I’m 34, and as long as I can remember the “N word” was considered an inappropriate racial slur to direct at someone. But I’ve noticed there’s been a recent trend whereby it can’t be used under ANY circumstances, regardless of the context. Even if you are quoting a White Supremacist in order to thoroughly condemn him, you are still guilty if you merely utter those words. If you are an English teacher, you are treading on thin ice if you quote certain passages from Huckleberry Finn.
I don’t think this is a positive development at all. It seems like a symptom of a moral panic, the secular equivalent of a blasphemy law. Intent and context should matter.
I don’t think what you’ve noticed is accurate in a wider context. And you’re mixing up “using” a word and “mentioning” a word. You’re using the word if you’re calling someone an insulting ethnic slur. You’re mentioning the word if you’re quoting someone else (assuming you have good reason to do so) or describing something that should definitely not be said, or similar.
When we read Huck Finn in 10th grade my teacher wouldn’t use the word herself while reading passages from the book. As a graduate student one of my projects was on lynching and while I used the word when quoting in papers I didn’t generally speak the word out loud. But then it’s one of the three words I was raised never to utter so no matter the context it just feels weird to say it.
Actually I’d agree with the OP but don’t think it’s unique in that respect. There are a number of pejoratives and slurs in English that many people are uncomfortable saying; even when it’s just quoting something that someone said. Plenty of times you’ll hear people say “the C-word” or “a MF” in contexts where swearing would be OK but still it’s just not something you want to voice.
And it’s the same with other languages IME.
Probably, in English, nigger is right at the top end of offensiveness but some word had to be, and with the history it’s not surprising.
The inherent risk is that there will always be people using “Hey, I’m just referring to the word by quoting Mark Twain.” as cover to say the word 1,000 times a day.
Arguably, some would question what your intent is on even starting this thread. As the “just asking questions” trope is also cover for looking for an apology to justify using the word publicly.
Yes the word is toxic, no you can’t use it. If that’s a BIG DEAL to you, then that says more about you than the word or society at large.
Which is why intent and context matters. Using any word a 1000 times a day would be obnoxious, even if it were an innocuous word like “strawberry.” I would say: why the hell do you keep saying strawberry over and over again? Cut that shit out.
Only I know my own intent, and when I search deep within my own heart my motives are pure. I practice a Buddhist form of meditation called Lovingkindness, which means that I radiate an attitude of goodwill towards all sentient beings in the universe. Don’t believe me? I’m sorry, I can’t prove it to you but it happens to be the truth.
I view saying that word the same way I view burning an American flag. I personally don’t care to do it and find it distasteful, but as a principled supporter of free speech I support other people’s right to do so.
I do not in any way doubt you’ve noticed this. But confirmation bias is always a harsh mistress. Do you have any numbers or other evidence to suggest it’s an objective thing rather than a subjective experience on your part?
Yes, certain books set back in history did use the word (Huck Finn, To Kill A Mockingbird and Gne With The Wind come to mind). Maybe they considered it an okay word to use. Doesn’t mean we do.
If the purpose of using the N-word in a discussion or writing is to condemn it and racism, then condemning that *usage *of the N-word is as nonsensical as condemning the Holocaust Museum for showing the swastika.
The recent movie, 42, about Jackie Robinson, featured a great many N-words. Does that make the movie racist? Of course not. It was simply portraying American society as it was at the time for the sake of historical accuracy.
Who has it harmed? Who is really, honestly, harmed by having to come up with a replacement for the N-word in open conversation?
Is the level of public discourse brought down a notch because people fail to use this word?
The poor teacher who wants to stand in front of his class quoting Mark Twain has to carefully tread over his use of this hateful, racist, vulgarity. Yes, that’s what lesson preparation is for. Teacher should be fully aware of the vulgarity used, and have an appropriate treatment of it if that quote is so all-fired important to be read aloud in class.
It’s a word used to denigrate a population of people, and it doesn’t need to be repeated by you, even if your motives are “pure”.
To preempt a bit: It has happened. We could look at the recurrent kerfufflesaround the word “niggardly,” f’rinstance.
It can be tempting for those with unexamined agendas to argue that these sort of reactions, or other extreme or ignorant responses, reflect a common or pervasive trend. They might, but I’d like to see something more solid than anecdote to support such an argument.
I agree. The problem is how some people kept looking for loopholes that allowed them to say it.
“Can I say it if I’m quoting Mark Twain? Can I say it if I’m quoting Quentin Tarantino? Can I say it if I’m quoting the lyrics to a rap song? Can I say it if I’m being ironic? Can I can it if I’m wearing a disapproving look? Can I say it if I pronounce it slightly differently? Can I say a word that sounds like it?”
If you tell these people they can’t say it a thousand times a day, their response will be “So it’s okay to say it nine hundred times a day?”
Eventually you just have to tell these people that they can never say it under any circumstances. It’s the only way you can stop them.
That only states explicitly what’s implicit in the OP, maybe the OP should have stated it, but anyway it’s obvious from your reference. The issue in non-black people using the word in any context in public. As opposed to here anonymously where I see it used all the an innocuous context. That doesn’t apply in real American life now.
The recent firing of the Netflix exec over ‘descriptive’ use of the word was never fully clarified with an actual quote AFAIK. But it doesn’t seem as it was referring to any person, but the word itself, ‘our audiences do/don’t like to hear the word ‘n’ in our shows’. The Netflix CEO wrote in firing him
“For non-Black people, the word should not be spoken as there is almost no context in which it is appropriate or constructive…”
It is secular blasphemy, albeit applied unevenly between black and non-black people, for what the judges of secular blasphemy think are good reasons. But that doesn’t IMO reduce the accuracy of the analogy. Same issue here as people on the generally pro-PC side of things showing how they can use the word on SDMB in ‘appropriate context’. I really doubt they would in any kind of public setting in real life. And similarly for their supporting claim that ‘context matters’. For non-black people, context doesn’t really matter except to distinguish bad from worse cases of speaking the word, in real public life. The Netflix CEO was solidly within the PC mainstream in his statement.
Hey, OP, the Jackie Robinson movie came out in 2013 and used that word. Is that not considered a circumstance, or is your “recent taboo” more recent than that?
I won’t lie; it’s been a really tough adjustment for me, as a white man. But when I’m feeling really down in the dumps and put-upon, I just reflect back on all the times I heard my father say it, and bask in the warm glow of nostalgia.