The 'N word' briefly revisited

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.

So, all white people are inherently racist?

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

Let me add a few further thoughts, to clarify my point.

I think that, along with the African American community (whose ancestors were bundled up, transported and sold like so many cattle) this joke might also be resonant with Native Americans. I do find it wonderfully curious that we have all had a bit more trouble getting Rock's "joke" here than has snood, who says it "isn't subtle". Clearly for us it is and that may well be the problem of a fish trying to understand "wet".

None of us (well, except boinkers sorts) hold it as wise or balanced when the Bolton/Bush crowd attempt to bring the UN even further under the domination of one country. But what would be our response if, somehow, the Security Council was dominated by Muslims or Hindus or Buddhists or the Chinese or the Africans, etc? Would it not seem something of a dangerous or unsettling inversion of the proper hierarchy of things?

Your right dlowan. The word Ni**er does have a kind of power here. Words are concepts. No?

The word has an origin here and a history that is still very recent.

Master & slave, subhuman, Dirty, Stupid, Lazy, Genetically inferior. I can't think of any word attributed to any race in any other country that envokes as much as the word ni**er in America and it's still in use just not when the Brothers are around.

Put then I can't say i've really been around the world but I did grow up partially in black ghettos. it's a bad word.

Yes dlowan, whites to whites. It's a trendy thing, I guess, and some people think it's cool.

Most of my life has been spent in various parts of Canada, and I have heard the words "indian" and "squaw" etc. etc. used with utter hate. So, I can totally identify with the N word being powerful. I just don't have a lot of first hand experience with it.

p.s. I got the joke, I just didn't think it was that funny. Maybe 'cause it doesn't hit close enough to home for me? Dunno.
Probably that I just prefer other comediens!

But I went a bit further too, and argued that this inversion/disarming would be assisted if folks like me (white, straight, male) who shared the loathing for the earlier uses of the terms, began to use them (sparingly, pointedly) in the same ways as the minority communities were coming to use them.

There is a truth here that applies in a general way. Still, not all people are part of it.

Do you agree with this, snood?

blatham wrote:

But I went a bit further too, and argued that this inversion/disarming would be assisted if folks like me (white, straight, male) who shared the loathing for the earlier uses of the terms, began to use them (sparingly, pointedly) in the same ways as the minority communities were coming to use them.

That white people should use "nigger" (if sparingly, and pointedly) in the same ways as black people use it?

Tricky stuff. And like always, the 'appropriateness' of what comes out of my mouth is dependent upon who is standing in front of me at that moment.

some of us are just too new-agey to understand much of anything.

But I went a bit further too, and argued that this inversion/disarming would be assisted if folks like me (white, straight, male) who shared the loathing for the earlier uses of the terms, began to use them (sparingly, pointedly) in the same ways as the minority communities were coming to use them.