the "N" word

magick

thats usually how ppl on american TV put it, but do you think its too PC?
Or do u think by not saying it empowers the meaning of the word?
after all we are subject to it time and again in RAP/hip hop videos

Royale with Cheese

Most of the meaning has been sucked out of the word by hip hop music. I'd never call somebody it but have no problem using it when taking the piss out of american black culture.

projectmayhem

i think "the n word" is fine to use... if you're black. the same way i think using derogatory language with regard to being irish is fine, if you're irish.

rappers use "the n word" because they're black. eminem doesn't, because he's white. if he used "the n word" he would be crossing a racial barrier that he shouldn't be crossing, imo.

Royale with Cheese

projectmayhem wrote:

i think "the n word" is fine to use... if you're black. the same way i think using derogatory language with regard to being irish is fine, if you're irish.

rappers use "the n word" because they're black. eminem doesn't, because he's white. if he used "the n word" he would be crossing a racial barrier that he shouldn't be crossing, imo.

Double standards = bull****

RuggieBear

projectmayhem wrote:

i think "the n word" is fine to use... if you're black. the same way i think using derogatory language with regard to being irish is fine, if you're irish.

Bingo....my nigerian mates would call each other it but as soon as i called one of them it, in the same conversation, it was a big NO NO!

Pigman II

I think it's alright to say things like "working like a nígger", "drunken paddys" or "i've come over a little queer" if you come from the particular strata of society to which these words belong. It's like you are reclaiming the word back and limiting it's power as a insult.

I don't thinks ok to use them if you are not part of a particular groups but fortunately I am gay, black and Irish.

projectmayhem

Royale with Cheese wrote:

Double standards = bull****

assuming you're irish... an african man calls you a spud-eating wife beater. now to me, that's fairly insulting. it's a stereotype, one i don't adhere to... and it's coming from someone who doesn't know what it's like to be irish.

now, you call a black man (assuming you're not black here) "the n word", he'll feel the exact same way.

it's a double standard. they exist... get over it

Royale with Cheese

projectmayhem wrote:

assuming you're irish... an african man calls you a spud-eating wife beater. now to me, that's fairly insulting. it's a stereotype, one i don't adhere to... and it's coming from someone who doesn't know what it's like to be irish.

now, you call a black man (assuming you're not black here) "the n word", he'll feel the exact same way.

it's a double standard. they exist... get over it

Yeah cos I go around to all my friends saying 'what's up my spud-eating wife beater'. The use of the word as a term of endearment doesn't really bother me. It's the use of it in hip hop culture, glamourising the word. Do you really think Nigerians would go around calling each other n*gga if it wasn't for 50 cent and the likes?

projectmayhem

Royale with Cheese wrote:

Yeah cos I go around to all my friends saying 'what's up my spud-eating wife beater'. The use of the word as a term of endearment doesn't really bother me. It's the use of it in hip hop culture, glamourising the word. Do you really think Nigerians would go around calling each other n*gga if it wasn't for 50 cent and the likes?

do you really think nigerians go around calling each other n*ggah in the first place? i've never come across it tbh

Black Swan

Neo (from the Matrix)?:rolleyes:

Rb

Blue_Lagoon wrote:

Neo (from the Matrix)?:rolleyes:

Where does he come into this?

monkeyfudge

The term 'eskimo' is also supposed to be very offensive actually... not many people seem to appreciate that fact...

NoDayBut2Day

Just as long as you're referring to it in context and not calling someone that in a negative fashion, I don't see a problem with it. It is, after all, only a word. I don't prefer to say it, but that's just me.

DonkeyStyle \o/

rb_ie wrote:

Where does he come into this?

Would he have broken the vase if she hadn't said anything... that's been baking my noodle for years.

Karl Hungus

The N word? Oh, you mean NI!? :eek:

Matthewthebig

monkeyfudge wrote:

The term 'eskimo' is also supposed to be very offensive actually... not many people seem to appreciate that fact...

It means eaters of raw meat. Inuit should be used.

NoDayBut2Day

Karl Hungus wrote:

The N word? Oh, you mean NI!? :eek:

haha... I had to think about it when I first read the thread too.

super_furry

I don't think anyone should ever be called Nordies. It's not their fault after all.

