# Resolved: "Racist!" is The White Man's "Nigger!" **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 27, 2006, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-racist-is-the-white-mans-nigger/381980 "2006-11-27T20:41:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2006, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-racist-is-the-white-mans-nigger/381980/121 "2006-12-09T23:14:40Z")
[QUOTE=Lust4Life] Well I’m afraid I’m going to shatter a couple of your illusions . [/QUOTE] Actually, it is pretty rare that someone’s illusions are shattered because someone takes their irony as fact–particularly when the “rebuttal” responds to claims that were not even made in the original ironic statement. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2006, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-racist-is-the-white-mans-nigger/381980/122 "2006-12-10T04:09:40Z")
[QUOTE=tomndebb] Actually, it is pretty rare that someone’s illusions are shattered because someone takes their irony as fact–particularly when the “rebuttal” responds to claims that were not even made in the original ironic statement. [/QUOTE] Ah! you obviously failed to spot my even more self satirising ,even more ironic irony for what it was ,but then again I could be lying through my teeth in an efort to save face cos I was too knackered to spot the subtlty 🙂 In my defence in an entirely unrelated thread I took a series of posts as really dry humour in the S.D.M.B tradition.sending up not too bright posters and even complimented the posters wit for taking me in for a fair while until his next post revealed that it wasn’t a send up at all and he genuinlly was thick as two short planks. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2006, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-racist-is-the-white-mans-nigger/381980/123 "2006-12-11T20:10:23Z")
[QUOTE=elelle] I could go off on so many tangents here for discussion, but will limit it to the “wretchedness” discussion. [/QUOTE] I think I get what you’re saying: Pryor no doubt had plenty to say on the topic of wretchedness as white supremacists view and define blacks – but he also had plenty to say about the reinforcing power of “nigger” to define and refer to each other as both fundamentally self-hating among black folks, and to take it one step further, I think a case can be made about how Pryor felt “nigger” applied to the wretchedness of humanity. > [@you with the face](#): > > I think you’ve touched on why the concern about semantics is hard for me to sympathize with. – SNIP – In my defense of attacking the semantic premise of an argument, I try very hard not to dismiss the obvious prejudice or bigotry of a given situation, even when I dismiss the extremism implied by a word like “racist”, and obviously I think both the label and behavior/belief is wrong in most cases. BUT – I also think in SOME cases one’s consistently negative experiences with a particular group (be it racial, class, regional, ideological or whatever) should not be dismissed, and may legitimize some feelings of prejudice and bias. The mistake is thinking your subjective experiences are expressly accurate when applied universally. Inductive thinking is tricky. > [@you with the face](#): > > Yes, we know this is what you believe, Askia! Just remember that what is flagrant to one person ain’t always flagrant to another. I thought Richards’ performance was pretty damn flagrant, but others disagreed. So who’s right? Well, don’t get me started semantically hair-splitting the subjective differences between something _flagrant_ and something merely _blatant_… 😃 The consensus is that Richards’ performance was pretty damn flagrant. My guess is that anyone who’s questioning how flagrantly racist Richards’ comments and behavior was has only seen aborted news clips of his comments and did not take the time to view the entirety of his rant as captured on camera in a fuller context online. I mean, damn. He has visibly angry and disgusted and squeezed in twelve n-bombs, a lynching reference, a second veiled threat and a failed appeal to the audiences’ mob mentality in about a minute and a half, while being booed by a rapidly departing audience. > [@Lust4Life](#): > > Ah! you obviously failed to spot my even more self satirising ,even more ironic irony for what it was ,but then again I could be lying through my teeth in an efort to save face cos I was too knackered to spot the subtlty. Nice save. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-racist-is-the-white-mans-nigger/381980.md?page=6)