Add me to the occasional use as a young person in the “fight fight” type context. I never use it now, and will use “racial slur” rather than “the N word” unless you need to specify the word (such as in this thread).
This may be only my childhood neighborhood, but we called the “knock and run” prank as “N… knocking”. Apparently the meaning is if you open your door at night you wouldn’t see a black person, or something like that.
I do remember as a teenager differentiating blacks. Basically in my mind a n***** was a bad black person, similar to how thug is being used.
The very little hip-hop I listen to doesn’t contain much of the word and I don’t remember if I’ve had the urge to sing along with those few lyrics that did.
However, I have sung along to Oliver’s Army by Elvis Costello with other people and we all without discussing beforehand knew we should not sing along to that specific word.
Ditto. We said “catch a tiger by the toe” as a child growing up in Texas in the early 1970s. I also never heard the offensive version until I was an adult.
In general, the “n-word” had never been acceptable to use at any time in my life. And I don’t mean “not acceptable” like a curse word. I mean, “not acceptable” in any way whatsoever, the kind of thing that would get you grounded for a week as a child. The closest analog is the “c-word.”
My wife learned the offensive version of “Eenie, meenie, miny, moe,” as a child growing up in the Boston suburbs, but she’s older than me. When she told me that, I was appalled. Apparently things changed sometime between the early ‘60s and the early ‘70s.
I voted despite not being White.
I’ve never used the word “seriously”, being a) not White and b) not American.
I did grow up calling a kind of black aniseed gobstopper a “Knicker ball”, which was actually a bowdlerization of “nigger ball”. But that doesn’t count for the OP’s purposes.
Grew up on the south side of Chicago in the 60s. I never heard anyone use the word until I was in my 20s, when my brothers routinely used it. I do not shy away from the word when used in context, like Richard Pryor’s album, or talking about slurs, like nigger toes.
When I was a little kid, I knew another kid that said it a lot. I didn’t know what it meant, but I thought it was a funny sounding word. One day I was in the car with my parents and started saying it repeatedly in a sing-songy voice. My dad slammed on the breaks and told me never to say that again.
I heard it once as a teenager and was horrified, but never said anything. I don’t think I’ve heard it said by anyone I know in my adult life.
I will admit, that if I’ve been cut off or some other egregious moving violation happens to me, and I catch a glimpse of the person, I will scream a string of profanities of the worst things I can say at them (within the confines of my car, alone). The n word may have escaped my mouth a time or two, and I would not consider that my finest hour.
I used it as a little kid. My parents never used the term, but my little friends did. I didn’t even know what it meant. I thought it meant crazy bad people, from the context that it was used. I lived in a very segregated Chicago neighborhood, and the only African-Americans I came in contact with were busdrivers. Anyway, I didn’t know it referred specifically to them.
When I did learn the meaning, I still used it when singing various joke songs with my friends. I remember one popular ditty. The tune is The Farmer in the Dell:
In 1964
My mother joined the war
Pulled the trigger, shot a n**r
in 1964.
Hilarious. In case you can’t tell, I’m being sarcastic. (Thank you, Homer Simpson)
I never used the word toward any people of color personally. I don’t use the word at all now.
I will admit to some puzzlement over people of color’s clinging onto the term amongst themselves since it is so degrading. And don’t give me that ends with an “A” thing. That’s semantic BS.
I agree, except that it was just part of the dialect of some people when they were growing up and language doesn’t always make sense. Not everyone is consciously trying to “reclaim” it.
However, I do think that the subset of those people who do use it who would also get offended if a European-American tried to use it in the same way should moderate their speech around them to avoid using a word which is much more offensive in their dialect. (Which isn’t to say that everyone needs to be moderating their speech around everyone all the time: the people who don’t think anyone should say the word and the people who don’t care if anyone occasionally says n***a can keep on keepin’ on.)
What’s your point?
She never promised you a rose garden.
No, back in the '50s we learned the “tiger” version. I never heard the other till I was an adult.
I told an N-joke (a rhyme, actually) when I was a very little boy and my older sister kindly but firmly told me it was not ok.
