I pronounced the end Arnold Schwarzenegger’s name as N*** for many years. (with Soft gg) It was common when he first broke out as an actor.
The internet happened and I finally learned it’s more like nay-ger.
I was born in a fairly large city on one of the Great Lakes. I lived in a working class neighborhood that was not integrated but went to an elementary school that was. I had Black and Latino classmates and teachers. My parents were not racist and there were somewhat racist attitudes in the extended family (one side, anyway) but not really heavy stuff.
When I was about 12 we moved to a lily white, rural area where I first encountered hard core, Klan level racism. I mean seriously racist attitudes where the N word was used with abandon. I will admit I used that word in an attempt to fit in in a new place with new people. I’m ashamed of that now.
Later, in high school, one of my best friends house became the hangout for our gang. They treated us like family, fed us , let us hang out all the time…etc. But his parents , especially the father were about as racist as anyone I’ve ever known. Horrible stuff. We laughed at him and called him “Archie Bunker” but really it was worse than Arch ever was.
I wish I had called him out on what I knew even then was bullshit racism but I didn’t. I was a dumb kid. Easier to just laugh it off.
TL;DR,…I went with “a few times as a child telling jokes” even though that doesn’t quite cover it.
I’m not following. How does “egger” sound like “igger” or “ijjer” (soft g’s).?
I beg your pardon.
I’m not sure. I heard Arnold’s last name butchered a lot different ways, after he appeared in Conan. German names weren’t that well known back then. People were guessing at how to say his name.
Today he’s a established star and people have heard it pronounced correctly for a long time.
I still use nay-ger. Which is reasonably close and not a slur word.
I remember the first time I heard the word, I thought the word meant thief. When I was about 7 years old, I attended a daycare center in the Deep South. I had different friends on different days, depending on what day of the week it was. One day, though, there were these two other kids who were brothers about 1 or 2 years apart, and both were a little older than I was.
One afternoon we were pretty badly bored, and to deal with our boredom, we had this bright idea to steal cookies out of the kitchen. Each of us took turns. The oldest one went first. He sneaked into the kitchen when the staff were distracted, opened the cabinet where the cookies were, reached into the box and brought back three cookies. Then it was his young brother’s turn. Then it was my turn. We all managed to pull it off. And we giggled with perverse pleasure each time we managed to pull it off.
We got cocky, started laughing at how easy or ‘crime’ was to get away with. I think I joked and said "Hey, we’re like the stealers! At the time, I thought that’s what the Pittsburgh football team nickname referred to, having no idea at the time that the city was famous for its steel production. Then, a moment or two later, the older brother chimed in and said, “Yeah, I think we’re like n*ggers now.” Of course I laughed, but not having any idea what that word was and not realizing how horrible it was to make that association, of criminalizing blackness.
It never occurred to me before, but the first part of Arnold’s name is the German word for black and the second part closely resembles Latinate words deriving from black.
I’ll be black.
ETA: apparently it means a person from the place Schwarzenegg, or literally “black ploughman”
Quite often - tho not in some time. As a kid in Chicago in the 60s:
-N-toes
-fight, fight
-N pile
-catch a N
Plenty of jokes as well. The more offensive, the funnier (or so we thought.)
In HS, I ran track. A majority of my teammates and friends were black (I’m sure it was not capitalized then.) They used the word often, as did I.
Pretty sure the only times I used it since college were to reference the word, not a person or to make a joke. For example, if we were having this discussion verbally instead of typing a post.
Born in '66, raised on Air Force bases. Almost never heard it, learned the ‘tiger by the toe’ version, etc. I don’t recall even using it casually, certainly not as a pejorative, at any point in my life.
Dad had no patience with racism; he’s pretty much the ultimate pragmatist, and never cared about race, creed, color, gender so long as they did a good job.
The military base environment was pretty egalitarian outside of rank, at least around kids. No-one wanted their promotion chances blown because little Tommy told little Sally that his dad called General James an “uppity n* who got in through affirmative action” - and little Sally asked her folks what that meant.
Same here, with the extra verse, 1980s, Belle Fourche, South Dakota. Unsurprisingly.
Not a complex issue. In a closed group of acquaintances, I use any suitable and descriptive word I feel would not offend anyone who hears me say it. And I avoid using any word which I feel may offend any of the actual listeners who may be present. . How hard is that?
As a young child in the 1950’s, I learned the N-word variation of eeney-meeny-miney-moe and my parents used N-toes for Brazil Nuts, and somewhere about the age of 6 or 7 I had my face corked for some type of ‘minstrel’ show, but I think since making it to puberty and beyond I have never used the word and never will.
I checked the third option although it was really one time and one time only and it was a racial incident with me as a target. Of course my use of the word was wrong. The only times since then I’ve used the word is when I’m clearly quoting someone who’s used and I am clearly mocking or chastising that person for using the word.
Not sure if you intended this to be a response to me, or if so, what it was responding to?
Also, you’ve distinctly avoided answering the OP’s question.
If I ever used it, I was very young, because when I was six I suddenly had two black brothers. Positive I never used it after that.
I use it rarely on occasion (haven’t used it in months, possibly a year) but that’s only when repeating rap lyrics or famous comedy routines that used the word since not saying it completely removes the context. I grew up in a heavily hispanic/black area and basically just as long as you were doing it for the purposes of comedy it was fine with everyone I knew.
One of the best compliments I’ve ever received included the N-word. As detailed elsewhere in these pages over the last 21 years, my family was very close with the family of Sammy Davis Junior back in the 60s… Particularly his father, actually, who was known to me as “daddy Sam”. Sam Davis Senior was a professional dancer and he watched me dancing once when I was a kid and his way of saying that I had excellent rhythm? “That child’s got a nigger in the woodpile…” Which is another way of saying that somewhere in my background I undoubtedly have a black ancestors in order to dance like that. ( I think it’s probably likely that I do have black ancestors on my father side considering that he was from Tennessee hillbillies going back generations). I never say N-word when telling people that story.
So you’ll freely use the word if there isn’t an actual Black person present? And you’ll use sexist terms if there isn’t a woman present? How about antisemitic or gay slurs? Wow.
Yeah, this was our chant in Queens, too. I probably also used it for some idiotic racist joke when I was a kid.
And, today, I don’t always remember to censor myself when rapping along to some hip hop song, but it does seem more like reading Huck Finn when you’re repeating rap lyrics. I usually do censor myself, though.