Use of the N-word internationally

[MrDibble]

The word isn’t really used here except in some try-hard rap lyrics. We have our own equivalent, kaffir, and that doesn’t get thrown around casually or in a friendly manner at all. In fact, use of it could net you a court appearance, or even jail time.

[Olentzero]

Sweden used neger well up into the twentieth century, but it has (justifiably) fallen on harder times since the post-WWII era. About the only real controversy here these days is people grousing about how they can’t call a particular chocolate-based dessert a negerboll any more.

A few years ago, the Swedish comic strip Rocky featured the main character and one of his Black friends visiting a café, and the Black friend messing with the waitress and ordering that particular dessert. The waitress was shown thinking to herself “Don’t say negerboll… Don’t say negerboll…” and once at the table says, “Here’s your boll, neger!” - clearly not realizing what she’d just done. The expressions on the two friends’ faces was priceless.

[Balthisar]

@Colibri

In Panama at least, the terms moreno/a are preferred (and in fact perfectly OK). It is my understanding that negro/a are regarded as somewhat crude when applied to people and are to be avoided, but the softened forms negrito/a are OK. The term chombo is often regarded as offensive.

In Mexico you might use moreno/a to describe the mestizos, as well as describe just how mestizo they are.

[Velocity]

@Mijin

China. Even those who speak English very fluently have either never heard the word or have no idea how serious its meaning is.

Which seems like a pretty irrelevant data point, but it was also an opportunity to say this: The most common word in modern, colloquial chinese sounds a lot like “nigger”.
I wonder how many misunderstandings this may cause.

(If anyone’s interested in the details:
那个, “na-ge”, means “that one”. Textbooks will tell you it’s pronounced such that it rhymes with “dagger”. But IME, it more typically rhymes with “digger”.
The reason it’s possibly the most common word, is that it’s frequently used as a filler. So the Chinese equivalent of “Erm, you know, like…” might be saying something that sounds like the N-word three times)

Beat me to it. A Taiwanese family member of mine, IIRC, asked a basketball player, in Mandarin, to “go get that basketball” and a nearby African-American demanded, did you just say “n-------???” Something like that.

[kambuckta]

@Aspidistra

I (born in the 70’s) have never heard an Australian person use the word. My in-laws (born in the 40’s) have. And you read it in letters from the 19th century. But we have different bad words, which I have heard.

Whether this applies in other states I don’t know - I’ve never lived anywhere north of Melbourne

Another Melburnian here, born 1960, and recall my grandmother having a mongrel dog called Nigger when I was around 3-4 yrs old. Nigger was an old dog then, so I’m guessing he was so-named some time in the early 1950’s.

When Nigger crossed the rainbow bridge, she got an equally unidentifiable mutt called Skeeter.

BOTH of those names were extremely common for dogs of that era.

[Kiwi_Fruit]

@kambuckta

Another Melburnian here, born 1960, and recall my grandmother having a mongrel dog called Nigger when I was around 3-4 yrs old. Nigger was an old dog then, so I’m guessing he was so-named some time in the early 1950’s.

When Nigger crossed the rainbow bridge, she got an equally unidentifiable mutt called Skeeter.

BOTH of those names were extremely common for dogs of that era.

Referencing “The Dambusters” movie remake, the squadron leader’s dog has been renamed from “Nigger”. The dog is a black labrador and it was a very common name for black dogs. My grandfather had a black horse called “Nigger” sometime in NZ in the 1940’s-50’s.

Contemporarily, I believe the term is often used in Maori/Pacific Island “gangsta” culture in much the same way as in African-American culture.