# Tarantino using the N-word ("Django Unchained" Spoliers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 31, 2012, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarantino-using-the-n-word-django-unchained-spoliers/645682 "2012-12-31T17:06:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2012, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarantino-using-the-n-word-django-unchained-spoliers/645682/21 "2012-12-31T19:52:26Z")
Yeah. I’m definitely intrigued by the scene again. Gonna watch the movie later. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2012, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarantino-using-the-n-word-django-unchained-spoliers/645682/22 "2012-12-31T20:07:43Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Jimmy’s wife Bonnie is Marsellus’s (Ving Rhames) AKA Jules and Vincent’s boss’s niece. > > Mr. Wolf: Were you Uncle Conrad and Aunt Ginny millionaires? > Jimmie: No. > Mr. Wolf: Well, your Uncle Marsellus is. And I’m positive if Uncle Conrad and Aunt Ginny were millionaires, they would’ve furnished you with a whole bedroom set, which your Uncle Marsellus is more than happy to do. > > IOW, an “average suburban white guy” is typically not married to the neice of a crime boss, nor does one react the way Jimmy did to two mobsters showing up with a dead body. I don’t think the Wolf was using “uncle” in a literal sense. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarantino-using-the-n-word-django-unchained-spoliers/645682/23 "2012-12-31T20:44:48Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > .. I have seen _Pulp Fiction_, though. In the “Dead Nigger Storage” scene, Jimmy’s use of the word can be taken two ways. The first is that Jimmy and Jules are close enough friends that Jimmy can use the word freely around Jules without it being an issue. Secondly, Jimmy is deliberately using the word to signal what a mammoth imposition Jules is making on Jimmy. “This is such a big deal,” he is saying, “That I, a suburban white guy, am going to casually throw around the word ‘nigger’ while castigating you. And you, a black mobster, will listen without objection - indeed, _you_ will apologize to _me_ - because you are so desperate for my help that you can’t afford to make an issue of it.” Having seen _Pulp Fiction_ like 100 times (easy to do if you’ve got cable), this. > [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > … the non reaction from Jules tells me it isn’t some shocker word that Jimmy pulled out like a weapon. I think it was being used as a weapon, but the target was Vincent. It’s pretty clear that Vincent doesn’t know Jimmy at all, **JULES:** This is the Valley, Vincent. Marsellus don’t got no friendly places in the Valley. **VINCENT:** Well, don’t look at me, this is your town, Jules. (Jules takes out a cellular phone and starts punching digits.) **VINCENT:** Who ya callin’? **JULES:** A buddy of mine in Toluca Lake. **VINCENT:** Where’s Toluca Lake.Not in the film, but in the [script](http://sfy.ru/sfy.html?script=pulp_fiction), **JIMMIE:** … (look up and sees Vincent) Who the fuck are you?Jimmie’s over the top usage of “nigger” establishes his relationship with Jules for Vincent and **Miller** ’s second point. > [@Jophiel](#): > > Looking at the screenplay, people in Pulp Fiction who use the word are Jules, Lance (the guy who sells heroin), Marsellus and Jimmie. Lance uses it the once and is obviously intending it disparagingly – he asks Vincent “Am I a nigger? Are you in Inglewood? No, you’re in my house” when Vincent starts questioning the quality of Lance’s heroin. He’s also saying it to Vincent; I sort of doubt Lance would say it to Jules had he been there. … I think Lance’s use of nigger establishes that in the Marsellus Wallace part of the _Pulp Fiction_ universe “nigger” has a not racist meaning too (see: [Chris Rock - Black People VS. Niggaz (Bring the Pain 1996)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3PJF0YE-x4)). Marsellus Wallace’s business partners, Brett and Co.? (Probably not including Marvin.) Niggers. CMC ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2012, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarantino-using-the-n-word-django-unchained-spoliers/645682/24 "2012-12-31T21:50:23Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > IOW, an “average suburban white guy” is typically not married to the neice of a crime boss, nor does one react the way Jimmy did to two mobsters showing up with a dead body. What’s the old saying? A _pal_ will help you move. A _friend_ will help you move a body. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2012, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarantino-using-the-n-word-django-unchained-spoliers/645682/25 "2012-12-31T21:59:56Z")
