Why is "Nigger" such an amazingly visceral word? - or why shaming a word only makes it more powerful and the censors of it more irrelevant

TiggerNits

TiggerNits

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Had a fun conversation this morning after a black co-worker saw this bit from the Whitest Kids You Know


And he started laughing because he had seen an extremely similar situation occur personally twice, both times where it was white people (who don't even know him)getting mad at another white person on his behalf. His theory as tot he power of the word is that the black community's attempt to "take the word back" backfired in such a way that it made the word the cool kind of taboo, and uneducated and classless black kids latched on to it as an attempt to be edgy.

Then, suburban black kids latched on to the bait of having it out there to brow-beat any other race that slips up and uses it. Just look at what happened when Kendrick Lamar had a white girl on stage rapping a song with him recently. Dude probably knew what would happen, he had just set her free in a minefield and let the crowd of mostly well to do people in their 20s get off on their moral superiority fetish. It's not a word anymore, its a political nuclear device to be used by piss-ant children to assert a non-existent ethical supremacy on people who should know better than to care.

I've always felt that word, along with any other word, are just noises and characters that take no meaning outside what I'm willing to give them. While it is a word with roots in a bad place in time for the liberty of all Americans, its still just a word all the same. My coworker made a similar point when he said "I've realized the only people who've ever called me a nigger have all been people who's opinion probably has never mattered".

Also, username lol
 
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If black people don't want others to use the word then stop using it. At this point in history, it should be treated like a "past relic" and either ignored outright or just quietly corrected. Granted there are languages like spanish that use "negro" and all of that but that's not really an issue. At this point in time, blacks only weaponize it for pity bux and victimization status and then turn around and use it as a term of endearment and camaraderie.

You can't have your cake and eat it too.
 
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Oh Ok Yeah That's Cool said:
If black people don't want others to use the word then stop using it. At this point in history, it should be treated like a "past relic" and either ignored outright or just quietly corrected. Granted there are languages like spanish that use "negro" and all of that but that's not really an issue. At this point in time, blacks only weaponize it for pity bux and victimization status and then turn around and use it as a term of endearment and camaraderie.

You can't have your cake and eat it too.
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Just treat it like it was the most intimate way to refer to your best friend (like "Bro" or something), no matter who uses it. If you want racists to not use that word, invert its meaning 180 degrees.
When you treat it like the worst thing someone could ever say™, it will never go away cause it'll just be way too inviting as a taboo to ever stop being used.
 
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The whole "N-word Privileges" all non-whites seem to have as an "unwritten rule" never really made sense to me given all the hooplah and chimping out that'd occur whenever someone even uttered "nigger" in or out of earshot of a black person. It really is just a word, and words can be powerful and visceral when used correctly. However, all the pearl-clutching as to why it's a bad word and the inevitable usage from rebels (and the uneducated, sure) made it to where more and more people are becoming desensitized to it like with "fuck" and "cunt" (yeah, it's more of an American issue, but more Americans are starting to not bat an eye at it). If people were really serious about dropping the word from the language, there should've been more of an open discussion to explain why "nigger" is an awful word outside of "it's racist", and therefore have perfectly good reasons for why it needs to be phased out instead of shaming and beating someone for saying it.

It just reminds me of my sophomore year English class where before we read "Of Mice and Men", my teacher had to go out of her way to explain that given the time period it was written in, it was going to have words that "we as a society" don't deem acceptable anymore. Like was she legally obligated to have that discussion because she was reading the whole thing out loud, or was it an example of "talking down" to someone who should already know the reason? Maybe I'm just remembering it as such just because I knew at that age why that language was inappropriate and never used it, but it had always puzzled me why it is people had to be reminded and to set aside their own personal bias to read a time-period story. And to say that "society" doesn't find the word "nigger" appropriate anymore yet (mainly black) people are still saying it just came off as hypocritical, and thus a waste of time to even lecture folks on banning a word.

So while I don't think we should all just walk the streets slurring out a mantra of "nigger nigger nigger", because that's the slur usage and thus why it's considered offensive in the first place, it shouldn't be considered a crime to just say "nigger" in its proper context (archaic as it is), even if you'll only ever mainly use it in time-period movies, stage plays, what have you. Or even just to use it to differentiate between a good contributor to society and a parasitic mouth-breather. Whichever scenario works best.
 
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why is it visceral? probably because it was THE word used against african americans to dehumanise them during a period of american history that makes post jim crow look like a blink of an eye. slavery, muder, rape, lynchings words words matter. it's all over written and oral history and it is still in use so even white people can see it can be a shameful word. quite probably because of its vile nature it was reclaimed- it's hardly a unique trope. yeah it makes things complicated but if it's so hard for a person to be white and not say that word at the same time i think they have bigger problems.
 
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I'm going with OJ.
It was certainly a big deal and you were an asshole for saying it, but I don't think it became The Undisputed King Of Slurs The N Word until coverage of the OJ trial.
 
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guccigash said:
why is it visceral? probably because it was THE nigger used against niggers to dehumanise them during a period of nigger history that makes niggers look like a blink of an eye. slavery, muder, rape, lynching niggers matters. it's all over anal and oral history and it is still in use so even niggers can see it can be a shameful word. quite probably because of its nigger nature it was reclaimed- it's hardly a unique nigger. yeah it makes things complicated but if it's so hard for a nigger to be nigger and not say nigger at the same time i think they have nigger problems.
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ok nigger
 
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XYZpdq said:
I'm going with OJ.
It was certainly a big deal and you were an asshole for saying it, but I don't think it became The Undisputed King Of Slurs The N Word until coverage of the OJ trial.
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Fucking OJ. First he kills a white woman, then he makes it so we can't say nigger on TV or in any movie not written by Quentin Tarantino. Curse his black ass.

And he seemed so nice and articulate in the Naked Gun movies too. What a shame.
 
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Because you aren't allowed to say it. It's like when you were a little kid and your parents would smack you and wash your mouth out with soap if you said fuck or shit. It makes the word powerful as hell. IMO in 50 years "nigger" will replace "faggot" as a go-to insult for people. Kids raised by the internet won't be as scared of the word so will call people they don't like niggers.
 
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Personally I feel like I can say whatever the fuck I want and I'll face whatever consequences come. Just like your friend ignores those people who called him a nigger, I ignore those fags who try to correct me for calling people niggers. And faggots. Some people are just too sensitive nowadays.

In the end it's just a word people use to insult like dumbass or pussy.
 
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