I agree that race plays a part in it. Undoubtedly. But the problem is not just that a black person acts in a certain way, but in a way that fits with a certain stereotype. a black person could rob a bank dressed like a businessman and quietly hand the teller a note and leave with the money and not got hit with the “N” word as a descriptor. Another black person could rob a bank in a more flamboyant manner, abusing people in the process, etc., and get slapped with the word. So, while race does play a part, it is not the only ingredient. Would it be nice if the word disappeared, or that we never noticed race at all. Sure. But that ain’t happening anytime soon. Especially when we are asked to look at race in other arenas: the NAACP, affirmative action, BET, etc. I’m not saying these are bad things, only that as long as they exist a truly color blind society is an impossibility. I think Chris Rock does a valuable service in his rant, particularly to blacks; he seeks to build distinction between black people and niggers. Not one black person who is not a nigger, deserves to be painted with that ugly brush. But every single nigger, as he describes them, should be castigated by it routinely. I think the most helpful thing would be for the black community should take his lead. and they should not throw the word around in a casual, friendly, or joking manner. Let it be on par with “pedophile”, a label no one wants. But a label used when appropriate.
I used your entire stupid statement, so don’t act like I cut you off in mid-sentence. The difference between
and
Changes nothing in the stupidly offensive nature of your asinine comments/use of racial slurs. It just cuts the foolishness into bite sized chunks.
But why do those stereotypes exist in the first place? Why can White people in suits rip people off on a regular basis without having their mannerisms, style of dress, and way of doing things reflect on all the other honest White people in suits? Is it because we accept, as a predicate, that Blackness is causative of negative attributes? I think that’s clearly the implicit assumption one makes when a Black person acting a certain way is described as a nigger, rather than however a White person acting in a similar manner would be. The fact that people feel they can justifiably use a word that exists solely to dehumanize people (regardless of how they act) is really sad.
Bullshit. BET and the NAACP are not impediments to a color-blind society. The impediment is our ability to see, and our tendency to create rigid distinction based on assumptions. You could eliminate every reference to race, and people will still recognize the obvious physical differences between people. Again, please read the article I linked to in my first post. Babies, who are clearly not as bogged down by our racial baggage, make these distinctions. We cannot prevent that. What we can do is encourage sensitivity, understanding, and appreciate for our differences. That’s why groups like the NAACP are, by and large, helpful to society, since they encourage us to have a dialog about race relations. Groups like those are actually the way to get past the race issue.
No, he didn’t. And thankfully, even he has recognized that.
First off, it’s a joke. Second, there is no relevant distinction worth noting. If you think people don’t already make distinction between the uneducated and the educated, the lazy and the diligent, or the law-abiding and criminals, you are mistaken. The distinction he pointed out is already made by people everyday. The problem is that those distinctions needn’t be based on race. Race has been injected into the situation for no other reason other than to be inflammatory, or to justify preconceived notions about Black people. How can I make this more clear to you? Do you think a comedian pointing out the differences between Jews, and greedy, shifty, sneaky, cheap-ass, blood-sucking kikes was doing an important service? Or between regular gay guys, and cock sucking, sissified, limp-wristed faggots? I mean, it would be helpful so us regulars could more easily differentiate between the two, right? I can’t even count how many times I’ve been confused when I try to tell the two groups apart, and then I end up treating a regular person like a piece of shit unworthy of basic respect. Sarcasm aside, that’s a major part of the problem. Just because someone tells Taylor Swift that she sucks, or commits a crime, doesn’t mean they don’t deserve respect and consideration. Calling someone a nigger, white trash, or anything else is not consistent with that.
Or racists can recognize that there are no niggers. Never have been, and never will be. Just as there are no faggots, kikes, spics, etc. They are just words used to dehumanize people you don’t like. Ways to tell them they are not worthy of your consideration, and to justify not letting them vote, get married, or fully integrate into society.
