The "N" Word

[fadedrose]

I never use the N word, nor did I ever, and didn't like when I heard it used.

Maybe the time has come for a drastic and courageous change in strategy. Maybe it ought to be used over and over until it loses its strength and becomes as harmless as it should be.

Trouble is, I sure can't use it. Too ugly and too potent. Only people who are empowered can change attitudes and fear.

[JustAnotherGen]

1. Only if

We can use other racial slurs, the 'r' word, nasty name calling against gays and lesbians, etc. etc.

Personally - as a little kid on the playground - one ten year old little boy who had been held back twice in particular ended up on the wrong side of my 8 year old one head shorter little girl fists . . . and he also got called the r-word by me as I watched him laying on the ground. This was - er? Maybe 1981? So personally - I think this is a bad idea.

My father's family survied the Jim Crow Regime for many years because they followed the idea of hit first, ask questions later, and since they are going to kill/lynch/burn your church anyways - might as well give them a reason to do those things to you! :-)

[Ron Green]

2. I used it as a child, as did most people around me, sometimes with rancor but

more often in a very neutral or even empathetic way.

It was part of the language where and when I was raised. It didn't have the magical powers it now seems to have, but it was far more powerful, in a different way, than anyone realized.

[MurrayDelph]

12. I used it once, as a child;

had the shit beaten out of me. Then I found out what the word was (and meant) and apologized to the other kid.

I have used it again since, but there are always quotation marks involved.

[Ron Green]

13. Then you were not raised in a segregated world

if you had the opportunity to play with a kid who'd beat you up for using that word.

In the Jim Crow South, the word had a very much deeper and larger context.

[MurrayDelph]

15. Nope

Los Angeles, in the 1960's.

[dipsydoodle]

3. New Huckleberry Finn edition will only allow black characters to use N-word

The new edited version of Mark Twain classic ‘The Adventures Huckleberry Finn’ is to remove all offensive language, but is keeping the N-word, though only when it is used by a black person.

The edit has caused a storm among fans of the book, first published in 1884, but publishers have defended the decision.

A spokesperson told us, “Use of the N-word is rather offensive in modern society, unless you’re black, so we have sought to reflect that in the new version of the book.”

“We have to be careful of modern sensibilities, and it seems clear to us editing the book so that only the black people in it should say the N-word is the right thing to do.”

http://newsthump.com/2011/01/06/new-huckleberry-finn-edition-only-allows-black-characters-to-use-n-word/

[jtown1123]

5. That is not the way I read it. I thought they removed it entirely and replaced with "slave"

I didn't hear about any exceptions when a black character used it. Nonetheless, I think removing it from Huckleberry Finn is ridiculous. We cannot pretend racism and ugly words didn't exist and were not used in everyday vernacular. Way to pass on a powerful teaching moment.

[dipsydoodle]

9. Incase you hadn't notice

that was satire. Check other articles on that link which mimics the BBC News layout.

[jobycom]

8. That's satire, and very disgusting satire at that.

That's a site for satire, or what some people think is satire. The real story is that a publisher created an edition of Huckleberry Finn that changes the N word to "slave," as an option for teachers who don't want to assign the original otherwise.

[timo]

4. ban it outright

like plastic bags and water bottles

[jobycom]

6. That's kind of why African Americans use it the way they do.

Demystifies it.

For a white person to use it, though, it just has a different connotation. The word's history makes it more than a slur. It's an assault. It's a dehumanizing word that carries the whole weight of segregation, lynchings, and all the atrocities committed by whites to keep blacks in their "place," up to and including murder with impunity. It's a horrible word with way too much power still to be used casually. In another generation, maybe, but not yet. Not close to yet.

[seabeyond]

7. sitting in store lot. truck with open windows... blasting music. nigga nigga nigga gonna fuck

your mama

white "boy" jumps out of his pick up. i am thinkin, shit.... i am going to have to have another conversation with my boys about this crap, as i look to them walking into the store. then think, no, they are 12 and 14. we have discussed it enough. they have a good handle on it and we dont need to discuss it again. i felt relief, that once again, as society shows the ugliest, my kids were past the age of confusion, when i needed to give them stuff beyond their years.

i know we like to be snarky about actually "thinking about the children". but i do. and i did when my kids were young.

thankfully.

i looked at the car next to me, wondering how they were taking the music, the repetitive words.... nigga nigga nigga gonna fuck you mama.

and i saw two young girls about 5 and 7. black. grandma that was about 150. and their mama.

and i am thinking, how do they feel sittin listen to nigga nigga nigga i am gonna fuck your mama.

that happened about a year ago. i still think about those little girls, that old lady, being forced to hear it over and over and over.

it is easy for me to say, meh.... but then i am not black.

[Speck Tater]

10. When I was young (back in the 50's) the "F-word" was ugly and potent. Today it means nothing

and has no emotional charge at all. My granddaughter and her friends can't get through a single simple sentence without injecting some form of the F-word into the sentence at least 3 or 4 times.

On the other hand, back in the 50's "retarded" was a perfectly good word that has now gone the other way and become ugly.

So there are long cycles of word usage. When one word (retarded) gets used long enough it begins to take on other connotations so it has to be replaced with a new word (developmentally disabled).

What surprises me, however, is when I see an old, presumably ugly word resurrected in a slightly different form. Back in my youth the term "colored people" was normal and acceptable. Then the acceptable term morphed and changed and was replaced time after time until the present day when I'm seeing more and more frequent use of the term "people of color". Now tell me exactly what it is that makes "people of color" OK when "colored people" is offensive.

The real solution for all of us to have respect for our fellow human beings regardless of skin pigmentation. This whole linguistic game we are playing is just ridiculous.

[mstinamotorcity]

11. Okay maybe this will help.

In my opinion the N-word is bad when it is used to demean a person. In the hood it is a form of solidity. It is used by African Americans,Latinos,Vietnamese and some young caucasians. At least where I am.

To remove offensive words from literature is censorship. The content was and always will be what the author perceived in his thought or actual life experiences. To change the story now would be to actually alter History. This would seem to me to be following along the lines of the Texas Textbooks.


Look America has a past,present and future.Our past is the things which build character. Our present is the doorway to the future. Our Future is the new beginning for the next generation. We should not hide what we were. Or what was done. This is one of the reasons most of us feel the way we do. Instead of trying to cover it up as if it did not exist, maybe this should be a chance for dialog that produces an understanding between the cultures.

[cbdo2007]

14. I can only use it when singing along to rap songs or quoting Chris Rock jokes.

[comtec]

16. In dutch there is a word "allochtoon" which is a slur against all foreigners

more to the point an allochtoon, is colloquially known to be that.
if you look it up it says foreigner
it means foreigner who is trying to live in holland.
people of color in holland are called neger...and i swear to you they say it is less offensive than calling them blacks (or zwarte mens - black people) *shrugs*

I refer to myself as Allochtoon.
I know the meaning, the slur it is meant to be, but I don't care.
I understand the black community trying to take control of the N-word.
I am allochtoon, it's who I am. And in all honesty I did feel like a second class citizen while I was there. Thats how I was treated, so it fit.

A.A's are obviously not second class citizens, but I can imagine that they feel that way.
perhaps using that word rubs salt in the wound, reminding us that they are still treated that way in many parts of the country.

oh well it's 2am. i may wake up, re-read this and wonder WTF was I thinking.

but thats my thought on it.

[Luminous Animal]

17. As if not one person in this U.S. of A. substitues n****r for the "N word".