Nonsense. That some random internet person might not like something doesn’t make it “controversial”. Thousands of books are published every year with diverse casts, and virtually none of them generate any real controversy for this.
Enough “random Internet people” disliking it makes it controversial regardless of whether that is logical or not.That said, I haven’t heard any complaints about it with regards to the book industry, as opposed to the film industry.
I remember the most common offensive term was N**Town. (a name for the black neighborhoods & businesses within a town)That persisted a long,long time. Well into the 1980’s.
It’s not really as applicable today. That type of racial boundary has broken down. Neighborhoods are more integrated. Some of the traditionally black areas in my city have Hispanic families. The city is more diverse today.
No, this just shows my point that the N word and its derivatives are off limits to acceptable white behavior. Even if a white person spoke fluent AAVE as you insist, perhaps by having grown up in a black household, it still would not be deemed acceptable for them to use either the “er” or “a” ending.
Our society has deemed that unacceptable behavior for a white person.
The thing is, I’m in favor of allowing people of color to continue to use the word among themselves.
That’s something that they’ve earned after all these years. For god’s sake, it’s something that bonds them together. Let them keep it for themselves. It doesn’t do anything bad to people lacking color.
This doesn’t challenge what I said. You want to hang out on the fringes, feel free. But thousands of books are published every year, with diverse protagonists, and virtually none of them face any significant backlash.
Now it has to be “significant backlash” to be “controversial”? I can think of quite a few people who are controversial without suffering significant backlash.
At least you’re no longer denying the existence of dialects.
But what you said up in the first paragraph is pretty much just a guess. Anecdotally, I’ve known of occasional but still real examples of white people who are “accepted” as a sort of culturally black person by their black community, dialect and language and all. Rare, but real.
Try reading the Huffpost article before you decide how fringy this is.
I only said “significant” to eliminate the chances of finding some random tweeter who “backlashed” against some big novel. That doesn’t matter. There will always be random tweeters opposing any and every possible example and permutation of anything. I read hundreds of books each year, usually with very diverse casts, and follow dozens of authors online, and I’m not aware of any real backlash or negative consequences by any author for simply having a protagonist from another race. If it’s happened, it’s so incredibly rare that it’s meaningless when it comes to wider culture and society.
I never denied the existence of dialects. I just deny that “er” and “a” endings for this word don’t amount to the same thing. It’s just that it’s acceptable for one race and not for another. That sounds like the essence of racism, but it’s an exception that granted because of linguistic history.
I remain unconvinced. That some weirdos occasionally criticize an author for no good reason doesn’t tell us anything except that there are weirdos out there, which we already knew.
It’s two different words, with two different meanings. Are you arguing that they’re used in the same way? They’re very clearly not – one is used as a vicious, awful slur, and one is used entirely casually, with no negative connotation. If they’re used in a different way, with different pronunciations, and different spellings, then how on earth are they the same word?
That’s because it’s a trend that’s just beginning. I hope it doesn’t continue, but we shall see.
It matters if it makes publishers get cold feet.
Horowitz was warned off by an editor, the Huffpost writer had three different agencies cite ‘appropriation’ as a reason for rejection.
Me too.
The only reason there’s a different spelling is to distinguish it from the original N word.
If you greet your brother with a “Hello stupid.”, is it the same thing as greeting a total stranger the same way? Of course, it isn’t… But we don’t see the need to spell it stoopid to distinguish it from stupid.
Because of the terrible history behind the N word, we feel the need to make the distinction. And that’s fine.
Oh no, someone said something dumb to me! It must be a trend!
I remain unconvinced that this is anything more than extremely rare. Certainly far, far more rare than writers being discriminated against for being black, or a woman, or trans, or gay, etc.
The distinction is that they’re two different words. This is one of the ways that new words come about – different dialect users begin using them differently. There’s nothing unusual about this.
And that isn’t as big a problem as poverty and health care.