When I read and say nigger, I feel defective. Whites feel uncomfortable, sick, and anxious when they say it. I feel nothing. It is a word, I told my dad after he found my reading list for this class. Why should I lower my voice or be ashamed if I’m not using it derogatorily? My father sighed and tried to explain. He did not answer my question. Why?
Any word can be used in a demeaning manner. If a man shouted “Hey, woman, go back to the kitchen where you belong!” it would have the same effect as if he said lady in the place of woman. I brought this idea to one of my friends, and asked her what she thought. She echoed my thoughts. “If I sneered at someone and called them a filthy peanut butter-cracker-jack-bucket, and got others to say it to a group made of the similar people I originally harassed, it would become a slur.” It is an interesting point. Words become epithets when they are used as such. If they are used to verbally attack individuals of a specific group, the words become hateful. They pejorate, and, after decades and decades of us, are banned. Nigger has undergone the same procedure. The word derives from the Latin niger, a word that means nothing more than the color black. It was meant to describe a group of people who were different than the whites that “found” Africa. It became the slur it is today after it pejorated to be a word “used by people who are not black as a hostile term of abuse or contempt” (Oxford Dictionary). It was from that point (1775) on that nigger was a cruel word.
Nigger gets a bad rap from this pejoration. I understand that it was used to dehumanize a group of people, but so are other words. Faggot, cunt, or paddy (Irish) are words that are used negatively and yet we...
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...make you sound “cool” is the way to go about it. What would it achieve? Nothing. The word would neither pejorate nor ameliorate. I want derogatory words to retain their power or loose it and become a word of empowerment. Making it cool does not do that. Cool things fade in and out of the contemporary world. In the nineties, saying dawg was cool, and in the early two-thousands, it was cool to say sweet to mean cool. That is not necessarily the case today. Saying nigger should not make you cool. It shouldn’t make one a racist either, unless it is used to dehumanize. If we as a society want to move passed issues of race and enter a colorblind world–whatever that means–we need to say the word as a word, make it available for all groups, or eliminate the word completely, though the latter will not be beneficial in the long run, as we cannot run from our past.
“I don’t give a fuck what a nigga say,” for a word that many different things I think most people would agree that in this since nigga means a person preferably black. Nigga is a derogatory and racist word that refers to Black people. But, we, meaning Black people, still use it. We do not care, nigga flows off the tough. In using nigga we not only show disdain but become a nigga when using it and we’re ok with it. This is why I choose Katt Williams, 2006 comedy skit Pimp Chronicle Part 1. In William’s skit he use nigga some 221 times, in 45 minute, that’s about four times per minute. I could not find a better example of someone using nigga. 221 times, he must have something interesting to say if he can find 221 reason to say the word and you know what he did. I could not help but laugh it was funny, but at the end of the day I knew though it may have been funny it was still morally wrong. In Williams, he uses nigga in ways that support Black stereotypes, which make the audience laugh. There is nothing worng with that a mans
In both their essays, Naylor and Leong introduce a word that is meant to humiliate, hurt and ridicule. Naylor, being of African decent, was introduced to the word nigger at a very early age. Naylor asked her mother what the word meant, but she knew it meant something terrible. Black people raising their children in America would have to explain what nigger meant sometime in their childhood. Naylor's mom explains that the word
I have not used the N-word since February 25, 2015. Reflecting back to the first time I had ever heard that derogatory word, I distinctly remember we were living in Long Island, New York, and on this specific day my father and I, driving down a very busy street in an old pick-up truck, while turning into our local Home Depot my father made a very wide turn causing a white lady to miss her turn. She screamed out the window, "You dumb ass nigger". At that time I didn't grasp the meaning of that putrid word, but it didn’t take me much longer to realize the force and hatred behind it.
As a black American male, the word nigger conjures up within me hate, hostility, violence, oppression, and a very shameful and unfortunate part of American History. The word symbolizes the everlasting chains of a people plagued with hate and bondage simply because of skin color. For many black people, including myself, nigger is the most pejorative word in the English language. Even when compared to racial slurs like kike, honkey, cracker, wet back, spic, jungle bunny, pod, tarbaby, and white trash, nigger is noted as the worst insult in the English language. The word nigger suggests that black people are second class citizens, ignorant and less than human.