\m/_(>_<)_\m/

projectmayhem wrote:

assuming you're irish... an african man calls you a spud-eating wife beater. now to me, that's fairly insulting. it's a stereotype, one i don't adhere to... and it's coming from someone who doesn't know what it's like to be irish.

now, you call a black man (assuming you're not black here) "the n word", he'll feel the exact same way.

it's a double standard. they exist... get over it

erm slight difference... the Irish equivalent is paddy, not "spud-eating wife beater"

The Sweeper

I don't think you can 'empower' a word in that way as its deliverer, only as it's recipient. It's up to you, if someonce calls you a (n)igger, to not be bothered by it.

It's also up to you to use it yourself in the appropriate context to desensitise yourself to it. It is a ridiculous double standard to decide that only certain people can jokingly use potentially offensive terms.

I believe, from what I've seen and heard and my own experience, that black British people and African Americans (to cite two massive black first world populations) are in a peculiar position. They've worked so hard to establish a cultural identity that embraces their genetic roots, their disenfranchised history and their current resounding successes that the things that are most offensive to their culture are also inherent in it - racially abusive terminology, stereotypical jokes, body image problems.

Hence it's okay if they talk about it, but it's not okay if everyone else does.

I've heard some black motivational speakers before, and one in particular sticks in my mind - he was fabulously funny, eloquent and persuasive, and suddenly he railroaded his own speech into this bollocks about having shackle marks on his wrists and ankles - "Do you know what it feels like to have the mark of the shackle on your limbs?"

No, and neither do you mate.

ferdi

projectmayhem wrote:

rappers use "the n word" because they're black. eminem doesn't, because he's white. if he used "the n word" he would be crossing a racial barrier that he shouldn't be crossing, imo.

what a horrific state of affairs we are living with.

say what you mean. mean what you say. if someone gets insulted, **** them.

Mossy Monk

i was called a Paddy over the phone at work once. then again i am sometimes called Canadian too

Sam Vimes

Karl Hungus wrote:

The N word? Oh, you mean NI!? :eek:

but what's much worse than the N word is the EEEFZ word, Eki Eki Eki Ftang Zing

Hobbes

Martin Luther King explains it best...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEuwyvYZS3I

Dragan

Actually, most of my black friends, be they American, or Irish, or imigrants from where ever or English never seem to use the word "******". It just seems to not come up in conversation, like me calling my mother a "whore". Why? Because it is a perceived insult.

To quote my mate Tom ( he's from Quebec man, and trying to understand a word that comes out of the dudes mouth is impossible, let me tell ya, fecking French-Canadians!!!! ) "People need to stop seeing black people as they are shown in rap, and on films and on tv….we're all just people man. I read Harry Potter, I eat Cornflakes. We're just people"

I don't call him a ******, he doesn’t call me cracker….because those words have a perceived insult behind them when used in the context of a white persons peaking to a black person or vice versa.

projectmayhem

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote:

Would he have broken the vase if she hadn't said anything... that's been baking my noodle for years.

no, because the oracle goes on to explain in reloaded that everything, including her, is a form of control.

/OT

Spitfire666

one point, eminem DOES yous the word nigga or n!gger or whatever wist you put on it. and using "the N word" instead of saying the word itself is no better or worse then the word itself coz you still mean the same thing. the same as the curse word f**k and people who say F off. People ARE too PC and if some black person got offended about a non black person using the word when they are ok with blacks using it screw em, not that i would use it because i think its just retarded speaking like that.

EOA_Mushy

Forget P.C. all to gether. The point was not to intentionaly insult people.
Now its is well out of hand.

N!gger is not cool due to the fact that black people were being killed while others were calling them this word.

Oriel

I like to refer to "working like a n****r".

Marksie

There was a major row between spike lee and quantin tarantino over this when the former accused the latter of using it in a derogatory fashion... to which the latter replied along the lines of..have you seen your own films.

I just wouldnt use it and I personally dont think its good to use it. But then again i dont use the "F" word either!.

As for PC well it does appear that its can be weilded these days as a tool of control.. some refer to it as the new McCarthyism. But we may let that argument bubble in another thread.

RoundyMooney

marksuttonie wrote:

...the "F" word...

[al]Frogs? That's foreign innit?[/al]

JC 2K3

Royale with Cheese wrote:

'what's up my spud-eating wife beater'.

monkeyfudge wrote:

The term 'eskimo' is also supposed to be very offensive actually... not many people seem to appreciate that fact...

