# Is 'liberal' the new 'nigger'?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-liberal-the-new-nigger/534534
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [April 1, 2010, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-liberal-the-new-nigger/534534 "2010-04-01T03:51:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2010, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-liberal-the-new-nigger/534534/1 "2010-04-01T03:51:02Z")
Did you know that racism as it existed in the US was effectively invented by the elites as a way to sow disunity among the lower classes to hemegonize their power? Consider a quote from chapter 2 of Howard Zinn’s ‘A People’s History of the United States’:
> [@](#):
>
> …Negro and white servants of the seventeenth centruy were “remarkably unconcerned about the visible physical differences.”
> Black and white worked together, fraternized together. The very fact that laws had to be passed after a while to forbid such relations indicates the strength of that tendency. In 1661 a law was passed in Virginia that “in case any English servant shall run away in company of any Negroes” he would have to give special service for extra years to the master of the runaway Negro. In 1691, Virginia provided for the banishment of any “white man or woman being free who shall intermarry with a negro, mulatoo, or Indian man or woman bond or free.”
> [@](#):
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> There is an enormous difference between a feeling of racial strangeness, perhaps fear, and the mass enslavement of millions of black people that took place in the Americas. The transition from one to the other cannot be explained easily by “natural” tendencies.
Why did it happen? Because it could. Our Founding Fathers were not the types to leave an unexploited opportunity.
But later came rules to separate the races and the classes, the ultimate motive of which was to prevent any solidarity among the greater part of the population which might threaten the elites’ power. Miscegenation laws were passed for this purpose. Racial hatred was intentionally stoked. Face it, when some of the poor are niggers and some are decidedly not, the poor will not rise up en masse against their oppressors. They are too exhausted from conflicting with each other.
But today racism has been all but discredited. Even its most fervent adherents must recognize this, for a new form of social division has been spawned: the Liberal! Don’t ask me to define it, I didn’t make it up. Far as I can tell, a ‘liberal’ is a target of aspersion. Talk show hosts and propagandists are free to correct me, but I predict that the definition will consist of a list of accusations rather than a definitive statement about the essence of a ‘liberal’.
Like race, I doubt ‘liberal’ has a solid definition. It has become an epithet, a way to cast aspersion. A word that is said in a nasty tone against a ‘mark’. A way to divide certain classes into separate, opposing groups.
What do you think? Has the word ‘liberal’ taken on the old social function of the word ‘nigger’?
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### Author:  [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2010, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-liberal-the-new-nigger/534534/2 "2010-04-01T03:59:32Z")
Question: Is ‘liberal’ the new ‘nigger’?
Answer: Not a chance.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2010, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-liberal-the-new-nigger/534534/3 "2010-04-01T04:01:58Z")
I heard today that macaroons are the new cupcake.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2010, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-liberal-the-new-nigger/534534/4 "2010-04-01T04:04:51Z")
NPR did a story on that a couple/few weeks ago.
I’m behind the times. I can’t remember the last time I had a cupcake.
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### Author:  [@Chen019](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chen019)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2010, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-liberal-the-new-nigger/534534/5 "2010-04-01T04:12:42Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Like race, I doubt ‘liberal’ has a solid definition. It has become an epithet, a way to cast aspersion. A word that is said in a nasty tone against a ‘mark’. A way to divide certain classes into separate, opposing groups.
>
> What do you think? Has the word ‘liberal’ taken on the old social function of the word ‘n1gger’?
You could equally use the term ‘Tea Bagger’. It’s a way of casting aspersion and deriding people as inferior.
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### Author:  [@Chen019](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chen019)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2010, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-liberal-the-new-nigger/534534/6 "2010-04-01T04:24:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> There is an enormous difference between a feeling of racial strangeness, perhaps fear, and the mass enslavement of millions of black people that took place in the Americas. The transition from one to the other cannot be explained easily by “natural” tendencies.
>
> Why did it happen? Because it could. Our Founding Fathers were not the types to leave an unexploited opportunity.
Slavery existed in Africa before the arrival of Europeans and continues to this day.
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2010, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-liberal-the-new-nigger/534534/7 "2010-04-01T04:25:23Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#):
>
> What do you think? Has the word ‘liberal’ taken on the old social function of the word ‘nigger’?
No. This might have had a point around 15 or 20 years ago, but the word “liberal” stopped being an across-the-board utilitarian insult over the course of GWB’s presidency. (That is why the current rage on the far right is to overuse the word “socialist,” because they can no longer whip up a good hatred among the center by using the word “liberal.”)
Beyond that, of course, “liberal” was never an epithet invented by some power elite to disparage a class of people. It was the accepted term for a serious political movement that came under a shadow when the movement, itself, ran out of steam, (or changed directions, depending on who is telling the story).
