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Why calling black people 'niggers' is not racist.

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Hatuey

Rule of Two
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Probably an anglicized version of the Portuguese/Spanish 'negro' or the French 'negre'. The word 'nigger' was used in one form or another(negroes) for more then 200 years by the government, slave owners and the white majority in America. Somewhere around the mid 1800s it began carrying a negative connotation and it was replaced by the word 'Colored'. Because of the history of the word one can not consider calling a black person a 'nigger' to be racist. Do you agree?
 
It's how slurry-ass antebellum Southerners said "negro".
"Negro", of course, = "black" in spanish (and possibly portuguese; I don't know for sure, although I know the two languages are similar) and was once the accepted term of the day for black people.

That's why it is racist.
The history of southerners and "negros" is too ugly.
 
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Yes, as 1069 said, plantation owners referred to their slaves as "niggers." This is to degrade them, so it was historically used as a racist word.
I also believed that the slaves invented the term "niggas" as a way to make fun of it.
 
Countdown to jamesrage ariving to defend the word "nigger" as legitimate free speech in 3, 2, 1...

And yes, it's unacceptable. The linguistic origin of the word may not be racist in itself, but since the days of slavery it's been used as a slur to denigarte an dehumanise black folks. It's history is too tainted for it to be considered just another racial description.

On the other hand, I do understand why black men are trying to reclaim the word, and to put some neutral/positive meaning into some of it's usage amongst themselves. They're trying to rob an ugly slur of the power it holds as a tool of hate, and I say more power to them.
 
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It doesn't matter the literal word simply originates from 'black' in Portugese, it's about what the word means and what is communicated. Now no word is racist in an appropriate context, but most of the time it's used to effectively communicate hatred, intolerance, and yes, racism.

The answer to your question is, yes, it DOES communicate racism in reallity. Whether or not is SHOULD is a different debate.
 
Its cultural history is just as important as its history of origin, if not more so. The word has dramatic social connotations, and has for at least a couple of centuries. You can say that people should hear its origin and history instead of its modern connotation what it's yelled across the street or whispered in your ear, but then you can say that for practically any word. What matters is its implications now.
 
It's how slurry-ass antebellum Southerners said "negro".
"Negro", of course, = "black" in spanish (and possibly portuguese; I don't know for sure, although I know the two languages are similar) and was once the accepted term of the day for black people.

That's why it is racist.
The history of southerners and "negros" is too ugly.
Is the history of Northern slavery and lynchings ugly, too? Or just the Southern history?
 
Is the history of Northern slavery and lynchings ugly, too? Or just the Southern history?

The history of whites and blacks in America is ugly and vicious, which is why we also no longer refer to blacks as "coloreds", "darkies", "blackamoors", or any other archaic name that we had for them, which might recall those former times, and our shameful treatment of our fellow human beings.
 
it's racist because most people use this word in a racist way

but as several posters have already said, it comes from Portuguese (Nero) or Spanish (Negro) words who don't have a racist connotation. Used in French (nègre) or in English, it is pejorative and means you're talking about an inferior population that should be enslaved.

But I'm not an expert. The only thing I know is that at certain times some words are considered as racist/unpolite...while 100 years later or earlier it may be totally different. It's just a cultural norm.
 
Probably an anglicized version of the Portuguese/Spanish 'negro' or the French 'negre'. The word 'nigger' was used in one form or another(negroes) for more then 200 years by the government, slave owners and the white majority in America. Somewhere around the mid 1800s it began carrying a negative connotation and it was replaced by the word 'Colored'. Because of the history of the word one can not consider calling a black person a 'nigger' to be racist. Do you agree?


If a word is allegedly hurtful and racist then no one would use the word. You don't see gays running around saying yo whats up my faggots or fudge packers, native Americans running around saying whats up my prairie niggers, arabs running around saying whats up my sand niggers, white people running around saying whats up my crackers,mexicans running around saying whats up my beaners or chinese people running around saying whats up my chinks to their friends. It is hypocritical for race parasites like Jessy Jackson or Al Sharpton to bitch about white people using the the word nigger when black people use it all the time.They need to shut the hell up. The oh they are just taking the power of hate out the word is a load of crap and a hypocritical excuse. If you think it is racist offensive and all kinds of other **** then not only would you not tolerate people of other races using the word, you yourself wouldn't use word yourself nor would you tolerate people in your own race using the word.
 
Countdown to jamesrage ariving to defend the word "nigger" as legitimate free speech in 3, 2, 1...

Don't liberals argue that all speech is legitimate and that our founding forefathers created the 1st amendment to defend unpopular speech?


On the other hand, I do understand why black men are trying to reclaim the word, and to put some neutral/positive meaning into some of it's usage amongst themselves.

That is a load of crap hypocrite excuse. IF you do not like the word then do not use it other words do not bitch or scream hate speech just because other people use the word.
 
The history of whites and blacks in America is ugly and vicious, which is why we also no longer refer to blacks as "coloreds", "darkies", "blackamoors", or any other archaic name that we had for them, which might recall those former times, and our shameful treatment of our fellow human beings.
Blacks and whites get along better in the South than they do in the North. We are actually friends who get mad at each other and fight and go to weddings together and baby sit for each other. A lot of yankees have never even met a black person.
 
Blacks and whites get along better in the South than they do in the North. We are actually friends who get mad at each other and fight and go to weddings together and baby sit for each other.

