Using the 'N' word

Before I start this, I would just like to add that I'm not trying to be racist in ANY way. It's just something I've wondered for a while.

So, a lot of people get in so much trouble for using the 'N' word, obviously especially white people, such as Jack Maynard for example.
I'm just wondering, if it's such a horrible, offensive word, why do black people still use it? Like why is it ok for black people to joke around and use it but as soon as a white person says it, everyone gets all offended? I get that it's obviously because it's a white person saying it, but still.. Surely no one should be allowed to use it whether you're white or black??

Reply 1

AfricanMan123

5

I agree, it is just as racist to allow only my race to say one word. I don't mind who says it.

Reply 2

Anonymous #2

I embrace the words and don't give two ****s who uses it

Reply 3

username3585844

16

Original post by Anonymous

Before I start this, I would just like to add that I'm not trying to be racist in ANY way. It's just something I've wondered for a while.

So, a lot of people get in so much trouble for using the 'N' word, obviously especially white people, such as Jack Maynard for example.
I'm just wondering, if it's such a horrible, offensive word, why do black people still use it? Like why is it ok for black people to joke around and use it but as soon as a white person says it, everyone gets all offended? I get that it's obviously because it's a white person saying it, but still.. Surely no one should be allowed to use it whether you're white or black??

The word 'N**ger' means 'black'. It's a word that black people have established. I think this is why it seems socially unacceptable for white people to call black people the 'N' word. Hey, but I agree with you 100%. There's no reason why they can't use urban slang like 'homie' rather than use a word that is acceptable to be used by black people but not white people. That's just stereotypical.

Reply 4

Jimbo Jones

11

because a lot of (not all) black people are quite plainly hypocritical
they're the only race that does this and other races have more sense
for instance, do you hear about any racially chinese people calling each other "chinks"? do you hear jews calling each other "kikes" (or similar)? is that what the jews started doing post-WWII in germany and poland? do gays (I know this isn't racial) call each other "******s"? do women call each other "*****es" or "hoes"?

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 5

jambojim97

21

Original post by Anonymous

Before I start this, I would just like to add that I'm not trying to be racist in ANY way. It's just something I've wondered for a while.

So, a lot of people get in so much trouble for using the 'N' word, obviously especially white people, such as Jack Maynard for example.
I'm just wondering, if it's such a horrible, offensive word, why do black people still use it? Like why is it ok for black people to joke around and use it but as soon as a white person says it, everyone gets all offended? I get that it's obviously because it's a white person saying it, but still.. Surely no one should be allowed to use it whether you're white or black??

It is not considered offensive when Black people use the N word because they have reclaimed it and given it its own meaning when referring to each other. It therefore has a very different meaning and connotation coming out of a Black person's mouth, compared to when a White person says it.

If a White person uses it, it quite legitimately causes offence. The word was used (and still is used) to degrade and belittle Black people as less 'human' and to portray them like animals. It was coined and used by White exploiters and slavemasters, who subscribed to racist ideology.

Reply 6

PengTing69

3

'N' word was invented when the black people went through slavery. So they can use it if they want, wise up. Your ancestors weren't whipped in the back were they?

Reply 7

Jimbo Jones

11

Original post by FriendlyPenguin

Because black people didn't go around enslaving other blacks and using that word to demean them into "subhumans".

neither did I (I was born in 1993) - so I can use the word then?

(edited 6 years ago)

But they is balck??

Original post by PengTing69

'N' word was invented when the black people went through slavery. So they can use it if they want, wise up. Your ancestors weren't whipped in the back were they?

you haven't even explained why they use it though - you're just saying that they can - why though? why would they literally use the word that's drenched in racism and racial division?

Reply 10

ROBBIEROTTEN2004

7

Original post by pengting69

please keep quiet, white trash.

how dare you call jimbo "white trash", he and i fought in 'nam

Reply 11

Bored123456789

16

This is going to be an absolute mess of a thread

Reply 12

Jimbo Jones

11

Original post by PengTing69

Please keep quiet, white trash.

oh wow, you think it's okay to make fun of another person's race? so what was so wrong about the N word?

Reply 13

PengTing69

3

Original post by ROBBIEROTTEN2004

how dare you call jimbo "white trash", he and i fought in 'nam

Your ancestors whipped my ancestors.

Reply 14

TimmonaPortella

21

Original post by Anonymous

Like why is it ok for black people to joke around and use it but as soon as a white person says it, everyone gets all offended?

I find the concept of a particular 'community' 'owning' a word pretty annoying as well, and the hysteria around one word is pretty annoying, but it's not that big of a deal and it isn't worth paying the social cost to challenge the situation.

I think it's more of a big thing in the US anyway, like race 'issues' in general, and that the sensitivity some people have about it in the UK is really just imported through US media.

Reply 15

Jimbo Jones

11

Original post by PengTing69

Your ancestors whipped my ancestors.

"your great great great grand-daddy was mean to my great great great grand-daddy so I can be mean to you"
really...? are we not all individuals?

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 16

effystudies

2

As a black person, I know many black people who choose not to use that word because of the history attached to it, but on the flip side many black people do choose to use it.

Regardless, a non-black person should never use the n-word UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. Whether or not black people choose to use that word is up to black people, some choose to use it as a means to reclaim the term, but I don't think that this is a discussion that involved non-black people in any way shape or form.

Non-black people shouldn't be involved in dialogue which dictates how black people should feel about the word or the meanings they attach to it.

Some believe in reclaiming the term and others don't simply because of its history, its a very personal decision and I don't think that either decision is wrong or that a black person should be questioned or vilified about their decision.

Reply 17

Jimbo Jones

11

Original post by FriendlyPenguin

Your entire existence was built on the suffering of blacks.

that's just literally not true though, is it

Your ancestors partook in centuries of colonialism, enslavement, and genocide.

only white people? you really think that those institutions were inherently white? :lol:

you give us too much credit. and "my ancestors"? "white people" =/= "my ancestors". in that case, I'm the descendant of ****ing charlie chaplin.

You owe your comfortable life to your ancestors' atrocities, and unless you give some of it back to the descendents of those who suffered for it, you have no right to use the word.

you think I as the descendant of scots, norwegians, cornish and welsh people, for example, owe black people for my life of what has hitherto been basically an agrarian existence? :lol:

and, again: even if slavery occurred (and banned in the very early 1800s in the UK, just like in the other western european kingdoms), how are we benefitting from that in a serious way today? and do you not understand the very important fact that colonialism actually benefitted african nations? look at the difference between, say, the ivory coast (french) and liberia (not colonised), or south africa (british/dutch) and swaziland (non-colonised).

also: don't make the mistake of assuming that wealth comes from colonialism. many places in asia that were not colonised (unless you think hong kong was a british "colony" in the same case as australia as a result of the opium wars) became extremely wealthy in the 20th/21st century - why is that? are those evil chinky *******s secretly enslaving black people somewhere?

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 18

TimmonaPortella

21

Original post by FriendlyPenguin

Your entire existence was built on the suffering of blacks.

Jesus christ man.

I guess anyone who happens to have been born with black skin in the modern West inherits part ownership of that word then. Makes a ton of sense.

Reply 19

Plantagenet Crown

20

Original post by FriendlyPenguin

Because black people didn't go around enslaving other blacks and using that word to demean them into "subhumans".

For your information, many black slaves were sold to Europeans by other blacks. In any case, virtually no white person alive today has owned black slaves and no black person alive today has been enslaved so it's a total non-sequitur to suggest that historical slavery affords ownership of a word to a certain race.

Using the 'N' word

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