For that matter, Zinn’s analysis of race is flawed. Clearly, there were efforts to make sure that the disparate elements of the lower classes were kept separate, but that was hardly some Illuminati-inspired effort to “create” a situation, but more of a natural progression in which all elements of society, (already stratisfied by class), sought to ensure that no class “lost status” to any other. Zinn attempts to portray a devious plot, manufactured and instigated by cunning overlords, when it probably had a lot more to do with the normal actions of humans. This is not to say that there was no manipulation from the ruling class, but it probably had more to do with their recognition that while white indentured servants could flee to a different colony and blend in among other free workers, enslaving black servants made it much easier to identify runaways.
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2010, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-liberal-the-new-nigger/534534/8 "2010-04-01T04:33:00Z")
> [@Chen019](#):
>
> You could equally use the term ‘Tea Bagger’. It’s a way of casting aspersion and deriding people as inferior.
Well, as with liberal, and unlike nigger, the name “Tea Bagger” was self-selected by the group so identified, (despite it already having a more salacious meaning that they chose to ignore).
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2010, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-liberal-the-new-nigger/534534/9 "2010-04-01T04:37:08Z")
> [@Chen019](#):
>
> Slavery existed in Africa before the arrival of Europeans and continues to this day.
Quite disingenuous.
The slavery that existed in Africa prior to the arrival of Arab and European raiders (and that continues today) was and is not a good thing, but it was of a completely different sort than the ethnic based chattel slavery imposed by the outside groups. Zinn’s errors are not well offset by making claims as silly as his.
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### Author:  [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2010, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-liberal-the-new-nigger/534534/10 "2010-04-01T04:44:21Z")
> [@](#):
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> The very fact that laws had to be passed after a while to forbid such relations indicates the strength of that tendency.
People have a tendency to eat babies. The very fact that laws have to be passed after a while to forbid such things indicates the strength of that tendency.
People have a tendency to maim school children. The very fact that laws have to be passed after a while to forbid such things indicates the strength of that tendency.
See where I’m going with this?
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2010, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-liberal-the-new-nigger/534534/11 "2010-04-01T04:50:39Z")
I wasn’t aware “nigger” had gone completely out of style in America.
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### Author:  [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2010, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-liberal-the-new-nigger/534534/12 "2010-04-01T04:56:11Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#):
>
> I wasn’t aware “nigger” had gone completely out of style in America.
Surprise!
It has.
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### Author:  [@statsman1982](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/statsman1982)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2010, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-liberal-the-new-nigger/534534/13 "2010-04-01T05:17:34Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#):
>
> Surprise!
> It has.
You get down to Texas very often?
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### Author:  [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2010, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-liberal-the-new-nigger/534534/14 "2010-04-01T05:24:17Z")
Funny, I was going to mention the Texas school board’s decision to implement more ‘conservative’ content in their curriculum as weighting in favor of my argument, but thought better of it.
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### Author:  [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2010, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-liberal-the-new-nigger/534534/15 "2010-04-01T05:28:50Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#):
>
> People have a tendency to eat babies. The very fact that laws have to be passed after a while to forbid such things indicates the strength of that tendency.
>
> People have a tendency to maim school children. The very fact that laws have to be passed after a while to forbid such things indicates the strength of that tendency.
>
> See where I’m going with this?
I do see where you’re going. The difference is that my reference was followed by two controversial provisions. Yours wasn’t.
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### Author:  [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2010, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-liberal-the-new-nigger/534534/16 "2010-04-01T05:58:12Z")
No, it hasn’t gone out of style. I live in a mixed neighborhood and the children yell the “n” word at each other all the time. I inwardly cringe and remember that the hurt this word used to cause is part of a world gone by and good riddance. Laughing at Downfall re-subtitling where Hitler rants on the stupidity of the day is one of my guilty pleasures. All that pain and hurt.
Anyway, I’m a liberal, always have been and anyone can call me that in any tone of voice they want.
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### Author:  [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2010, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-liberal-the-new-nigger/534534/17 "2010-04-01T06:06:11Z")
Yes, liberal is the new nigger. Liberals have what they call a passing complexion though.
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### Author:  [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2010, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-liberal-the-new-nigger/534534/18 "2010-04-01T09:49:42Z")
“Liberal” is the new “nigger” like Oasis was the new Beatles.
Really, does anyone besides me find the OP disingenuous and a bit offensive? People use words to label and paint dispersions on other groups all the time. But it is ridiculous to equate being called a Liberal with the 400 years of racial oppression the word “Niger” invokes.
You are not oppressed for your Liberal beliefs. You aren’t prevented from living in certain neighborhoods or taking certain jobs or marrying certain women. You aren’t taken out back and beaten or killed for being liberal. You might be ridiculed or disagreed with, but get over it.
This whole line of discussion strikes me as nothing more than an attempt by the OP to lend weight and validity to his beliefs by casting himself as an oppressed minority.
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### Author:  [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2010, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-liberal-the-new-nigger/534534/19 "2010-04-01T10:17:00Z")
I’m a “liberal” by most standards and find the OP baffling. Apart from being “words which have been used as insults” there’s no equivalence between the two.
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### Author:  [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2010, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-liberal-the-new-nigger/534534/20 "2010-04-01T10:54:27Z")
Liberal’s black?
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