Being called by certain words just because of your gender and race is something us in our society have always done to discriminate against each other. Nowadays many have of us are discriminated for who we are but African Americans and women tend to suffer more from it. I believe that both do not receive the same amount of respect as men and other races do, and it is something that society should change because we all are equal as any other in this world. I recently read two texts from two authors who are Deborah Tannen who says women should not be called “bossy” and earn the same amount of respect when giving authority, and Langston Hughes who says that “black” is a discriminating word for the African American people. I agree to their argument
One must say to simply use freedom of speech amongst peers does not necessarily mean any harm when using the “N” in comedy sketches, stand-up, and sitcoms it have been used in the black humor many decades. The “N” has to be identified by Americans whether saying the Nigga in comedy is humor or is it been used as racist
Slaves were commonly referred to by the n-word as if that was their definition of who they were, when Rufus speaks to Dana as a child after she has saved his life he says “WORDS” (PAGE NUMBER). It’s a category and a word that means lower than white people and it is a strict enforcer of the idea that the races were not only separate, but that all of them can be defined as a single lower entity. Furthermore, Dana is referred to by other slaves as a “white nigger” (PAGE NUMBER) throughout her stay due to her education and ability to talk back to Rufus as if she were equal to him. When (NAMES) call her that,(PAGE NUMBERS) they mean it in a derogatory way and thus were enforcing the ideas of oppression, that only whites were smart and can read or write and that to be black is to be inferior. They don’t see Dana as someone to look up to, but as someone to despise for her abilities and that helped enforce oppression. The slurs and ideas had become embedded in the slaves themselves and even Dana in the end of Kindred continues these ideas when she tries to convince Alice that things aren’t that bad for her without meaning too (PAGE
The word is taught by many to be said to any slave during this time period. I thought that there were white slaves? Where they called “niggers” as well? Indeed, there were white slaves that were called “niggers” along with black slaves. Many people are unaware of this fact and only subject the term to only be meant for black people. Since this new knowledge had be brought to light, the word “nigger” consequently does not refer to just blacks but rather both blacks and whites. The term groups together any property owned during this time period that was marked as a slave. The African American slave owners during this time were not called subject to the word. This is because a “nigger” was someone of low class or even just a piece of property that could be replaced. Another misconception is that there were in fact many black slave owners as well as white slave owners. The meaning of the word is arguably the most contemptuous word in the english language. “You are a white nigger!” “You are black nigger!” These two sentences mean the exact same thing. This term, as horrible as it is, should be just as offensive to white as it is to
When it comes to the use of the “N-word”, “nigger”, most of us will readily agree that it is derived from negativity. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of is this word appropriate and should it be a part of our vocabulary today. Many feel like this word is okay to use but there are some that disagree.
There are laws that prohibit any type of segregation in the United States of America. We have in office today the very first African American president, President Barack Obama. The culture is now more politically correct on what is acceptable and what isn 't. There is a scene in the 2005 remake of The Longest Yard that includes Guard Dunham ( Stone Cold Steve Austin) and prisoner Megget (Nelly). The "N" word was used towards this prisoner a few times, but this was the only time in the movie it was used. This is obviously not okay, but compared to the 1970 's film, this was a huge change. The use of that hateful word helped the director portray the guards as villains in the film. The 2005 remake did not separate the white and black inmates in the prison like they did in the 1974 original. Although director Peter Segal did use the disrespectful word in modern day, he used it moderately. Segal did not use it so freely like the original film because today 's culture would not tolerate it. It could have jeopardized the quality of the film in the view of modern day
For instance, in the show Freaks and Geeks, we find individuals, calling themselves freaks, because they do not belong in the ‘status quo,’ and live or desire to live alternative lifestyles. Would this be disrespectful to individuals who according to 19th and 20th century lingo, were called freaks? I think it is highly disrespectful indeed, because in the show, we find these kids who are not disabled, and are all white using a term which has caused so much pain to others,used it in such a free way, to be different and alternate. It goes back to what he was saying about how individuals who identify with the pink triangle and the term freak, need to also be a witness to the pain that other individuals suffered, like the gay POC and non-disabled POC. And it is worse because these kids in no way bear any semblance with either of the categories mentioned. It’s becoming some sort of norm, in which white people of years passed create words which are meant to relegate different individuals to the outside, and then after this relegation is done, choose to use it as freely as they want. For instance the use of the word ‘nigger’, white people want to include this word in their vocabulary so bad, because slavery happened more than 300 years ago. But they forget the pain that comes with this word, but you cannot truly forget what
The word “nigger” has two main variances today, and they were both expressed beautifully by Tupac. The word carries with it a privilege also, a privilege that only certain people are allowed to use this word. And it is what African descendants call each other as a way of connecting in a brotherhood type of fashion. In areas such as “Bomton” - otherwise known as “black compton” - “brothas” can casually see each other at the convenience store and address the other as “my nigga” or “niggah” however they prefer. Now imagine the same scenario but with two Caucasian males saying the exact same. It’s weird right? That is because the word is still highly debated to the present. It is unclear whether the word should be banned from everybody’s mouth or if it should all be left to identify
Nowadays, slurs are even used in casual context such as shows, songs, rap and comedy. Normalizing these slurs is dangerous, to put it simply. It creates a barrier between speaker and the real meaning of the word, allowing them to ignore any racist or homophobic connotations it may have. In the movie, the alien eggs are referred to as 'popcorn', originally for the bursting sound they make when lit on fire. Instead of seeing this as horrifying, the term for them is almost silly, and allows the speaker to detach from the reality of
The first recorded use of the word nigger was in 1786 in a poem by Robert Burns yet variations on it including negar, neger, and niger are recorded two centuries before then.
As Kennedy explains “used by black people amongst themselves [the N word ] is a racial term with undertones and good will--reflecting a tragicomic sensibility that is aware of black history” but how could such a contradiction exist (Kennedy 5)? How could the most “noxious” of words also also be used to show comradery and brotherhood for those who have been in the struggle. “He is my nig” or “That guy is my nigga”, phrases like these are uttered by black men to each other to express their most public form of masculine endearment towards one another. Note that it is uttered between black men, to black men, and from black men; Black bodies participate and engage with the “N-word” much more differently than any other non-black person would. The word must come from colored mouths to have a “positive” significance, if I, a Mexican woman, or for instance Nate, in Bernard’s class, say it--we change the meaning entirely. As quoted by Randall Kennedy, Jarvis Deberry states, “[the n-word is ‘beautiful in its multiplicity of functions. I am not aware…of any other word capable of expressing so many contradictory emotions” and I cannot help but to agree that the “N-word” is more messy and complex then we would anticipate it to