This thread cracks me up

slipss

projectmayhem wrote:

i think "the n word" is fine to use... if you're black. the same way i think using derogatory language with regard to being irish is fine, if you're irish.

rappers use "the n word" because they're black. eminem doesn't, because he's white. if he used "the n word" he would be crossing a racial barrier that he shouldn't be crossing, imo.

I don't know about that, I think it's more the way ****** or paddy are used than who uses them. For instance I have been to England several times and have some English freinds and they might refer to me as a paddy sometimes but without any menace, just joking like and I would have no problem with that, but if I was to be in a argument with one of them and they were to say "fukk you you fukking paddy" I would have a problem with that and would take offense, but they wouldn't use that phrase in that fashion. Similarly I have quite a few Nigerian friends/associates here in Ireland and I would sometime use the word N igger, when talking to them, again just in a friendly messing kind of way and they don't find that particularly offensive, but If I was to say "fukk off back to your own country you stupid N igger!" I'm pretty sure I would very quickly find myself in a fight. So I think as far as most people are concerned it's more how the word is used as opposed to who is using it, or just the use of the word itself.

Caryatnid

slipss wrote:

I don't know about that, I think it's more the way ****** or paddy are used than who uses them. For instance I have been to England several times and have some English freinds and they might refer to me as a paddy sometimes but without any menace, just joking like and I would have no problem with that, but if I was to be in a argument with one of them and they were to say "fukk you you fukking paddy" I would have a problem with that and would take offense, but they wouldn't use that phrase in that fashion. Similarly I have quite a few Nigerian friends/associates here in Ireland and I would sometime use the word N igger, when talking to them, again just in a friendly messing kind of way and they don't find that particularly offensive, but If I was to say "fukk off back to your own country you stupid N igger!" I'm pretty sure I would very quickly find myself in a fight. So I think as far as most people are concerned it's more how the word is used as opposed to who is using it, or just the use of the word itself.

Well done, this is the post that needed to be said. You've posted the most intelligent answer to the OP that sums it all up.

Fighting Irish

whats the n word?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

norman

Manic Moran

I've always worked on the basis that 'offense is only to be taken when offense was intended.' We were having a bit of a dispute in the moderator's section of another, predominantly American board, the American moderators wanted to give a British poster a time-out for the casual use of the word 'Bunt' with a 'k.' The Americans couldn't comprehend that it can be used in daily conversation in the British Isles. May not be particularly polite conversation, but it isn't the mortal insult it is in the US.

Kindof like 'twat' actually.

I have two words to say.

Blazing Saddles. Find me a black man that doesn't like it. Good luck.

Speaking of which, I hear they're re-making Dambusters. Can't wait to see what the name of the dog would be. I was very pleased they left the Confederate Battle Flag on the General Lee in the Dukes of Hazzard movie. There was a lot of debate over if it would stay on, indeed Chrysler, who make the Dodge Charger, pulled from sponsoring the movie when the CBF was retained.

NTM

Jack B. Badd

Do people find "non-reflective persons" more or less offensive than "the n-word"?

racso1975

hey try being this family http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZpicZK1iG8&mode=related&search=

Patricide

I personally wouldnt call someone a N***** but it is technicly the correct term as racist as it may sound well negroid is, Then again its not like they chose that name for themselves so you can see where there coming from.

Pavees on the other hand i cant understand, they go mental when there called pavees when they chose the name themselves, i honestly never got that.

faceman

How long will it be before this thread goes out of control...

The phrase "taking the mick" was once a derogatory remark about irish people. The word sambo was once a derogatory word for black people. the real question is why are they not offensive anymore?

im_invisible

faceman wrote:

How long will it be before this thread goes out of control...

its already well outta controll, the original question was about using the phrase "N word", as opposed to nigga, rappers dont go around calling each other "the N word", they say nigga, they say what they mean and mean what they say, to quote someone...

back on topic, yeah, i think the phrase "N word" is far too pc, theres no point in using it if you dont wanna say NIGGA

Black Swan

Blue_Lagoon wrote:

Neo? (from The Matrix)

rb_ie wrote:

Where does he come into this?

Just think. Unless someone was a Smith or an agent of The Matrix, if we called people Neo's or the N-word for short, it would be a positive reference, instead of something that hurts people's feelings. And even better, we would not keep seeing a repetition of this thread theme over and over again.

MooseJam

It's not PC enough in my opinion, saying "The N word" conjures up in ones mind the offending word due to similar phonetics, it should be "the letter after M word", then there is less chance of causing offence .