# Quentin Tarentino and the niggers. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 15, 2003, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quentin-tarentino-and-the-niggers/219051 "2003-12-15T02:58:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![bbonden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecb155/32.png) [@bbonden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbonden)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2003, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quentin-tarentino-and-the-niggers/219051/41 "2003-12-16T16:24:39Z")
No discussion of “Quentin and the niggers” could be complete without a mention of the Walken/Hopper scene from True Romance. The word was definitely used for shock value, and the scene (IMHO one of the greatest ever filmed) would not have been the same without it. The usage there was intended to be racist (I don’t think there is a black character in the entire movie, although Tarantino did not cast or direct it) but it fit the scene and characters perfectly. ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2003, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quentin-tarentino-and-the-niggers/219051/42 "2003-12-16T19:31:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bbonden \* > \*\*No discussion of “Quentin and the niggers” could be complete without a mention of the Walken/Hopper scene from True Romance. The word was definitely used for shock value, and the scene (IMHO one of the greatest ever filmed) would not have been the same without it. The usage there was intended to be racist (I don’t think there is a black character in the entire movie, although Tarantino did not cast or direct it) but it fit the scene and characters perfectly. \*\* Actually, part of it is on Amazon > [@](#): > > Clifford Worley: You’re Sicilian, ha? > Coccotti: Yeah, Sicilian. > Clifford Worley: Ya know, I read a lot. Especially about things… about history. I find that shit fascinating. Here’s a fact I don’t know whether you know or not. Sicilians were spawned by niggers. > Coccotti: Come again? > Clifford Worley: It’s a fact. See, Sicilians have black blood pumpin’ through their hearts. If you don’t believe me you can look it up. Hundreds and hundreds of years ago, you see, the Moors conquered Sicily. And the Moors are niggers. > Coccotti: Yes… > Clifford Worley: So you see, way back then, Sicilians were like wops from northern Italy. They all had blonde hair and blue eyes, but uh, well, then the Moors moved in there, and uh, they changed the whole country. They did so much fuckin’ with Sicilian women that they changed the whole bloodline forever. That’s why blonde hair and blue eyes became black hair and dark skin. You know, it’s absolutely amazing to me to think that to this day, hundreds of years later, that Sicilians still carry that nigger gene. Now this… > laughs > Clifford Worley: No, I’m quoting… history. It’s written, it’s a fact, it’s written. > laughs > Clifford Worley: Your ancestors are niggers. Yeah, and your great-great-great-great grandmother fucked a nigger, yeah, and she had a half nigger kid… Now, if that’s a fact, tell me, am I lying? Cause you, you’re part eggplant. Clarification: 1. Black People in the True Romance? At Alabam’s pimps place & Samuel Jackson “I eat everything” line before getting blown away. (As a matter of fact, it was quoted in a recent IMHO thread with a similar name). 2. True: QT didn’t direct True Romance, but he wrote the screenplay & implies in the Director’s cut DVD that he had a hand in the editing. Hijack: _Another QT obsession_: (White) Feet a. Pulp Fiction - Numerous references (foot massage) & Shots of Uma barefoot Kill Bill #1 - Uma’s feet should’ve been given seperate co-star billing From Dusk Til Dawn - Another one he wrote, where in the role of Richard he’s turned on by Juliet Lewis’ feet. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2003, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quentin-tarentino-and-the-niggers/219051/43 "2003-12-16T20:05:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JohnBckWLD \* > \*\*From Dusk Til Dawn - Another one he wrote, where in the role of Richard he’s turned on by Juliet Lewis’ feet. \*\* . . .and has a stripper stick half her foot in his mouth while she pours whiskey down her leg. ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2003, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quentin-tarentino-and-the-niggers/219051/44 "2003-12-16T22:15:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Little Nemo \* > \*\*I think both Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino have some racial issues in their heads they need to resolve. \*\* Actually, I think all of America has some racial issues that it needs to resolve. Look at ‘queer’ in comparison. In just over a decade, American society has come to terms with Gay culture, so that they’re now lauded as the arbiters of style, and one of the most formerly homophobic epithets is now used as an acceptable, even cool, label. Even ‘fag’ and ‘dyke’ are now commonly used terms in the gay and lesbian communities, having taken on connotations as specific character types. But we still haven’t dealt with our guilt over slavery, or properly corrected the socioeconomic disparities between the races. It’s taken what, 40 years? And the word ‘nigger’ is more taboo now than it ever was… To the point where an elected official cannot even say the word “niggardly” in public, no matter how proper the usage. When I was growing up in the south, black people called each other “nigger” all the time, at the drop of a hat. A few white people could call black friends and family “nigger,” in endearment, but you pretty much had to be married to the person, or close enough that you trusted each other implicitly. If you were a white person and _really_ had most trusted social status, you could even be called a ‘nigger,’ in friendship. Kind of like an honorary doctorate. The use of “nigger” in QT’s films is exactly the way I remember it being used _among black folks_ from my youth. Go to Boston or Brooklyn, and hang out in a boiler room or on a construction site, and listen to the goombahs talk to each other. Every fookin’ other fookin’ word is fookin’ fook. It fookin’ ain’t no fookin’ difference. But does anyone beyond the fookin’ Tipper Gore Brigade make a fookin’ stink about the fookin’ language on the fookin’ Sopranos? Fook no. Fookin’-A. They even have a fookin’ character named fookin’ “Big Pussy,” for fook’s sake. ---
**Author:** ![Burrido](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Burrido](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burrido)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2003, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quentin-tarentino-and-the-niggers/219051/45 "2003-12-17T01:48:28Z")
QT uses the word alot because the dialog is pretty accurate. My buddy who is black tosses the word around constantly. Would it be any different if Jules, who is black, to not use it alot? Or in RD where a bunch of miscreants and thugs stand around and bash blacks. How is that not real? Like they are supposed to be all PC and shit while they are planning a robbery. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quentin-tarentino-and-the-niggers/219051.md?page=2)