The Student Room Group

The 'N Word'

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/how-should-we-use-the-n-word-8521510.html

In a new collection inspired by Stephen Lawrence, the poet Dean Atta calls on his artistic peers to stop using the 'n' word.

...The point of debate: whether the "n" word can ever be reclaimed, or if it is simply too heavily mired in a history of violence from 17th-century plantation slavery in the Americas to Stephen Lawrence's racist murder in south London in 1993 to be rehabilitated in popular Western culture.


Given how often it's used in popular culture (Django and N.W.A are cited as examples), can the 'n word' ever be reclaimed from its connotations of racial hatred? Should it be used in films, music and literature, or avoided? Will its use erode the original meaning, or promote it?

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Reply 1
I don't think it matters if people use it appropriately. Context is what matters.
Reply 2
Certainly it can in principle, but that would require us to stop using it in the ways people currently use it. Whether that is ever likely to happen is hard to tell - most words do not get reclaimed. And I'm not convinced a lot of black people would even want to 'reclaim' it.
Reply 3
Soon even just using the phrase "The N word" as a substitute for the actual word will be deemed racially offensive
Reply 4
what is happened to freedom of speech? people in west is going on about how is a western virtue but then not telling people they are aloud to saying some words?
Reply 5
Original post by Mullah.S
what is happened to freedom of speech? people in west is going on about how is a western virtue but then not telling people they are aloud to saying some words?


are you allowed to insult Islam in your country? :s-smilie:
Reply 6
NUTELLA
Reply 7
Original post by Tabzqt
are you allowed to insult Islam in your country? :s-smilie:


no but you getting away with it if revolutionary guards are not hearing it. but in west there is no revolutionary guard for using certain words, for this example.

also unless you are not understanding the word western, is meaning not my country.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 8
Original post by Mullah.S
no but you getting away with it if revolutionary guards are not hearing it. but in west there is no revolutionary guard for using certain words, for this example.


and that's a bad thing?
Reply 9
Original post by miser
Certainly it can in principle, but that would require us to stop using it in the ways people currently use it. Whether that is ever likely to happen is hard to tell - most words do not get reclaimed. And I'm not convinced a lot of black people would even want to 'reclaim' it.


A possible example of such a reclaiming that is given in the article is 'queer', and I can kind of see where they're coming from; it does seem to have lost its negative connotations to an extent. I agree with your second point as well, as do the interestingly named Black Institute, apparently.
Reply 10
Either acceptable for everyone to use or nobody if you want to remove the negative connotations associated with it - that includes blacks: don't get offended if you use an offensive word all the time.
Reply 11
Just saying but its use in Django was meant to be offensive and all wasnt it?
Either way ive never seen a problem with negro, paki etc. the first being simply a colour description like calling me white the fact people get offended by it is quite amusing, especially given that the continentals seem to use it quite happily as a descriptive whilst if you say it back here god help you... paki same sort of thing its simply a shortened version of pakistani like calling a british person - brit, australian - aussie, american - yank etc. none of these people get offended do they?
Original post by cl_steele
Just saying but its use in Django was meant to be offensive and all wasnt it?
Either way ive never seen a problem with negro, paki etc. the first being simply a colour description like calling me white the fact people get offended by it is quite amusing, especially given that the continentals seem to use it quite happily as a descriptive whilst if you say it back here god help you... paki same sort of thing its simply a shortened version of pakistani like calling a british person - brit, australian - aussie, american - yank etc. none of these people get offended do they?


I have to disagree. The word Paki Is often used as a derogatary term, whereas Brit and Aussia aren't, so we aren't going to be offended, but they might.
Reply 13
Original post by CJG21
I have to disagree. The word Paki Is often used as a derogatary term, whereas Brit and Aussia aren't, so we aren't going to be offended, but they might.


It can be used in a derogatory way not exclusively just as any word can be...
Reply 14
I don't think so, I'd like to see it fall out of use.

I'm vehemently against any sort of word that can only be used by a certain sect of society, it's for everyone or noone.

That said, I think people give far too much power to single words.
Reply 15
It's just a word. It can be a derogatory word, a filler word, it can even be a term of endearment. ****** ****** ******. The only power words have is the power we give them. Context and inflection are much more important than the word. I can call someone a monkey with the right inflection and it can come off just as rascist as ******.

In my mind censorship is the same as prohibition and prohibition has never worked. If people make a big deal about it it will remain a big deal. Move on people, if 'white guilt' is getting to you maybe you should rage against Dubai's bustling slave trade and stop worrying about something as trivial as a word.
Original post by Kiss
Either acceptable for everyone to use or nobody if you want to remove the negative connotations associated with it - that includes blacks: don't get offended if you use an offensive word all the time.


You talk as though all black people use it. That is not true. Many people do not use the n word.
Reply 17
Original post by cl_steele
Just saying but its use in Django was meant to be offensive and all wasnt it?
Either way ive never seen a problem with negro, paki etc. the first being simply a colour description like calling me white the fact people get offended by it is quite amusing, especially given that the continentals seem to use it quite happily as a descriptive whilst if you say it back here god help you... paki same sort of thing its simply a shortened version of pakistani like calling a british person - brit, australian - aussie, american - yank etc. none of these people get offended do they?


I always thought that the problem with paki was that it is applied indiscriminately to asian people, not just pakistanis.
Reply 18
Original post by CJG21
I have to disagree. The word Paki Is often used as a derogatary term, whereas Brit and Aussia aren't, so we aren't going to be offended, but they might.


The word Paki means 'pure' in Urdu, hardly an insult.
Original post by Swanbow
The word Paki means 'pure' in Urdu, hardly an insult.


I know its not originally an insult, but in modern society it has become an insult due to the derogatory manner in which it is used.

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