Maybe because most of the people who still know who they are have died?
It’s not one I’ve ever heard (and I’ve lived all over South Africa). Individual idiosyncrasy? I’ve tried searching (it’d be spelled “Jannie”, BTW,) but not come up with anything..
This doesn’t explain the utter pervasiveness of the complaint that white people can’t say “nigger”. All of what you wrote is true: “nigger” conjures up a pile of bad feelings because of the brutality that was committed in that name. So given that, all the teeth gnashing over how unfair it is that black people can say “nigga” and white people can’t without inviting controversy is all the more annoying. The word is stigmatized because of its history.
But how often do people “get away with” saying any racial slur in a gratituous fashion? I put the phrase in quotation marks because its nebulous to me what all the bad consequences of using “nigger” in an academic discussion are really supposed to be. It sounds a lot like a child’s bogeyman; a fear based on phantoms.
If all of this is about not being able to sing Jay-Z songs, someone needs to re-evaluate their priorities in life.
Well there have been publicized cases of people getting in trouble even for using the word “niggardly” … And even a quick google finds cases of professors who have been dismissed and had to sue to get their jobs back for using the word academically in the classroom. The concern of being misunderstood may be overplayed but it is still based on something.
I think it hard for some to understand why it is okay for the two Black teens to use it casually and without the word having hateful power but that the White individual using it it a similar context would be verboten. Many other denigrating words have been taken on by their targets for their own use - from “Yankee” to “fag” - and, to various degrees, lost their hurtful power when they were - despite Lenny Bruce’s schtick referenced upthread this hasn’t happened in this case. (A straight friend can call his gay friend a “fag” jokingly with less risk than he can call his Black friend a “nigger” - or “nigga” even - in the same tone, for example.) But while it is of intellectual interest to discuss why this word still possesses such hurtful power when used by a White person in a period in which elements of the American Black community have embraced its use among their own, the bottom line is that it does, to at least some, and so Whites should use the word with great caution (sometimes some use excessive caution). It is that simple. I don’t begrudge anyone who errs on the cautious side and says “n-word”. Why risk having your intent misunderstood?
I find it unlikely, on a board where there are so many people who proudly declaim that rap isn’t even music, that much of the bitching is honest sadness at not being able to karaoke “Golddigger” authentically.
I assume then that you will support me in my assertion that “white trash” is an offensive term, and it’s use around here should be limited to intellectual discussion, while it’s use as a pejorative should be forbidden.
The N-Word? Isn’t that a series on Showtime about Nesbians?
Okay, okay, I’m leaving.
I would if I felt that there was a, perhaps small but still significant, fraction of White reders of this board who might sincerely find that phrase extremely offensive and hurtful. But I don’t believe that such is the case.
What does finding it offensive have to do with being a gatekeeper? Or is a gatekeeper one who only keeps things out? Can’t a gatekeeper allow usage as well as disallow it?
That could be part of it. Now get off m’lawn!
On the board this might not be true. But outside the board there is a decent portion of white people who want to say the word because they want to be like cool black people. And I’d agree with YWTF that these people could use better priorities in life.
Are we talking about this board or about outside experiences as well? Because I’ve seen people get upset about hearing the N-word even when the context was racially neutral. This might be because I’ve had different experiences than you, but I can assure you that this isn’t a persecution complex speaking.
It really depends on the crowd you are using the word with. On this board, where most of the posters are pretty intelligent, you can get away with using the word in the proper context. But if you use it on national television, or in a poor ghetto, where the audience is very impulsive, you can expect a backlash.
[quote=“Lakai, post:91, topic:550312”]
:smack: Oh, what you said.
But then, how about the idea that the reaction of white people to being called honky, white trash, round-eyes, pale face, and such is much milder than the reaction of blacks to the being called nigger might be because the whites don’t have so many rabblerousers keeping them riled up?
Ever heard of the Tea Party?
There are far more white race-baiting rabble rousers than black ones.
Stuff like “honky” doesn’t have as much power because white people are majority for one thing, and have never been subjugated for another.
Well, if you’re standing around anywhere that people can’t hear the context of your speech and use words like nigger, you’re an idiot.
I think you’re honestly overestimating the number of times most people encounter a proper context. And, in my experience, it’s nearly always middle-aged white folk who complain about not being “allowed” to say it, not kids in awe of a cool culture.
I’m not talking about most people, just my experience. There were times when I’ve heard the N-word used neutrally and people were still upset hearing it. I think that some black people believe that since white people have the option of saying “N-word,” that if they use “nigger” instead then they are trying to get away with some subtle racism.
How old are you? Maybe we have different views on this issue because I’m 24 and don’t hang around many middle-aged white folks.
Tea Party doesn’t explain the past 50 or 60 years or so of the reaction to the word.
Perhaps true that there are more white rabble rousers than black ones, I don’t know. I am fairly confident, however, that few white rabble rousers spend much time riling people up over being called honkies.
In fact, I suggest that there are likely more white rabble rousers sincerely hoping to bring about true integration and equality than there are seperatists, while it seems to me that most of the black RRs are actually more interested in personal power and use the race card as a means to gain that power by trying to insure that their followers feel apart from main-stream American society. Things like the Miss Black America pageant, the NAACP and the United Negro College Fund all, in actuality, tend to keep people feeling estranged … there ain’t no Miss White America, you know.
I am also fairly confident that there have been white slaves.
That’s because white rabble rousers spend time riling people up over not being able to call people niggers.
“Honky” is not the equivalent of “nigger.” There is no word for white people that is even a rough equivalent of “nigger,” at least in the US. No amount of crying will make it so.
I’ve had this conversation a hundred times. White people saying, “But WE don’t get upset if someone calls us X!” Maybe not, but WE sure do a lot of whining and WE sure do see a whole lot of injustice in not being able to call people names and not being able to make other people say “Merry Christmas.”
Well, I’d assume one uses the word “nigger” with a deliberate intent in mind, typically not because I feel it’s a casual word, but because I know other don’t feel that it’s a casual word.
Personally, I think it’s an immature insult, barely one step beyond “poopy-head”, and I’m disinclined to use it as such for that reason alone.
I prefer to say, “nigger.”
There are words I do censor in given contexts, I suppose “nigger” may be one in its own contexts.
I don’t understand what’s so hard to get about it. The concept of allowing another member of your group (whether that group be defined by race, class, or some other criteria) to rag on you or throw around crude nicknames and slang non-maliciously, but not affording outsiders the same privilege, surely can’t be that hard to grasp. The same dynamic occurs between siblings.
A white person is welcome to call someone their nigga or even throw out a “nigga please…” as if that is the height of hilarity, but it’s ridiculous for them to get butthurt when other people get offended, when they know full well that the word “nigger” is so emotionally loaded in the first place, and that there are plenty of people out there who use the word as it was designed to be used.
At a certain point it’s like crying about not being able to say “fuck” in public without people giving you the stinkeye. There’s all kind of words we’re told says we shouldn’t say in polite society. If “fuck” and “shit” make that list, then why wouldn’t a racial slur like “nigger”?