You can try to pretend the word only applies to those who act a certain way, but you would have to ignore the fact that there are like several other words that could be used to describe those people that don’t have the same baggage. You would be making a decision to use a word that is neither descriptive, accurate, nor socially acceptable just because you are tying to make some perverse point. Luckily, most of us recognize that the use of those words reflects more on the speaker than the target.
brickbacon you make this point more calm/articulate/better then I would ever be willing to do. Good show.
No, it does change it. It explains the “why” of it. And if you do not possess the faculties required to recognize that, then you have no credibility in assigning the perjorative “stupid” to anything you attempt to read.
And as for combating modern racism, it is a fight that can never be won as long as racism is found where it doesn’t exist.
“No Dumbass, it wasn’t because “the man” is a racist that you didn’t get the job, you didn’t get the job because you didn’t have enough sense to show up to the job interview with your pants pulled up and your hat on straight.”
And for God’s sakes, it’s “ask”, not “aks”.
Are you just incapable of the proper pronounciation?
Okay, am I the only one disturbed by the fact that a thread asking what we can do to prevent racism has become “Let’s bitch about things we hate about black people”? This whole thing smacks of, “Well, I’d LIKE to stop calling you nigger, so how about you stop acting like one, nigger?”
Eh, I think everyone just left. Nobody to talk to, know what I mean?
More or less, a good summery of the position of a number of posters
A good number of other people didn’t weigh in on the “nigger” debate just popped in to wring their hands on “the blacks” or in the case of Chief Pendant their “genetic differences” (read criminal behaviours, low intelligence, high sex drive, etc).
Perhaps you would like to open up a pit thread?
Proper pronunciation where? There are multiple dialects in England where the pronunciation is /aks/ and it was one or more of those dialects that were carried over by whites who interacted with slaves, influencing the pronunciation of the various black dialects. There are also a few speech patterns among white immigrants to the U.S. where /aks/ is the more prevalent pronunciation. Fixating on that difference, (and trying to claim that it is solely a “black” phenomenon), simply demonstrates a serious ignorance of speech patterns throughout the English speaking world while attempting to make some point about how “those people,” (but only the black ones), can’t be bothered to talk correctly.
Don’t take this as an attack, or an insult, or anything like that. Instead, I want to add to your snark with some of my own. Your grandson is mixed race.
If he acts like a “N”, then he is responsible for “bad feelings” from The Man. It’s all his fault. HOWEVER!!! If he acts “white”, whatever the hell that is, then he is being UPPITY. What happens then? Then he is responsible for the “bad feelings” from The Man anyway. Again it’s all his fault.
Screw that. Let him just be himself. Why not? Some jerk somewhere will have some excuse to dislike him anyway.
Some of the “answers” here really bother me. They sound a little too close to “You see that? You made me lynch you”. It’s the same dumb argument a wife beater would use to avoid responsibility “You made me do it”. It bothers me.
Here, in America. Where did you think I was talking about?
Oh, I see. I guess that explains why so many Americans use “loo” for bathroom, “flat” for apartment, “petrol” for gasoline, “biscuit” for cookie…
Speaking of behavior that reflects negatively, did you stand up and cheer along with the students at Howard University when OJ was acquitted?
This pretty much sums up how I feel about it. I’ve read so many examples of black performers in the early 60s coming down to the south and doing nothing but trying to keep out of trouble and still having people call them racial slurs, shoot at them, refuse them service. For nothing more than their skin color. The kind of person who will see a bad behavior from a dark skinned child as acting like an “n-word” isn’t the kind of person you’re ever going to please.
And it’s horrifyingly depressing to me that people don’t realize that. I think so much of the insidious nature of racism is that bigots so often convince themselves that the victims deserve it. If you’re constantly abusing someone, they’re going to become so oppressed and ugly to you that of course you think they deserve it. They’re so low and poor and live in such terrible conditions–they must be worse than us. And then you abuse them more because they displease you.
I used to wonder at the mindset of the kinds of people in the south who would yell and throw things at little black children for having the audacity to go into newly integrated schools. But I think there are people racist enough to convince themselves that all these bad things are things that blacks bring on themselves.