N!??3R » Forum Post by ADD Girl

Because as they see it.....when a "white" person says it, it contains racial undertones. Problem is, a lot of the time they're right. And that is sad, in and of itself.

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I get the racial undertones, but what gives them the right to expect the white people to not use it if they continue to use it?

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We are all responsible for ourselves. We are to model the behavior we wish to see in others. Just because someone else does something wrong, does not mean that we should do it, too (a lesson I've learned from experience).

I find the word hateful, disrespectful, and degrading. Therefore, I do not use it. I find it equally deplorable when blacks use it, but I am not responsible for their actions. I am responsible for my own.

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I have never used the word so to speak but it just pisses me off to no end when I hear black people saying it. Just for the fact that I know that if I walked up to anyone one of them and said hey nigger how ya doing, i'd be running for my life.

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Well, take into account the black person that is throwing out the word like it's nothing. I mean, this person clearly has no respect what so ever. We all don't use the word, just the ignorant ones, but every-know-and-then that word slips out to refer to trash. No, respect, no initiative, no proper education, nothing, just plan garbage. It sounds rude and racist, but this is a black mans perpective. It makes US all look bad.

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I suspect that there may be an element here of black people reclaiming power over a word that is inextricably associated with their cultural history of discrimination.

It's a bit like the words 'dyke' and 'queer', for example - once upon a time, to hear these words spoken was a sure-fire giveaway of prejudice on the part of the speaker. Now, they are worn with some pride by some (if not all) gay women and men respectively. Even so, I'm not sure I - not being a gay person - would feel comfortable using them indiscriminately (ha ha). But neither am I in the slightest offended by them having been 'subverted' by gay groups in this way; actually, I think it's a pretty clever thing to have achieved - they've taken the sting out of these words, and claimed ownership of them into the bargain!

To use another example, just as it's one thing to hear a person in a wheelchair describe themselves as a 'spastic' or a 'cripple', it's quite another for an able-bodied person to use such terms about them. Under these circumstances, I would have to consider the able-bodied person's motives ... just as I would have to ask myself why any white person today would feel any loss at all at not feeling able to use the word 'nigger'.

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I don’t understand why black people get so upset when white people use the word “nigger” especially when I hear black people throwing the word around amongst themselves.

Do you understand the feeling of being uprooted from your surroundings like a wild animal, herded onto boats taking you to a far off land, sold on an auction block like a hunk of meat? Do you understand what it means to be kept in shackles and chains, enslaved, treated worse than the pet dog? Do you understand how it feels to be 'freed' by a government decree only to still be hated and treated not as an equal? Do you know what it means to be denied the same rights as your white neighbours? Did those things upsetyou even though you might understand it all?
Can you try to understand that certain words hurt, brings back memories of a horrible past... can you understand that it might be the reason they might get upset? Try to understand and try to show compassion... and please try not to use that word.

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'... Do you know what it means to be denied the same rights as your white neighbours?'
'There isnt an "African American" alive today that knows how it feels, either, Mano.'
The hell there isn't, LW!

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Thank you Furry.
There are scores of Black people that are very aware of their family histories as are many White people. Slavery ended just over a hundred years ago, there were still a few 'freed' slaves alive up till a few years ago. Families tell stories to their young ones... all families.

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-- mada_ecks --

You are absolutely right, in the social company that I keep I would never just outright use the word nigger. I am educated and compassionate. Looking back, it does seem to be the the kinds of people you describe tossing the word around. Thanks for your insight.

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--Manopeace--

I know my U.S. history and enjoy reading up on it, especially southern history. I don't think slavery should have ever happened, but it did. The black persons heitage includes the word nigger and although today it is used as slang as in mada_ecks post, in the past it was used to describe a black skinned person.

I will never full understand what the black slave suffered, but I have compassion. I'm not trying to take anyones heiritage away, but its time to move on, slavery has been abolished, for the most part. Black people have all the same rights as white people.

What I'm getting at, is if they want my respect, don't let me hear them using the word nigger so losely that its a term of endearment.

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--Little_Whip--

...and anyone else who may be intrested I've enclosed a link to a web site that gives the origin of the word nigger. The word if used in propper is offensive. My point here was not to offend, but to seek clarity, and express my thoghts of the subject.

Link

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Whip, My grandmother died in 1960 at the age of 95. She suffered through the pogroms in czarist Russia and told us about them, an eywitness account...
143 years ago is not ancient history, there still remains children and grandchildren of those former slaves. It is not exactly like reading about the enslavement of the Hebrews thousands of years ago, it was just a few generations away in this case.
Regardless of the years involved, we are now at a different time period, a time where we are all supposedly more enlightened. It is time to band together as a HUMAN RACE and put aside our differences and our prejudices regardless of what race we belong to. I'm sure you can agree with me there.

