The 'n' word - do you find it offensive?

[kall]

Of course, I am talking about the word 'nigger' or 'niggah'.

It comes from (an someone will correct me if I am wrong here) the word 'negro', which isn't offensive, it simply describes the person's race.

Personally, I don't see what the big deal is...how is it any worse than calling someone a motherfucker?

a) You nigger. - 'You person of negroid descent.'
b) You motherfucker - 'You fuck the woman who gave birth to you.'

I have (affectionately) called my friends 'my niggah' or 'nigger *insert first letter of given name here*'...they have no problems with it, even the darker-skinned ones.

By getting so worked up about it, you give the word itself power over you. If it meant as much to you as the word 'pumpkin', nobody using it against you would have any power at all.

*shakes head*

People are silly.

[Penny]

The word and the meaning itself shouldn't be offensive, but the way it was used was. It was used in past years with such racial connotations and tones that it became offensive. This would mostly be in the areas that have issues with racism. What I have noticed over the last few years is a shift to people using it in their everyday language without the connotations attached, which is turning the word back to being what it is rather than offensive.

Its the same in Australia where I have heard Aboriginal people referred to as "Those idigenous people" where indigenous just means the people that were on the land before this whities came. (OK so thats not exactly good enough definition to go in the dictionary but you get it) Anyway the sentence was said with such distaste that you could only take bad connotations from it.

[kall]

Exactly.

It's the way it is said, or the way it is put across, OR THE PERSON WHO SAYS IT.

Eg: Brotown.

If *I* had put something out there that involved a drunken unemployed samoan baring his arse at a car full of schoolkids, doing a shit on the road and laughing about it, I would most likely be lynched.

I re-iterate: People are silly.

[Penny]

I re-iterate: People are silly.

I hate to say it, not just silly but ignorant, pig headed, and just plain mean.

[kall]

Well yes...but we're not debating whether or not deliberately saying something hurtful is wrong...because it most assuredly is.

My point is on one word, and why people get worked up about it so much.

Eg: On 'Line of Fire', a white guy says something to his black wife along the lines of 'oh, dont go getting all nigger on me', and she kicks him out of their house.

He loves her deeply, and was not saying 'you filthy darkie, your people should still be out picking cotton and working for your massah!'...but that's how she took it, because of the power that one word has over people.

[Penny]

Yeah, but you can't blame the people who are getting upset over it, they aren't the ones that have used it with the wrong conotoations in the past. Yes maybe they should get over it, BUT its pretty hard to get over something sometimes when your first reaction is to get upset over it.

[kall]

This all stems from some comment someone made in my Nigerian scammers thread...they got worked up over the country name Niger.

*shakes head in bemusement*

[Penny]

This all stems from some comment someone made in my Nigerian scammers thread...they got worked up over the country name Niger.

*shakes head in bemusement*

lol... I think they were just being silly... I mean they all filled up my crap-o-meter

[Sparklechick]

Yeah, I mean, I used to get pissed off when I was called honky by the maori kids at school - they were certainly meaning it in a derogatory way, but there wasn't much I could do about it so I just acted like I didn't care. They stopped after a while because they weren't getting the reaction they were wanting.

[nih]

A nigger is a black man in chains. A nigga still has chains, but they're gold.

I take exception to being called a 'pakeha'. I'm liable to flatten anyone who calls me that. Not because it offends me, but because the only people who would use it in direct connection to me personally have probably already gotten on my bad side by being a radical pretend-maori activist.

[kall]

And because you are obviously Cuban.

[Penny]

I don't like it when people call me pakeha either, it drives me nuts. Because the way it is used has bad conotations.

I also hate having to fill in my race on forms. I'm either meant to tick "Pakeha" or "European" and I am not either of those, I'm an New Zealander, so I always tick other and write New Zealander or Kiwi depending on the form.

My Dad does the same. I know Maori people that do it too, and so its quite funny, I always wonder how they use the data and if its stuffed up by having all these different types of people put down NZer and Kiwi, I can see people just assuming they are all white people writing it down.

[nih]

Starve a cold, feed a fevah!

[Drev]

i do not find it offensive. i just dont say it out loud, because i am smart.

[NiteFenix]

Me neither. Actually the word Negro comes from the country Nigeria. The Nigerians were a rich source for the slave trade back when the US was still young, we all know the rest of the story.

[Sparklechick]

Hey!

I responded to this thread the other day and my response seems to have disappeared.

Weird

[Penny]

yeah me too Sparkly Gal... I think what happened is explained in another thread that nih started, heaps of posts went missing yesterday.

[kall]

But they should all be back now.

[Penny]

*chants* Whose the king! kalls the king! Who's the king! kalls the king... *end chant*

hehehe

[nih]

And because you are obviously Cuban.

Yeah esse, I sailed here in a buick.