MATURE DISCUSSION: The "N*****"" Word

[kwancierto de aranjuez]

I work at a high school and students of color say "niggah" to each other. I remember when I was in high school only the African-American kids were saying that.

When did it become trendy to say "niggah"? How did our kids come to use it so much.

Do most kids know its meaning? When I tell my kids not to use it, they often say, "Awwww, Mr. Aq**** (well, my real name) it's not like that!" How is it different? How did it become different?

What does black, latino, asian, white, etc America think about the current use of the word?

[manskater]

I find the term offensive. From what I've seen the younger generation seems to use it as some form of endearment with close friends. Why.... I have no idea.

[Emerald2000]

What's new to me is the fact that white kids are now using the term "niggah" in a joking manner. I don't get it either. It's an insult with years of racial inequality and hatred behind it, not a funny kind of nickname. I personally will never use the term, not even if I'm kidding around with my friends.

[Jayjen36]

Well, in my neck of the woods white kids may use the word. But they DO NOT Ever use it to refer to the black kids (face to face anyway) and rarely if ever use it around black kids. An exception might be a kid that they have known for a long time and "forget" sometimes that they're black.

I find it quite strange. White kids use the word to be "cool", to sound like the rap artists that they like. But they have to know that those same people would be horrified and remarkably offended if a white kid referred to them using it. I mean can you imagine what would happen to some white guy who walked up and called DMX "nigga"???

Very interesting subject, from one difficult discussion to another! Well, I'll be reading both!

[EigthAv]

"Ho" is another word being used often in a loose manner.Soemone needs to get the soap and do some mouth washing.

[kwancierto de aranjuez]

"b!tch" is a word I hear often as well from the guys...

[Puce]

it's not just white kids trying to use the word to be cool. black kids use it for the very same reason. they say that they CAN use it, because theya re black. so it's not offensive to them. i look at it this way: it's offensive no matter WHO uses it. it's like the word C*NT. i am a female, but if anotehr female called me a C*NT, i'd be just as offended as if a man were to call me it. n*gger/n*ggah, how ever you want to say it, is offensive and derogatory in the same way. bot are ugly words and should not be used. and should NEVER be trendy.

[EigthAv]

The "B-word" came into vogue bigtime in the 90s.It had been around for generations and in the 90s,I noticed even the girls were calling each other "b****s and hoes" My nephew,the one who is 25 and still living with me mum and me,is a rapper,among other things. Amongst his crowd,the n word,b word,h word and that dread awful mf word are part of the American language as well as popular nouns for hip hop lyrics. Progress or 1 step forward,2 steps backwards???? I never appreciated the white trash epitaph,but was a big fan of Edgar Winter and the White Trash,even knowing full well that they were exploiting the white trash legacy...........doing it to sell records and get rich.The words are harder to accept by folks of my generation or older because in our daze,"dems wuz fightin words". The infamous street poet/stand up comedian,Rudy Ray Moore could get away with any of "the words" because he always made them rhyme and he was just too cool and too funny to get mad at. He would make jokes on EVERYBODY,including hisself. A generation later,you can go mainstream with the material he was relegated to the underground with.Some of you may remember his "Dolemite"? Cool,very funny,but not something for the kiddies.

[Emerald2000]

Puce said:

"it's like the word C*NT. i am a female, but if anotehr female called me a C*NT, i'd be just as offended as if a man were to call me it. n*gger/n*ggah, how ever you want to say it, is offensive and derogatory in the same way. bot are ugly words and should not be used."

I agree. Even if some of the white kids I know used the n-word only amongst themselves, I still wouldn't like it. It's not even funny!

I think words like the n-word and the aforementioned c-word (:x ) are the most offensive because they just seem to be more personal. (This is only my opinion; others may feel differently. I don't like it when people swear too much, but I don't get really uncomfortable if people say "b*tch" or "sh*t" because they're used more often, especially with people my age.)

[EigthAv]

It's known as becoming desensitized to the words.They become such a routine part of your day until they just seem like any other words.I suppose if the whole World went naked for 5 years,we would all just take nudity for granted too.Just making primal sounds and living on base instincts.:lol Nice words,like nice clothes,were invented by people in quest of something better.Something to seperate us from dogs and apes.

[Krista]

norms are created based on a majority of that society, and it seems like the ones that are doing the badmouthing etc are always trying to influence the majority into making these things normal. so many people are afraid to speak up for fear of offending someone these days, that the little groups that are full of hatred and doing the offending, will end up winning.

[bjb22]

2005 and we're still talking about racial slurs and epitahs. It appears that we have entered a satanic milliniuem.

There is but one race...the Human race.....and all the evolutionism, creationism, revisionist biblical rhetoric and it's regionalized counterfeit philosophies and requisite xenophobia ain't never change that.

We simply must conquer the "world we cannot see" (WWIII's) and the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice to which it inflcits.

[kwancierto de aranjuez]

"Race" does exist... It exists because it is still a salient socially-constructed aspect of our lives. Just ask any person of color whether race is real.

Believe me, race is real.

But there as discussion thread already devoted to race... and privilege.

What do you say to young youth of color who say they are just taking the word and taking ownership of it to connote something endearing? Just like the word "queer." At one time, that was not a very friendly word. Now the LGBTQQ community has taken ownership of it.

Is "niggah" going down the same road as "queer?"

[EigthAv]

There is but one race...the Human race.....and all the evolutionism, creationism, revisionist biblical rhetoric and it's regionalized counterfeit philosophies and requisite xenophobia ain't never change that.<!--EZCODE BR START--><!--EZCODE BR END--><!--EZCODE BR START--><!--EZCODE BR END-->Here here! I agree with you. I also don't buy the theory that we evolved from apes.Now if you were to tell me we evolved from dogs and cats.......I might buy that one.:eek

[bjb22]

They say all Dogs go to Heaven.....

"How to enter into the Gates Of Paradise, No
How to carry a burden too heavy to be yours"

"Foot Of Pride"- Bob Dylan

[Jayjen36]

What do you say to young youth of color who say they are just taking the word and taking ownership of it to connote something endearing? Just like the word "queer." At one time, that was not a very friendly word. Now the LGBTQQ community has taken ownership of it.

Is "niggah" going down the same road as "queer?"

Off-hand I would say no. If you look at where you see the two words used and who uses them you'll see that, say an episode of Will and Grace will have many many mentions of the word "queer". There's even Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, on basic cable, but it's still there. But I cannot envision episodes of Girlfriends or The Parkers using "niggah" in the same way.

And I think that the reason for that is that there aren't large groups of gay men openly and loudly protesting the use of the word queer. There aren't endless numbers or books and interviews and movies in which gay men and women are depicted very graphically being belittled and dehumanized so horrifically, as there are with the black community with the word niggah. Not that this hasn't happened to members of the GLBT community, but it hasn't been so well documented. There aren't many "Roots" or "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" or "Blues for Mr. Charlie" for them, or if there are they aren't so well known. I think that there is just too much "shame" attached to this word for it to ever be so easily accepted by the mainstream.

Another thing is that when I think of someone using the word "niggah" in a public forum like a network sit-com, I also think of seeing people like Sydney Poitier, or Maya Angelou or Colin Powell , very highly respected African Americans condemning it. But we don't see that with the word "queer" and I don't recall there being much protest about it's growing use. What I remember most are complaints about the way gay or lesbian people were depicted on television.