Nigger is a corruption of the German word for black, just as negro is from the Spanish. Neither are objectively any better or worse than "colored" or African American. The evil is not in the words but in the meanings that have been attached to them or inferred (rightly or wrongly) by those so identified. Those meanings change, fairly rapidly, over time. However, because our common human nature is involved it will take some more time until this distraction is passed. I'm generally for leaving good literature as it was written - however, I couldn't read Chaucer in the original.
@georgeob1,
What is the German word for black ?
@georgeob1,
I did read canterbury tales, or some goodly part of them, in the original, and remember it as fun. I was probably more patient then than I am now.
I, like you, am from a church culture that put many books on the index. I've yet to read Voltaire, mainly because I don't remember to put his work on my want to read list and don't often run across it in used book stores.
The Index, and various vows we were made to take for our own purity, were the first seeds of my religion discontent.
@OmSigDAVID,
Schvartz, as I recall. My spelling in German is no better than in English, of course.
@roger,
you are correct, i'm not sure what georgeob1 is talking about
schwarz - black - der schwarze Koffer (the black suitcase)
@joefromchicago,
well that's quite a bit different from what georgeob1 was stating
@djjd62,
There are plenty of words implying "black" in German
Schwartze, (a black person), dunkel,(black as in "obscure"etc), finster,
(gloomy) neger(a corruption from other languages adopted in German) and a few others Ive forgot. Georgeob is correct that "neger" is a word adopted in german from the French/Dutch/Portugiese (not Italian cause the pejorative in Italian is the word for eggplant color like aubergine or mulignone
@farmerman,
he'd have been better to say
a word for black not
the, just for clarity sake
georgeob1 wrote:Nigger is a corruption of the German word for black
@djjd62,
a favorite german confection is - was - :
der NEGERKUSS ! ( niggerkiss - marshmellow covered by chocolate ) .
the preferred name is now : SCHOKOKUSS !
but the ZIGEUNER ( gypsy ) schnitzel is still being eaten - sometimes it's called puszta-schnitzel - but a HAMBURGER is a HAMBURGER
Thanks, Farmerman and Hamburgboy - interesting, informative, and amusing !
The reason it n*gger became a “bad” word is because of the behavior of the people it referred to.
Just as the word that replaced it, “colored”, became pejorative after it was associated with black people, and was replaced by “Negro”.
"Negro" became a “bad” word after years of news announcers saying “police are looking for two Negro males”, and was replaced by “black”, which has now starting to be bad word because of the unchangeable behavior and lifestyle of people it refers to.
"Black" in few years will be replaced with “African-American”, which will no doubt be declared “racist” itself in a few tens of years.
I think everyone should just start calling blacks like they call each other all day long
I'D DRUTHER BE A NIGGER THAN A POOR WHITE MAN.
The poor white man, the poor white man,
Livin' up north in a cold white land;
Never seen a banjo or heard a nigger band,
I druther be a nigger than a poor white man.
The poor white man, the poor white man,
Never seen a possum or a possun in the pan;
never had a chicken or a razor in his hand,
I druther be a nigger than a poor white man.
I'm an old nigger and I'll take a dram,
I druther be a nigger than a poor white man.
@djjd62,
djjd62 wrote:
well that's quite a bit different from what georgeob1 was stating
George's German
Wortschatzkentniss may be a little rusty, and his etymology is suspect, but I think his meaning was clear -- at least to those who know
a bisserl Deutsch.
@joefromchicago,
i took two years of basic german in high school (anything but the dreaded french we canadians have foisted on us), but that was well over 30 years ago
@djjd62,
ja ja - deitscher sprak , schwerer sprak
moin , moin : good morning !
hbg
"Call me Ishmael" Hmmmm. Is this going to be a book about some Islamic terrorists? How about "HI! I'm Joe."
Joe(I'm not too sure about the name Chingachgook either)Nation
It's a good thing children don't listen to rap music.
@2PacksAday,
2PacksAday wrote:It's a good thing children don't listen to rap music.
That noise is
repugnant,
but I suspect that thay do listen to it, tho its saddening.
You know, I just got the other day why black kids/people of a certain generation have taken back the n-word and defused its power over them by adopting its use- in more than a theoretical way. I experienced for the first time, what they must experience on a day to day basis.
Not that I'm saying that I LIKE it or anything, but I understand it now, because I found myself doing the same thing.
There is this guy I work with and he's Scottish and he seems to have this rabid anti-American attitude to the point that I literally can't walk in the staff room and sit down without him mentioning my nationality (American) in some derogatory fashion.
There is a woman there named Liz whom I'm good friends with and I asked her, 'Liz - what the **** is Andy's problem?'
She said, 'He likes you Rebecca - that's his way of making friends..if he were overly polite, that's when you'd know he didn't like you, to which I respond, 'Oh really - so it's something along the line of a five year old boy pulling a little girl's pigtails...well, it's not funny or endearing...'
I think she may have said something to him, because he really stepped it up the next couple of days.
One day he was asking me if I knew what Noah did with all the animal **** on the ark and I said that I didn't so then he told me that he sailed to the 49th parallel and shoveled it over the side- and that became America.
I said, 'So you're calling me a piece of **** Andy?'
And he said, 'No - not you - your country - but don't take it personally- no reflection on you....'
I started laughing and said, 'Dont' take this personally, but I LOVE your country (Scotland). No reflection on you though.'
So the next day I'm typing a comment on an inmate's file - I'd written it out first as Andy had to log me in on his account and he was going to type it for me, but he said it was too long, so he said I had to type it.
Well the whole time I'm sitting there typing it, he's saying stuff like, 'Oh ****....I should have typed it for her, it'll be full of American spellings - in other words - WRONG!!'
But then everyone was really impressed with how fast I could type without looking at the keys and someone said, 'Yeah - she's not stupid you know,' and then Andy says, 'But she is American and there's only a subtle difference between stupid and American.'
So the next day my daughter was sick and I had to leave early and he asked where I was going and I said, 'My stupid/piece of ****/American daughter is sick- I have to go home and take her to the doctor.'
He said, 'I never called your daughter stupid.'
I said, 'Yeah, but she's American and there's only a subtle difference-according to you.'
Stopped him dead in his tracks. He's not made another American crack since.
And I like rap David. Some it is very clever and creative.
'