I used the word twice in a short story I wrote some years ago, set during the Civil War, with the word spoken by a Confederate soldier, but even that has since made me uncomfortable, so I’ve changed it to “n-----.” Pretty clear in context what he said.
I’m not offended by it if I hear it used in the arts & entertainment context (movies, actors, comics).
I just can’t bring myself to use it in any context. It doesn’t cross my mind even if I’m angry with someone. Not even to sing along with a popular song or to re-tell a joke.
I honestly cannot remember having ever used it in living memory. Is that weird/unusual?
The timing probably depended on where you were. I was born in 1951, so I’d have heard that rhyme mostly in the 50’s and 60’s (it’s a children’s thing), and I heard it as ‘tiger’.
Golddigger! Love it, sing it!
I seem to remember the same thing when I was in grade school, North Side Chicago in the late 60’s.
Occasionally there would be a line added, where one of the fighters was identified by name and told to “beat up the white”, implying that he was the n***** (which presumably was meant to insult him).
Yeah, Blacks. Get on board with the idea that White fragility is the most important thing. More important than you speaking your own natural dialect, for sure.
Since you’ve already concluded that it’s BS, what do you think the answer is? You think black people are just being self-hating? That strikes you as more logical than “nigga” not meaning the same thing as “nigger”?
Because while I am not a regular user of “nigga” (a part from singing along to hip hop), it really isn’t the same thing as “nigger”. To wit, I have never heard “nigga” used as an adjective. I have heard “nigger” used in that fashion, though. I have never heard someone say “You’re acting like a nigga.” I have heard “nigger” used like this. “Nigga” isn’t equated with “bad person” or “inferior person” like “nigger” is. It is commonly used as a general noun. Instead of saying something like “dudes” or “guys”, a person might elect to say “niggas”. Instead of saying “man” or “bro” (as in, “Are you serious right now, bro?!”), a person might elect to say “Nigga, you can’t be serious right now!”) Your ear might not discern a difference between “nigger” and “nigga” in this context, but I’m letting you know that there is one. The folks who hear a difference are not crazy. They are not self-hating. They are just calibrated differently than you.
I just hosted one of my sisters and aunts at my house. Their stories had made cracking up, and sometimes they used “nigga” when I would have used another term. But this word choice only amplified the funny, so I didn’t care. All profane words work like this. Why do stand-up comics pepper profanity into their acts? Because colorful language is what everyday people use to communicate emotions. When I hurt myself, I don’t say “owie!” I say “SHIT!” Now, I start tuning out if someone uses “nigga” more than once in a single sentence, but Dave Chappelle uses it a lot in his routine and he’s one of my favorite comedians. That nigga always makes me laugh. It’s going to stay in the lexicon as long as it makes people laugh.
I know that political correctness is death to good comedy. But would you feel offended if Caucasian people were to laugh at Dave Chappelle’s routines or retell his jokes to their Caucasian friends?
I can understand why white folks should steer clear of the N word at all costs. I think those whites who bitch that black folks use the N word all the time and they can’t are protesting too much. It’s like they want to use the N word. And not affectionately. At all.
I’m just concerned that people are losing their livelihoods for a momentary stupid and thoughtless comment. Maybe by just trying to be funny. And that can ruin lives.
No, I wouldn’t feel offended. It’s only because he’s so popular among white people that he’s successful (and thus always on TV), so of course I’m not offended.
My boss very frequently retells moments from the Dave Chapelle show. It’s cringey as fuck because he’s a 60-something white guy who always uses the same faux “jive” accent whenever he’s impersonating a black person (including yours truly). I have never heard him use “nigga”. The cringe factor would go up to a million if he did. But I would not report him to HR because experiencing second-hand embarrassment for a tryhard is not the same thing as being offended by them.
I’m just concerned that people are losing their livelihoods for a momentary stupid and thoughtless comment
People don’t get fired for making stupid and thoughtless comments. They get fired for broadcasting them on social media. I had sympathy for the first million people who were fired for this cause. I can’t muster up any sympathy for people who still haven’t learned yet.