[split] The word 'Nigger' and other slurs

[ShaMan]

Words only have the power one gives to them.

[Cinjin]

"Words only have the power one gives to them," is something you tell a grade-schooler when one of his classmates calls him a dummy. However, when you use that tired cliche in an attempt to nullify someones racial slur, that tells me you're either an insensitive prick or unaware of your own foolish misuse of a worn out platitude.

[Belac Enrobso]

People on this forum can't help but to debate about anything, even if it does involve jokers dancing in hoolah hoops.

[Ryantology]

Yeah yunno, I don't treat any word like it's unspeakable, and even I use it jokingly, in company that I know won't be upset by it, but if a person is asking me nicely not to use it around them and they're not being provocative, isn't that just common courtesy?

[Belac Enrobso]

^debating ensuing.

[là bạn điên]

Yeah yunno, I don't treat any word like it's unspeakable, and even I use it jokingly, in company that I know won't be upset by it, but if a person is asking me nicely not to use it around them and they're not being provocative, isn't that just common courtesy?

Asking nicely is one thing. Giving orders is something else. Orders were given out by a person who had decided that as the originator of a thread she had the right to state rules (and that we had the duty to obey them).

I despise the anti free speech tendencies of the American 'progressive' (scare quotes intended) movement and the constant looking for offense in the passive/aggressive mode that is constantly demonstrated.

[Zen Badger]

Then why do black people use it all the time?

How do you know that?

Have you got any proof that shows generalization of 42 million people?

Can you show me the Book of Being Black that all Blacks must read that says "Thou shalt use the words 'Nigger', 'Nigga' and thereforth"?

No?

Then why are you whining about some straw Black?

It is intellectually sound to criticize Christians for their codified loonieness.

It is not fair to judge all Blacks for the Poor Urban Black subpopulation.

It's like claiming "Men rape" as a generalization of all men.

For shame.

Disparage criminal lauding subcultures (white, black, etc)

Unless we want to paint all Italians as Mafiosos, all Irish as inveterate Catholic, child rape abetting deunks, et al.

Quite the little rant there Moros. Do you feel better now?

But let me clarify my point. I did not say "all black people" but enough of a percentage of the ethnic grouping seem to use the word frequently enough for me to phrase my remark the way I did.

Afterall it seem you can't can't hear a black rapper sing a song these days without them using the word twenty times in the song(and I hear a lot of the music) and it is certainly a staple in most black centric movies and media.

And you can't seem to be a "gangsta" without referring to your fellow gangstas as niggaz.

And Quill even posted a vid of a black guy saying that its ok for black people to use the word but not others.

And I want to know WHY it is ok for that double standard to exist.

So you know what you can do with your deflection

[Fruity]

I don't know. I see it like this:
Two people are told true stories about their people being slaves. They were abused. They had to use the potty somewhere else because their ass was considered somehow dirtier. So these guys feel solidarity towards each other and use a word that they were called by the offenders. They shouldn't, but it's irony that makes them feel understood between themselves. Then a person who was not treated this way and who in fact resembles the offenders comes and calls them that word. It kinda sucks.

Just my random example.

Then again... I'm Mexican, so I know how it feels to be called a wetback by a non-Mexican.

[FlyingNarwhal]

Here's the thing I don't like about being "banned" from using the word nigga. The reason I'm not supposed to say the word, is because I am white. My skin color is the same as the people that were once the oppressors. And in some kind of fucked up "original sin" type shit because white people from the past were racist motherfuckers, now I'm not allowed to say the word. I was born in '91, I don't have any connection to slavery or the racists continually trying to keep black people down during the civil rights era. We don't punish the sons and daughters of murderers for the crimes their parents committed, why am I still feeling this one?

[Sejanus]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wREBD2og5iY