Word. I couldn’t say it any better than this.
Great Zod I hate that word. I first heard it back in '96 when one of the best people I knew, a black guy, was dating a white girl. This took place in North Carolina aka Bible Belt South. Needless to say, they didn’t stay together long. This particular fellow was already accused of being a “wigger” because he hung around the theater students who were mostly white. He ended up getting seriously drunk and died in a car accident on the interstate the next year. I can’t help but feel that the attitudes of the “wigger-callers” contributed to the general despondency that led to his death.
On a related note, I recall a long and heated argument about the difference between “nigger” and “nigga” and whether adding an “a” made it less offensive. Some people (of all races) claimed it made no difference, it was all offensive. Others claimed that the ending made the crucial difference between empowerment and insult. My favorite response: “It’s still an insult if a white person uses it.” Guess that says it all, huh?
if you ever spent a portion of your life in a predominantly black (or I suppose White if you are black) area its damn obvious that blacks and whites have a different way of socializing and acting in general.
when I moved from a mostly black area to the suburbs back in 7th grade most of the kids had zero idea what to think of me with all my weird slang and collage grade smack talkin skills. after awhile I lost most of my “black” style speach patterns and was a pretty normal “white” kid again, but I guess its something you really have to see first hand to know exists.
on the oreo side of things the “whitest” kid I ever met was a black guy named Anthony, Great guy but man was he WHITE! I found out he was adopted by a older white woman who had raised him from a very young age.
I dont think its offensive to acknowledge that someone acts “black/white” when they arent. wiggers on the other hand are just stupid kids who generally piss off blacks and whites alike because they are just trying way to hard to emulate something they just aint.
Pointless Cute-Little-Speaker story, completely out of context with the thread.
When I was a little kid (grade 6), I had to look up new articles for Niger. At this point in time I’d never heard the word “nigger” (there, full word, but quotes lessen impact ;)), and so I was just weird and used to always call it that, instead of its proper pronounciation (with a J sound, like in jug).
Interesting thread. Given the various interpretations of what I meant when I said “wigger” in the other thread, the handful of people who find its use to be offensive, the others who are still deliberating as to whether or not they find it offensive, and after watching the first two seasons of Mr. Show on DVD, from now on I shall refer to people like Pink and Vanilla Ice as “White People Co-opting Black People”.
I like that a word exists thats an insult to “that sort” of people.
my sister. middle class white girl… never a problem in her life… never had anything hurt her… or anyone do anything ever wrong happen to her.
yet… she is convinced that she is the poorest getto girl on the face of the earth… she feels that rap is speaking directly to her… that her life and the life they talk about is like DEAD ON the same
like… in her mind. not haveing her mother shell out $150 to get her tickets to some concert… is EXACTLY like liveing in poverty and opression… like rappers sing about. by extention… she claims to feel she relates to blacks better… because she goes through the same thing. because she GETS the life they live because her boyfreind cheated on her once.
I want to strangle her… sometimes… she is so freakin racist… first of all… she belives all blacks are like rappers… second of all… she feels that all the troubles they have… are on the same level of her not getting new jeans this month… I feel the klu klux klan is somewhat less offencive than her sometimes… they hate blacks… and at least thats just one level of ignorance…
she likes black people best… because of her insaine mega stereotyped idea of what its like to be black. (we live in Maine… .7% of the population is black… so they are sorta a mystical far off idea to my very stupid sister)
sigh… so yeah… wigga is a horrible word … but… I do like insulting easy life rich kids… who feel like they can feel the pain of inner city people with tragic lives… its pretty sickening
Down here in the south (or at least my little corner of it), “wigger” is always used derogatorily. I’ve heard white kids calling other white kids that, and I’ve heard black kids calling white kids that. It’s never meant in a “kidding” manner, so I would think it’s pretty much a slam, no matter who says it. I’ve seen a few fights get started because somebody called someone that name. I guess the same way a fight would be started if the rhyming n-word were hurled in someone’s general direction.
Yet, I seem to be the only one thus far that has always heard “fag hag” used as a slam, as well. When I was younger, I had tons of gay male friends that always used it to mean a woman that was too ugly or too stupid to actually find a straight man to hang on. There were many gay men that, in the bars, I actually heard making fun of “fag hags”. My best friend nearly got in a fist fight over one of those assholes calling me one one night.
In fact, even with the gay guys I am buds with nowadays, it’s still not a term of endearment. I remember reading a thread here not long ago (I forget exactly which one) that used the term “fag hag”, and about fell out! I thought, Wow…talk about being a prick…but then as I read, I realized it was not meant as a cut-down at all. It still shocked me to see it said at all, though. I couldn’t get it out of my head how I’d always heard it used.
