The 'N word' briefly revisited

I remember this movie snood. I forgot about it. I'll have to go find it.

Dys, New age?

I'm receptive, but this particular joke/ observation strikes me as convoluted.



So, white people don't like the word because they can't use it -- does that mean they should get over it and use it?

No, because they can't -- why can't they? Because it bothers black people and is disrespectful, no?

So by being respectful and not using it -- showing their dislike of it -- they're actually just demonstrating that it rankles that they can't use it?

Circular, that.

Is there ANY room for a non-racist white person in this formulation?

Or is that the point -- that all white people are inherently racist?

Well said sozobe. Whata woman.

That said, I know that jokes aren't funny if they're watered down with "most of the time" or "SOME white people" or whatever... and I can imagine a certain kind of white guy, a comic especially, who isn't particularly enlightened or anything and wants to use the word and "can't" (would get **** for it) and is pissed off about it.

But the joke is being used as a premise for a whole thread based on it's truth, which is what I'm responding to.

I think minority comedians that take the white jokes a little too far will be looked down on soon enough.

After all without all people working together for the rights of minorities we would be nowhere or way behind. There would be no civil rights movement without white people including the rights of mexicans. When I get the chance to return the favor I will be there.

We-elll, I do think that there is an important and real purpose for minority comedians (or other kinds of artists) to take things beyond the majority culture's comfort level. I stated my objections to this particular one, but I think that a lot of what Chris Rock does there is important.

I'm not getting nutty on you sozobe. I just think out loud.

I agree with dlowan about "slut" and would add "ho" and "slag" to the list.

I have jocularly referred to friends as "floozies" and "poopsies". I think the difference is that "floozy" and "poopsie" are dated and hence somewhat eroded.

Some black comedians make some funny ass jokes about white people.

Some are terrible, just the same "any white people here?" joke over and over.

I always thought it was unfair white comedians couldn't return the favor. Until I saw an Italian guy impersonating an American ghetto brotha' walking through the jungle in Africa then getting chased by a lion. F'n hilarious.

Uh...guess you had to be there.

As far as the N word? Don't say it in front of black people, or people I'm not sure will get offended by it. Part of a joke in front of my friends? Why not.

I still think Eddie Murphy was the best, and chepelle

I have a totally different experience with the N word.
I rarely hear it coming out of anyone but young white people's mouths around here. And generally, it is said in a "what's up, nigger?" kind of way.
Very suburban-wigger usage. It's like a form of imitation.

I do get uncomfortable when I hear it sometimes though....when it is obvious it is said to put someone down.

There are some words in particular "Slut" "Dyke" "Fag" with this double-edged quality. I've been called a dyke, and it was said as a compliment. I've been called a dyke, and it was used to hurt me and make me assume an inferior position. It doesn't seem to matter whether I am actually a lesbian or not.......and the N word seems to be moving in that direction as well.

The new taboo word in my experience is FAT. lol. People almost never take that word as a joke or lightly.

"A crab is a slutt to kerve and a wrawd wight" (a perverse creature)
--John Russell's Boke of Nurture, 1460

http://www.blackpeopleloveus.com/

Who in the hell are you, gus?

It's not convoluted at all, Sozobe. I think it is plainspoken and self evident as can be. the whole thing about blacks being able to freely use the word, and whites not being able to, bothers the hell out of whites, because it is something they CANNOT do. That is a phenomenon they aren't familiar with, and they have a lot of trouble swallowing it. That's all Rock was saying. And it is not a subtle concept.

So, all white people are inherently racist?

There isn't any room for anything else, there.

Speaking for myself, what dislike I have for the word comes from what I have seen firsthand and what I have learned through various media about how it is profoundly disrespectful and hurtful to black people.

"Rankling" doesn't even start to come into it.

Not all white folks feel like that. I have no festering or suppressed need or desire to use the word.

Ditto, edgar.

I hate to tell Chris Rock, but I can say whatever the **** I choose.

Huh?

I think that is utter crap, actually.


There are millions of things I cannot do, and I am white.

As a woman, too, there are a whole passel of extra stuff I cannot do, as well....or if I do, and I get hurt, I will get blamed for it.

I can get that as a joke if it is meant as a wild exaggeration of reality, with a point, but if you are actually taking seriously the concept that whites think they can do anything, that is arrant nonsense.


I accept that racism means there is a whole category of extra things that black people "cannot", or could not, do, in predominantly white societies, but you seem to be saying something quite different.