# Is the word "negro" a slur? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 20, 2020, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-negro-a-slur/915838 "2020-07-20T14:56:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2020, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-negro-a-slur/915838/21 "2020-07-20T20:15:10Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > This is Martin Luther King with his “I have a Dream Speech”. Imagine a white politician making the same speech today. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2020, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-negro-a-slur/915838/22 "2020-07-20T20:19:23Z")
Martin Luther King made that speech 58 years ago. In 1963 it was acceptable to call women in the workplace “girls.” I was going to cite some other examples, but I already got one warning for using that type of language, and I’m not going for another. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2020, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-negro-a-slur/915838/23 "2020-07-20T20:29:43Z")
It took me a while when watching The Sopranos the first time through to figure out why Richie Aprille kept talking about doing business with “the Nigerians.” Then it clicked. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2020, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-negro-a-slur/915838/24 "2020-07-20T20:43:20Z")
It’s not always a slur, but there’s no question that it was a slur as Stone used it. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2020, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-negro-a-slur/915838/25 "2020-07-20T21:02:36Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > This is Martin Luther King with his “I have a Dream Speech”. Twenty years before that, he might have used the term “Colored”. Would that be considered racist today? ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2020, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-negro-a-slur/915838/26 "2020-07-20T21:08:31Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > There was a time when it _was_ the polite term instead of “colored”. That time was 60 years ago. If a person is under 60, it has not been polite in their lifetime. If a person is under 80, it has not been polite since their adolescence. If a person is over 80, they have had the better part of a century to learn better. I have a hard time believing that they have not had more then enough time to adapt. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2020, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-negro-a-slur/915838/27 "2020-07-20T21:17:23Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > It took me a while when watching The Sopranos the first time through to figure out why Richie Aprille kept talking about doing business with “the Nigerians.” Then it clicked. Then there’s the memorable sequence where Meadow brings home a black guy with a Jewish name and it makes Tony Soprano’s head explode. He starts stress-eating, then sees a packet of Uncle Ben’s rice in the cupboard and collapses. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2020, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-negro-a-slur/915838/28 "2020-07-20T23:08:18Z")
Would “I can’t believe I’m arguing with this Black guy” really have been that much better? He let slip that he thinks he’s superior because of his race - no difference in word choice is going to make that go away. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2020, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-negro-a-slur/915838/29 "2020-07-21T01:31:56Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > Would “I can’t believe I’m arguing with this Black guy” really have been that much better? That is what I was going to say. Reinforcing the idea that context is everything, as said early on. The underlying attitude is what is offensive, not the word choice per se. ---
**Author:** ![K2500](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f6c823/32.png) [@K2500](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K2500)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2020, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-negro-a-slur/915838/30 "2020-07-21T01:51:10Z")
Can I assume Asian wouldn’t be considered an offensive term? I was considering this today and wasn’t sure. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2020, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-negro-a-slur/915838/31 "2020-07-21T02:04:18Z")
Asian is at the least confusing. Indians are Asian: south Asian. I don’t know the proper term for east Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Filipino, Vietnamese etc). Is there even a term beyond “East Asian” ? Are Kazakhs South Asian? Central Asian? I’ve never had to sort that out and am curious, and there a ton of ethnic and geographic groups throughout Asia, so describing, say, a Japanese person as Asian is just inadequate at best and I don’t know if it’s offensive but certainly insensitive. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2020, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-negro-a-slur/915838/32 "2020-07-21T02:12:51Z")
My wife would like to point out that she’s Asian-American. Born in Cleveland. If she wanted to be pedantic, she’d want to be referred to as Japanese-American. After all, there are a ton of ethnic groups in Europe and Africa, too. We don’t get paralyzed with indecision in trying to figure out whether south Slavs are more or less European than north Slavs, or Finns. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2020, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-negro-a-slur/915838/33 "2020-07-21T02:14:02Z")
Also add to it that (as I’ve heard and experienced in one instance) there are east Asian ethnicities that get pretty offended if you assume (say) a Korean person is (say) Japanese. This happened to me when I thought a coworker who spoke Japanese fluently was Japanese. “I’m _Korean!_” she growled at me. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2020, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-negro-a-slur/915838/34 "2020-07-21T02:18:30Z")
heh you got off lightly …especially given korean and japanese history with each other when i made the same mistake as a kid i was bopped on the head with a purse lol … ---
**Author:** ![K2500](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f6c823/32.png) [@K2500](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K2500)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2020, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-negro-a-slur/915838/35 "2020-07-21T02:26:13Z")
A good chunk of these guys are Vietnamese, most have been in the states for 20 or 30 years. I’m sure some are from Laos or Cambodia, so I didnt wanna start assuming nationalities, but alot of these folks are refugees as well so I’m not gonna go digging to find out. If I’m asked who I spoke to about an issue or machine there’s a pretty solid chance I wouldnt be able to pronounce the name on their shirt and even if I could these an even better chance they go by some other name anyways so I get stuck with "Asian guy, dark hair, name starts with a ‘P’, there’s probably three guys on any shift that meet that description. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2020, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-negro-a-slur/915838/36 "2020-07-21T02:36:31Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > Asian is at the least confusing. Indians are Asian: south Asian. I don’t know the proper term for east Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Filipino, Vietnamese etc). Is there even a term beyond “East Asian” ? Are Kazakhs South Asian? Central Asian? I’ve never had to sort that out and am curious, and there a ton of ethnic and geographic groups throughout Asia, so describing, say, a Japanese person as Asian is just inadequate at best and I don’t know if it’s offensive but certainly insensitive. Russians are Asian. At least, part of Russia. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2020, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-negro-a-slur/915838/37 "2020-07-21T02:41:23Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > At least, part of Russia. Yeah, that’s why I left them out. They’re Eurasians. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2020, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-negro-a-slur/915838/38 "2020-07-21T06:31:03Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > It’s not always a slur, but there’s no question that it was a slur as Stone used it. Exactly. When a Republican uses it, it must be a slur. ---
**Author:** ![Pitchmeister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pitchmeister/32/3459_2.png) [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2020, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-negro-a-slur/915838/39 "2020-07-21T07:44:59Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > When a Republican uses it, it must be a slur. You poor, oppressed man. Do you honestly not see the problem that Roger Stone felt the need to reference his interviewer‘s ethnicity AT ALL in this context? The issue is not merely using a „bad“ word, and as others have pointed out, saying „Why am I debating with this African American?“ is not one bit better in this case. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2020, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-negro-a-slur/915838/40 "2020-07-21T08:04:10Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > It’s not a matter of word choice in this case: only a straight-up racist would mentally categorize himself as arguing with a “negro” as opposed to just a person. So there is no polite synonym he could have substituted to make it not a racist insult. Yeah this. It’s not the word choice, it’s the fact that he chose to categorise the person by race. It would’ve been just as bad if he’d used “African American” or “black person”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-negro-a-slur/915838.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-word-negro-a-slur/915838.md?page=3)