Maybe it’s a locality thing, with a lot of words. Maybe it’s better if they’re not said at all, anywhere, but if I’m not mistaken, this world isn’t that perfect one I keep hearing about, so I don’t see that happening any time soon.
[aside]“She spoke with “black” speech patterns.”
Isn’t this kind of statement blatant stereotyping?[/aside]
You do know that the term “blacks” does include Africans who still live in Africa, not just ones who are also American, don’t you? There is not a single “black culture”. I suppose what you mean by “the girl was black” you mean she was part of what you define as “black culture”.
Just reminding you that the US isn’t the centre of the universe. 
Um, your definition of “black” isn’t MY definition of “black”. I usually don’t call Africans “black”, not any more than I would call Europeans “white”.
Many people–including myself–use “black” when referring specifically to the descendants of American-born slaves. It’s a political term more than a racial one, IMO.
Recognizing that there is a black dialect is not blatant stereotyping. Do a google search on AAVE (ebonics) and you’ll see what I’m talking about it.
I’m guess I’m trying to say that your definition of black may be different from different people, and by their definition, it may not be possible to “become black”. Maybe (like me), their definition of black would not just include American black people. I didn’t suggest you meant it in a racist way.
I googled as you suggested, and I agree there is a “black english” dialect in the American sense of the word black.
(I’m not trying to be hostile here, so if I come across that way I don’t mean to, I am honestly curious. :))
Stop it, stop it, stop it! The word nigger is NOT widely used by black people when they’re talking amongst themselves.
Well, Poster formerly known as Ottto but who is just as big of an asshole now that he’s changed his name to Brutus, I see Cervaise and JuanitaTech addressed your comments in a more civilized way than I would have if I had checked the boards this weekend.
I take it then, that even after the advice you received in these three threads (I could pick more) you are still unable to correct the cranial to ass inversion that you are suffering from.
Words have power. To deny that, as you have repeatedly (yet you also use offensive words purposely to offend), is assinine.
I will not use the n-word in it’s full form for personal reasons. And I’m 32, since you asked. You want more explanation? I grew up using the word and any other racial insult you can think of because my family actually bought into the whole “mud-people” mindset.
When I grew up and started thinking for myself, I realized how much my hate demeaned my own life instead of the people I hated. I pledged to myself that I would fight against the racism I grew up with. Part of that pledge is to eliminate the use of racial slurs from my vocabulary. Now I won’t use the word because of my pledge and because I know it offends people whom I value as friends. I prefer to live my life without needlessly offending people.
You, of course, are free to leave your head up your ass as long as you wish.
I have to confess that using dashes or asterisks to avoid spelling it out is ridiculous. I like to think that we’re all adults here who can look at unpleasantness full on without having a collective case of the vapors.
OTOH. tp say the word has no power is naive or dissembling to the extreme. The word is loaded with historical baggage that makes it a word best avoided in polite conversation.
The word can be used fairly in an academic discussion (The racial epithet, “nigger,” derives, some experts believe, from a corruption of the word, “Negro.”), or in any neutral setting, such as explanation of the abbreviation NWA. However, ignorant white boys who post threads titled, “Why Can’t I Call Black People “Nigger,” It’s not Fair That They Get To, I Wanna Call 'Em Niggers, Too!” deserve a fairly vicious back hand slap.
The word is a time bomb, walk away and leave it alone.
Well, the WORD “wigger” may be fairly new, and the current ways in which white kids try to act black may be new… but the phenomenon is decades old, now.
If you think about it, what was Elvis Presley, if not a “wigger”? He was a white man singing black music, in a black style. He dressed like the 1950s black hipsters he admired. Oh, the music was rock, rather than rap, and the clothes were tight rather than baggy, but was Elvis so different from current white kids in looking to black kids to see what was cool, and trying to emulate them?
Heck, even a generation before Elvis, couldn’t one argue that Benny Goodman was a “wigger”? Wasn’t he adopting black music and black fashions as his own? Weren’t MILLIONS of white kids doing the same, during the Jazz Age?
White kids have been taking their cues as to what’s cool from black kids for a long time. The “Wigger” phenomenon is just the latest manifestation.
Wait a minute… Pink is White???
I thought… well… I thought she was … well… Pink.
::d&r::
she isn’t gonna pull one of these ‘the Artist Formerly known as Pink’ things is she…
tAFkaP…
hey… that kinda has a ring to it…
cast that in gold and put it on a big gold chain… man that would look SNAPPY!
I actually prefer the dashes or asterisks. I want to flinch every time I see the word. Childhood trauma. I got to hear that word a lot growing up and I would be quite happy to never see or hear it again.