I’m a black man who’s been on the receiving end of that word on multiple occasions. Though I haven’t seen Django and don’t intend to, but it doesn’t seem unreasonable to me to have a white character in a period piece use the word “nigger” a lot. Bad people use the word. Good people sometimes also use the word. And words aren’t magic. ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2012, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarantino-using-the-n-word-django-unchained-spoliers/645682/26 "2012-12-31T22:19:08Z")
what else were they supposed to say in that era? calling someone black? when did that term come into use? negro would have probably worked but if it was the only term you used you might stand out as strange for talking funny (not really an issue for the german guy) one thing to keep in mind with film, the dialog, the sets, the camera work, ALL exist to take you to a certain place at a certain time. this is why things (some things anyway) that happen in movies never happen irl. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2012, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarantino-using-the-n-word-django-unchained-spoliers/645682/27 "2012-12-31T22:58:00Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I’m a black man… On the rare occasion you say that on this board, I always imagine dozens of dopers at home doing a spit take. > [@](#): > > …And words aren’t magic. Oh yeah? How about “Abracadabra”? ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2012, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarantino-using-the-n-word-django-unchained-spoliers/645682/28 "2012-12-31T22:59:47Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > If it helps, he was supposed to be played by Steve Buscemi. Oddly enough, that does help. In fact, the whole character takes on a new light when I imagine Buscemi in the role. With Tarantino doing it, the role seemed slightly self-indulgent, and even though I enjoyed those scenes, I could never quite shake the idea that Tarantino really likes saying “nigger.” I think the reason is that Jimmy’s use of “nigger” _is_ supposed to calculated to send a message to both Jules and Vincent, as several people have suggested, but Tarantino’s Jimmy is played a little too broadly to make that believable. Jimmy comes across as a slightly dumb guy who probably never did more in the gangster world than some minor drug dealing. I assumed he bought drugs from Jules back when Jules himself was a small-time hood, and they got close enough that Jules may have dragged him along on a heist or something, but not much more than that. He seems too freaked out by the whole thing for me to believe that his words were carefully chosen. Buscemi, OTOH, while he plays plenty of dumb guys, always plays them as a bit more cagey. I could easily see him interpreting the role as someone who was comfortable enough in the criminal demimonde to know exactly what words like “nigger” would convey to Jules and Vincent. It especially makes **cmc** ’s point make sense–I never liked Lance’s use of the word, which always seemed more pointless to me than Jimmy’s, but if you have a slightly more serious portrayal of Jimmy, then it becomes necessary to convey early in the movie exactly what **cmc** is suggesting–that a “nigger” to these characters isn’t just a black person, but a specifically worthless black person. Then Jimmy’s usage become much more pointed–Jules is a friend, Vincent is a stranger, but this (Marvin) isn’t even a person at this point, just a problem, a piece of trash that has no business being there. The point isn’t that he’s black but that he’s a _victim_, and even Jimmy knows that real gangsters clean up their own fucking messes. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2012, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarantino-using-the-n-word-django-unchained-spoliers/645682/29 "2012-12-31T23:08:18Z")
It’s certainly a strange situation with the N-word in the US. On the weekend I was watching Aziz Ansari’s live standup _Dangerously Delicious_ in which he does a bit about his hatred of racism but fascination with racial slurs. He prefaces the bit by saying that the slurs are, by their nature, offensive so if you are offended “shut your fucking mouth.” Talking about compound epithets he then uses this term for native Americans, “prairie N-word.” Any offended nearby black can be told, “I used ‘prairie’ in front of it. This doesn’t involve you.” Ansari appears to have no idea how ridiculous, almost surreal, this sounds without him using the word nigger. He adds to the bewilderment by several times using the phrase “ching chong bing bong” having explained that it is an offensive term for Asians, not to be used in their presence. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2012, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarantino-using-the-n-word-django-unchained-spoliers/645682/30 "2012-12-31T23:21:39Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > …Talking about compound epithets he then uses this term for native Americans, “prairie N-word.” Any offended nearby black can be told, “I used ‘prairie’ in front of it. This doesn’t involve you.”.. HAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA!!! I’m **dying**! ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2013, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarantino-using-the-n-word-django-unchained-spoliers/645682/31 "2013-01-01T00:48:12Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Southerners of the time period used “nigger” as an almost neutral descriptive turn (obviously, it wasn’t neutral to Black Southerners, but no one cared what they thought). Anyone talking about a black man in that period in that setting would use the word. > > Look at **Huckleberry Finn**. Not only does Huck casually call his best friend Jim a nigger, but there’s that exchange between Aunt Sally and Huck when she asks him if anyone was hurt and Huck replies, “No’m. Killed a nigger.” > > Tarantino is being historically accurate here. It is not over-the-top language; it is the language of the white people of the time. No white person in the South would find the word over-the-top and offensive, and most black people would reluctantly accept it because there was nothing they could do about it. I agree that the word was used in the south, but I’m pretty sure it was not used the way Tarantino used it in “Django.” It’s much more stylized in the movie, with more relish and showmanship than if it were used for historical accuracy. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2013, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarantino-using-the-n-word-django-unchained-spoliers/645682/32 "2013-01-01T01:10:17Z")
> [@Lakai](#): > > I agree that the word was used in the south, but I’m pretty sure it was not used the way Tarantino used it in “Django.” It’s much more stylized in the movie, with more relish and showmanship than if it were used for historical accuracy. That first sentence drew my attention. Do you think the word “nigger” was used _only_ by southerners? I seriously doubt that. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2013, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarantino-using-the-n-word-django-unchained-spoliers/645682/33 "2013-01-01T01:31:30Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > That first sentence drew my attention. Do you think the word “nigger” was used _only_ by southerners? I seriously doubt that. I don’t. I’m not even sure how you could conclude that I do from my remarks. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2013, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarantino-using-the-n-word-django-unchained-spoliers/645682/34 "2013-01-01T01:37:27Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I don’t think you’re entirely wrong. Jimmy’s reaction to seeing a guy with his face blown off isn’t exactly what you’d expect from your average suburbanite. He’s pissed about the hassle and personal danger Jules has put him in, but he’s not freaking out over a dead body with it’s face blown off. He’s acting more like someone tracked dog shit onto his new carpet. So, I suspect that Jimmy has a pretty shady past. I don’t think he’s higher ranking than Jules or Vincent, though - to the contrary, I get the impression that he’s someone who’s trying to go legit, probably after a relatively shallow involvement in organized crime or the criminal lifestyle. He has no tools or resources to deal with the body in the car, and his concerns and interests are almost comically middle-class: oak bedroom sets, designer coffee, heirloom sheets, and so forth. He doesn’t seem to have any pull in the underworld at all. Jules goes to his house not because Jimmy is a gangster, he goes because Jimmy is his “hide a body, no questions asked” close friend. I’d add that whatever Jimmy’s involvement in criminal activity is or was, he clearly very much wants to keep it separate from the domestic suburban life he has with his wife, and thus “gangster shit” coming to his house with virtually no warning is a major nuisance and imposition and Jules’s attempts at politeness, complimenting Jimmy’s coffee and such, don’t help at all. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2013, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarantino-using-the-n-word-django-unchained-spoliers/645682/35 "2013-01-01T01:39:00Z")
