The quickest and most powerful thing a black person can do to racially insult me is call themselves a nigger in front of me in a white tone of voice. It achieves much the same effect: it implies that the person has already written me off, as a white person, as irrevocably as a white person calling a black person a nigger has.
Now, of course, sometimes they are using the word, (usually with a different pronunciation), as a generic salutation, but in at least 50% of the times it has been used by blacks in actual conversation around me it seems to have been used to make a racially insensitive comment. (And more than half the time that white people have used it, as well, of course.)
whew * good. I always get freaked out when they pull out the N-word. He keeps that up and we’ll lose the power of the word and have to come up with something else!
Anti-Semite maybe, although to my knowledge it doesn’t have the sting of either “nigger” or “racist”. Part of the problem with “racist,” though, is that there is no defense against it, as discussed in this thread
Not to mention which, in the professional and academic sphere, being accused of being racist is a pretty big mark against you. Witness, for example, the water buffalo incident, in which a fairly specious claim of racisim seriously damaged the career of a student. So there’s a practical as well as emotional aspect of being called “racist.”
Anti-Semite maybe, although to my knowledge it doesn’t have the sting of either “nigger” or “racist”. Part of the problem with “racist,” though, is that there is no defense against it, as discussed in this thread
Not to mention which, in the professional and academic sphere, being accused of being racist is a pretty big mark against you. Witness, for example, the water buffalo incident, in which a fairly specious claim of racisim seriously damaged the career of a student. So there’s a practical as well as emotional aspect of being called “racist.”
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To me there is one thing different between being called a racist or a nigger.
Many blacks generally don’t get too upset being called a nigger by other blacks but take severe offence when whites do.
Many progressive whites get very upset by being called racist by other whites. They get less upset when blacks call them racist, perhaps because the progressive whites feel they must take some responsibility for their heritage and other non-progressive whites.
Anastasaeon certainly defended herself. She convinced all of the posters (including myself) that she’s not a racist. Do you know what “no defense” means?
If someone calls you a “slanty-eyed gook”, what can you say to that besides “My eyes aren’t that slanty?”
So true. Just as being called a “pedophile” or a “tax cheat” are accusations that can also ruin a career. Does that mean we should refrain from calling people “pedophiles” and “tax cheats”?
Only people who intend to inflame and insult would choose the word “nigger”.
People may use “racist” to insult. Or they could be using it as an objective descriptor, one based soley on solid evidence.
Equating a insult with a value-neutral descriptor makes no sense to me.
Well, not a black neighborhood, but a Christmas party. I was dating a woman from the Kumeyaay tribe (Southern California Native Americans), and was called “white boy” by every one of the adult males in attendance. This did not come across in any sort of good-natured way, either. “Hey, are you lost? I think the white Christmas party is down the street!” Said with a real edge. I’ve never been so uncomfortable in my life.
I’m sorry, I am so tired of hearing this claim. What is the basis for your assumption? I went to a majority Latino/Black high school. I belong to a historically Black fraternity. I am from a Black family. A good percentage of my friends are Black.
I don’t know anyone in any of those groups who would just up and call another Black person “nigger.” Because a lot of Black people have a huge problem with that word. Have you ever heard a Black person say “Don’t call me out of my name?” That means you need to refer to me by my given name - not G, not playa, not homey, and definitely not nigger. Now, I do know people who refer to other people like so: “That nigga was acting crazy.” But as someone who regularly interacts with Black people, poor, working class, and middle class, I just do not know of people who are okay with the word being used to describe them. And most Black people I interact with know better that to bust out with “nigger” with other Black people they don’t know.
Now, as a teacher, I certainly heard the kids use it among themselves, but I heard them also refer to Latino and White kids that way as well. In fact, I think it’s fair to say I’ve heard, or heard of, kids of every ethnicity referring to one another as “niggas.”
I daresay if someone was going to spontaneously bust out with a nigger-blast, it would be among a group of young Black men closely affiliated with street culture. Tough guys. And even then you’re likely to piss someone off, unless you know them and there’s some kind of understanding that you can go there. Among groups like Christians, conscious Afrocentric people, older people, and women, I rarely hear the word being used.
I just want it to be known that in my vast experience as being Black and being around Black people, a lot of Black people get quite upset at anyone calling them nigger - in fact, more upset if a Black person does it.
Yes, if the accusations are false. And even there, there’s a difference – if you claim that someone is a tax cheat, it’s fairly simple to prove whether it’s true or not. It’s also difficult to falsely claim that someone is a pedophile, since you have to find children who are willing to lie to back up the claim (though that’s not impossible, ie the McMartin case). But it’s very easy to claim that a person is a racist. So much of the racism we talk about today is of the unproveable variety anyways (looks, attitudes, inferences), that if a black person wanted to hurt a white person, he could very easily start accusing him of racism, with no proof at all. If he did it loudly enough the charge might stick, and a perfectly innocent person could have no way to exonerate himself in the eyes of friends and colleagues. As has been pointed out, that can have serious consequences on people’s lives and careers. It is, as has also been pointed out, the modern equivalent of accusing someone of being a Communist.
So, I think Askia has made an interesting comparison here. Baseless accusations of racism against a white person are more damaging externally (in the sense that it could lose you jobs and friends), but not necessarily internally (because you know the accusations are false). Calling someone a nigger is more damaging internally (your very being has been criticized), but not externally (everyone is going to run to your defense and condemn the person who called you nigger).
Am I being whooshed here? White people are hypocrites by nature? Only white people (as you seem to imply) are descended from cultures that have committed atrocities?
A good point. Pretty much every culture, regardless of their color, takes a hypocritical view of its past. Modern black Africans, for example, never talk about how much their black African ancestors participated in the slave trade.
