# Is it bad to call someone a nigger?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-bad-to-call-someone-a-nigger/84326>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [September 28, 2001, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-bad-to-call-someone-a-nigger/84326 "2001-09-28T16:00:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![Super\_Gnat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Super\_Gnat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Super_Gnat)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-bad-to-call-someone-a-nigger/84326/81 "2001-10-03T03:51:17Z")

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Random Fact (and I heard this from my father, so I have absolutely no sources):

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s real (or first) last name was Schwarze **nigger**. But then he took up acting in the States and had to change it. Random thought.

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**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-bad-to-call-someone-a-nigger/84326/82 "2001-10-03T04:10:09Z")

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**Super Gnat** , I suspect someone handed your Dad a dud.  
_-egger_ is a not uncommon word/name ending in German. I have never seen an _-igger_ ending. Egger is a German name in its own right and Schwartzen means, ironically enough, “to blacken” (which may be the source of the confusion).

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**Author:** ![pennylane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@pennylane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pennylane)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2001, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-bad-to-call-someone-a-nigger/84326/83 "2001-10-03T08:56:27Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by rjung \*  
> **In fact, the _only_ name I can think of that you can yell at a white person and instantly get them angry is "racist"**

That is so true, **rjung**. I was in the Paris metro a while ago and saw two youths of Arab descent (the main minority group in Paris) harrassing a young white girl. This goes on all the time in Paris, and this girl was, as usual, ignoring them. Well eventually they got annoyed and starting saying loudly to each other that she was ignoring them because she was racist. She immediately defended herself but they wouldn’t stop. She changed carriages at the next station.

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**Author:** ![JillGat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JillGat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JillGat)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2001, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-bad-to-call-someone-a-nigger/84326/84 "2001-10-04T04:50:44Z")

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[[I would be offended if a black person addressed me as “Hey Whitey” (I am a white thirtysomething female).]]

Don’t bother spending any time in Jamaica, then.

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