> [@Lakai](#): > > I don’t. I’m not even sure how you could conclude that I do from my remarks. I didn’t draw a conclusion, Lakai. I try to avoid rhetorical questions, and I didn’t fail this time. I asked because I’ve encountered white northerners who seem to believe that racism is strictly a southern problem, and it seemed possible to read your statement in that light. As I can’t think of any previous post of yours that would support your thinking that, I thought it best to simply ask rather than to conclude. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2013, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarantino-using-the-n-word-django-unchained-spoliers/645682/36 "2013-01-01T02:05:41Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I didn’t draw a conclusion, Lakai. I try to avoid rhetorical questions, and I didn’t fail this time. I asked because I’ve encountered white northerners who seem to believe that racism is strictly a southern problem, and it seemed possible to read your statement in that light. As I can’t think of any previous post of yours that would support your thinking that, I thought it best to simply ask rather than to conclude. Fair enough. I thought you made a conclusion because you said “I seriously doubt that.” It sounded like you were arguing against a belief you thought I had rather than a belief you thought I possibly had. My mistake. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2013, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarantino-using-the-n-word-django-unchained-spoliers/645682/37 "2013-01-01T02:17:50Z")
Having seen Django, I have to say I was impressed by how well Tarantino works the term nigger into conversation. It’s used as a noun, an adjective, an adverb, the pluperfect subjunctive\*, a basic part of speech the way in exactly the way that a lot of modern people use fuck every other word in every possible form. He knew what he was doing and every use was deliberate. So if you don’t want him to use nigger, you need to ask what other terms he could have substituted. Black isn’t one of them. It existed as a usage, but it just wasn’t a standard term of the time. African-American hadn’t appeared yet. Afro-American has a few cites in abolitionist literature, but never in Southern talk. Colored was the normal polite term. Tarantino’s characters aren’t polite, and they were a might riled at times, so polite terms won’t do. Buck was used a lot as well as boy. So was coon. And crow. A woman might be a mammy, but not a young, pretty one. Sambo had been around a while by then, and so had Rastus and Cuffy and Zip (for Scipio). Children could be pickaninnies. Yep, Tarantino had lots of choices to ponder while he was writing his script. Yet most of the time he used nigger. It is stylized. It may be excessive, but only because he choose not to use the alternatives. Niggers are the subject of the movie. Every line of it is about niggerdom in the antebellum South. Not about coondom or mammydom. Niggerdom. I can’f figure out what other word would do. And I can’t figure out what his detractors would have him say, except not to make the movie at all. Which, despite my criticisms in the other thread, would have been a shame. \*Variation of the old joke: A visitor to Boston asks, “Do you know where I can get scrod around here?” “Pal,” replies the cabdriver, “I’ve got to congratulate you. I’ve heard that question a lot over the years, but that’s the first time I’ve ever heard it in the pluperfect subjunctive.” ---
**Author:** ![azraiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@azraiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/azraiel)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2013, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarantino-using-the-n-word-django-unchained-spoliers/645682/38 "2013-01-01T04:06:26Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Looking at the screenplay, people in Pulp Fiction who use the word are Jules, Lance (the guy who sells heroin), Marsellus and Jimmie. Zed and Maynard. Not that I have anything else to add to the conversation. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2013, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarantino-using-the-n-word-django-unchained-spoliers/645682/39 "2013-01-01T04:50:22Z")
> [@Lakai](#): > > I agree that the word was used in the south, but I’m pretty sure it was not used the way Tarantino used it in “Django.” It’s much more stylized in the movie, with more relish and showmanship than if it were used for historical accuracy. Doesn’t that pretty much describe all of Tarantino’s dialogue? ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2013, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarantino-using-the-n-word-django-unchained-spoliers/645682/40 "2013-01-01T05:29:55Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > He knew what he was doing and every use was deliberate. So if you don’t want him to use nigger, you need to ask what other terms he could have substituted. > > Black isn’t one of them. It existed as a usage, but it just wasn’t a standard term of the time. Actually, the way he handled it makes the one time (I think) that ‘black’ was used, by Schultz during the Dumas scene, truly stand out. I can’t imagine that wasn’t intentionally showing the Schultz was throwing off the blanket of southern racism by using the term to refer to a European black man rather than the American black men he’s been surrounded by for a while. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarantino-using-the-n-word-django-unchained-spoliers/645682.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarantino-using-the-n-word-django-unchained-spoliers/645682.md?page=3)