceptable but it was certainly common. In 1971 Pennsylvania, in 4th grade, it was every other word out of somebody’s mouth.

32

That’s really surprising. I was born in 1962 and the word was in very common use in the early 70s in Pennsylvania by elementary school kids. I went to a very integrated school.

33

That should be “ever uttered” of course. Missed edit window.

34

golf clap

35

I only remember the answer is yes because of the controversy of them cutting it in reruns, if I remember ironically in one episode where it is used to make a anti-racist point.

36

Word is used regularly on Boondocks. By children! :eek:

Cue the laugh track. That was high comedy back in the day.

I guess he never played “hide and seek” and had to determine who would be “it”.

Eenie Meenie Miney Mo, Catch a …

37

I was a teenager in the 70’s, and it was “Catch a tiger” by the toe. I never heard the other word in that expression until I was in college.

I did, however, hear the variant “Catch a robber by the toe/If he hollers, make him pay/Ninety dollars every day.”

38

Worth watching, Godfrey Cambridge in* The President’s Analyst,* (1967): Run, run, here comes the nigger!

39

The version I heard was
…catch a German by the toe. If he hollars make him say, “I surrender USA”.
I didn’t hear the n***** version until a few years ago.

40

It was unacceptable, but not obsene.