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What is so hard to understand that there's a difference between a member of a group using a term that refers to that group and someone not of that group using it, especially if the term is derogatory? It's a completely different context.

I'm "Italian-American." A few years ago I joked with an Italian-American singer and an Italian-American preacher that the three of us should get together a tour. "We'll call it Dego '99!" I said. HaHaHa -- laughs all around.

Cut to more recent times. A guy called the local talk radio show just to make an ethnic joke using the word "dego." I threatened the bigoted S.O.B.

I guess my take on it is: When we use the word, we are deriding the word. It's sarcasm directed at the word. When others use the word, they are deriding us.

Context is everything, and when it comes to someone not of your group using a racial slur, I don't see a lot of reason to give them the benefit of the doubt.

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Whip, My grandmother died in 1960 at the age of 95. She suffered through the pogroms in czarist Russia and told us about them, an eywitness account...
143 years ago is not ancient history, there still remains children and grandchildren of those former slaves. It is not exactly like reading about the enslavement of the Hebrews thousands of years ago, it was just a few generations away in this case.
Regardless of the years involved, we are now at a different time period, a time where we are all supposedly more enlightened. It is time to band together as a HUMAN RACE and put aside our differences and our prejudices regardless of what race we belong to. I'm sure you can agree with me there.

Okay mano, I'll give you that one. But then like LW said, there are no blacks "alive" today that actually know what slavery means. She's right. Being told a story about something is NOT the same as living it!

Furry Canary

... Do you know what it means to be denied the same rights as your white neighbours?'
'There isnt an "African American" alive today that knows how it feels, either, Mano.'
The hell there isn't, LW!

Name one! And it better be one who lived through it.

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--Gene Nash--

As an adult I can decipher the difference between the two but adults are not the only ones doing this. I hear it at my nephews elementary school on the playground. Now this is a problem, you see. Kids, white kids, come home saying that word and they should get their mouth washed out with soap, but black kids, their parents think it's OK.

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I find the term 'nigger' almost as offensive, maybe more offensive than displaying the confederate flag.

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Funny, but there's nothing about "children" in your article, only someone who has to say "niger, niger, niger" to "get it out of (her) system."

As an adult I can decipher the difference

vs.

I don’t understand why black people get so upset

but black kids, their parents think it's OK.

Sorry, you still can't decipher the difference.

there's a difference between a member of a group using a term that refers to that group and someone not of that group using it,

...and age is irrelevant (though a nice attempt to change the course of the chagrin midstream).

If you could really "decipher the difference" this article (which pops up under different user names at least once every two months) would not exist.

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I'm ashamed to admit that I have, in recent weeks, used the word. I was watching some of the looting and rioting that was going on in N.O., and it just slipped out.

I detest that it's okay for the black community to use it when they talk about each other, but it's NOT okay for everyone else to use it. It's either offensive and shouldn't be used, or it's not and everyone can use it.

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'Name one! And it better be one who lived through it.'
Rosa Parks.

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'Name one! And it better be one who lived through it.'
Rosa Parks.

WRONG! She was born in 1913! Looong after slavery was abolished! So she did NOT live through it. Want to try again? Just an FYI discrimination is different from slavery.

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'I have never used the word so to speak but it just pisses me off to no end when I hear black people saying it'.

To all those poor sensitive souls who wilt like yesterday's lettuce at even hearing black people use the word 'nigger', do you perhaps remember the Simpsons episode 'Homer Phobia', which featured John Waters? One exchange, to the best of my memory, went something like this ...
John Waters: Homer, you just hate me because I'm queer!
Homer Simpson: Hey, and that's another thing, quit saying 'queer'! That's OUR word for making fun of YOU!'

It's as simple as Gene Nash says above: 'Context is everything'.

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'WRONG! She was born in 1913! Looong after slavery was abolished! So she did NOT live through it. Want to try again? Just an FYI discrimination is different from slavery.'
Oh dear. A slow one. Suggest you go back and read the post again, drmiler. Better still, I'll save you the trouble and copy it here - from your OWN post ...

Furry Canary
... Do you know what it means to be denied the same rights as your white neighbours?'
'There isnt an "African American" alive today that knows how it feels, either, Mano.'
The hell there isn't, LW!
Name one! And it better be one who lived through it.

Yes, discrimination is different from slavery. (I never mentioned slavery.)
And the abolition of slavery is VERY different from equal rights.

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Yes, discrimination is different from slavery. (I never mentioned slavery.)

no you didn't, and it should be realised that discrimination is an evil as well.

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"Hey, honkie!"
That has racial undertones, too.

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