Yeah... that never happens up north. :roll:
 
Blacks and whites get along better in the South than they do in the North. We are actually friends who get mad at each other and fight and go to weddings together and baby sit for each other. A lot of yankees have never even met a black person.

Dude, I'm from the South.
I was born here, my family's from here, we've been here for centuries.
We owned slaves.
I know perfectly well how "blacks and whites get along in the South".
 
-- I do understand why black men are trying to reclaim the word, and to put some neutral/positive meaning into some of it's usage amongst themselves. They're trying to rob an ugly slur of the power it holds as a tool of hate, and I say more power to them.

And they're making a big mistake by doing that. All you then see is others who enjoy the idea of calling black people by that name say "see? they do it so why can't we?"
 
If a word is allegedly hurtful and racist then no one would use the word. You don't see gays running around saying yo whats up my faggots or fudge packers, native Americans running around saying whats up my prairie niggers, arabs running around saying whats up my sand niggers, white people running around saying whats up my crackers,mexicans running around saying whats up my beaners or chinese people running around saying whats up my chinks to their friends. It is hypocritical for race parasites like Jessy Jackson or Al Sharpton to bitch about white people using the the word nigger when black people use it all the time.They need to shut the hell up. The oh they are just taking the power of hate out the word is a load of crap and a hypocritical excuse. If you think it is racist offensive and all kinds of other **** then not only would you not tolerate people of other races using the word, you yourself wouldn't use word yourself nor would you tolerate people in your own race using the word.

Yeah, the gays never took an insult like "queer" and made it their own. :roll:

Countdown to jamesrage ariving to defend the word "nigger" as legitimate free speech in 3, 2, 1...

He used "Tu quoque" rather than the free speech fallacy, but you did call it.
 
... Because of the history of the word one can not consider calling a black person a 'nigger' to be racist. Do you agree?

"one can not consider calling a black person a "nigger" to be racist" ... what exactly are you asking here. Do you mean that a person who uses the word "nigger" must be racist?

I'd say so. The word is negative and based on a characteristic of a whole group and not the individual.
 
Don't liberals argue that all speech is legitimate and that our founding forefathers created the 1st amendment to defend unpopular speech?

It's not illegal to say it, it will just get your ass kicked.


That is a load of crap hypocrite excuse. IF you do not like the word then do not use it other words do not bitch or scream hate speech just because other people use the word.

No one is saying you can't use the word, they are saying it communicates racial hatred, and if said in front of the wrong people they likely issue an ass kicking. Put feel free to say it no one will arrest you.
 
It's a pejorative and derogatory term that no one should use anymore, including blacks.
 
This "name-calling" is disrespectful and stupid....should not even be discussed....
Any man of importance would never bother to stop here if he were to see this sort of silliness..
 
I call black people black. One time, a guy got offended and said he was an "African-American" so I asked when he immigrated from Africa. He just stood there and didn't know how to respond.
 
I call black people black. One time, a guy got offended and said he was an "African-American" so I asked when he immigrated from Africa. He just stood there and didn't know how to respond.

He should have responded by saying he wasn't 'black', rather 'dark brown'.

OH THAT WOULD HAVE SHOWN YOU. OH SNAP.
 
Alright, I see a lot of misconceptions in this thread.

I've seen a lot of arguments citing the fact that "black people" use the term "nigger/a", and that legitimatizes the use of the pejorative by others, particularly "white" people. Now let me help you out with this. There are a lot of theories as to why "black" people use the term "nigger/a" to refer to each other, but frankly, I believe they're all conjecture. The fact is that, after being referred to as something for long enough, it'll become a force of habit. This is similar in terms of "black" and "African-American"--us dark-skinned Americans of various origins are neither African nor black. Those that are considered black are simply a darker hue of the same brown that every human being is. The only variations that we have can be attributed to health, nutrition, and translucency of the skin giving it a pink hue as blood near the surface shows through. Granted, you don't see Asians calling each other "chink", but they already have a standardized way of referring to one another in their own language, and anyway, White people don't have a standardized way of referring to them. Although the terms "chink" and "chinaman" has been used from time to time, their history in this country is much, much shorter and their treatment, far different. The same goes for every other demographic that our humble "white" people has concocted some asinine, childish nickname for. Aside Mexican and Latino people, who I have heard refer to each other as both "nigger/a" and "beaner" from time to time. And as for you being "white"... no, you're Europeans or Americans of Colonial European/European immigrant descent. You're not "white". You're anywhere between pink and beige, and some of you are as brown as those you have these stupid little names for.

The term "nigger" is a racist term because it is a pejorative referring to someone's "race", but that's only within the scope of the "race" fallacy. The fact is that "nigger" is a culturally abusive term because it references the fact that "black" people were once slaves, as that was the most popular term to refer to them as when they were. What people need to understand is that this entire societal construct is based around ownership, whether it be of capital, land, or culture. Hence, as it was European colonialists who "acquired" this territory and introduced it into Western World society, compounding it's power and influence and resulting in the the sort of global society that we currently have (with the scales weighed in the places that they are), who determine who is and isn't a part of this society, who's to be accepted, who's to be harrassed, and who's to be ignored. The way things are right now are incidental. We are just a brief moment in a massive, incomprehensible sea of time, and during this period, it just so happens that those in the Western part of the world have the strongest empires and the most influence. It hasn't always been this way, and it won't always be. Eventually, though, those with so little resources had to figure out a way to survive, and naturally it was through exploitation (and the acquisition of a massive, richly resourceful territory like the United States).

So, really. Give me a break.
 
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