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[Beefy]

It's a stupid word and should be abolished from everyone's vocabulary. Saying only black people should be allowed to use it is insane. It's a derogatory word that should have died with slavery.

Nah, I am black and don't use it. But I get why other black dudes do, it's taking a word that was used to put us down and owning it in our own way.

 

[Sch1sm]

What about Wentworth Miller? Can he say it?🤔

But can this guys say it? I need answers

I don't know what you're getting at with this question, but I'm gonna ignore this particular name in favour of a generalized answer.

White passing (while part black) doesn't mean you're automatically unable to say the word nigga. We aren't running paper bag tests to determine eligibility to say the word (see: Logic).

It's a stupid word and should be abolished from everyone's vocabulary. Saying only black people should be allowed to use it is insane. It's a derogatory word that should have died with slavery.

Do you feel the same way about dyke, and queer? 'Cause those are words that were negative and then taken back by the LGBTQ community, and I never really see anyone telling them to discontinue its use on this forum.

What does this even mean, anyway? It's okay if everyone's allowed to use it, then it doesn't have to die? Otherwise it should have been abandoned with the abolishment of slavery? lol.

 

[SaniOYOYOY]

I kinda get the point tho of like friendly 'hello' only certain community be it race nationality etc thrown around to themself, and when outside people say this word its a no no.

I have many Indian friend and I never say their 'hello' word despite being close to them. Its literal translation is impolite

 

[Enzom21]

It's a stupid word and should be abolished from everyone's vocabulary. Saying only black people should be allowed to use it is insane. It's a derogatory word that should have died with slavery.

Whether or not black people should or shouldn't say it is a discussion that black people and only black people should have. Everyone else's opinion on the matter is irrelevant and quite unwelcome.

 

[Nepenthe]

Saying only black people should be allowed to use it is insane.

If you understand not to call your mother romantic pet names, congrats: you understand that certain words become unacceptable to use based on the context between speaker and audience, that this context can be decided on characteristics outside of our control, and thus this concept isn't actually insane. Glad we got that cleared up.

Whether or not black people should or shouldn't say it is a discussion that black people and only black people should have. Everyone else's opinion on the matter is irrelevant and quite unwelcome.

Also this.

 

[fastmower]

I'm training for work on rural Missouri. Everyday I hear terrible racist white men say the word 'nigger' very casually. It scares me and depresses me to no end.

 

[NinjaBoiX]

Whether or not black people should or shouldn't say it is a discussion that black people and only black people should have. Everyone else's opinion on the matter is irrelevant and quite unwelcome.

What? It's completely unreasonable to suggest that only black people have the right to be offended by the term.

 

[Sch1sm]

What? It's completely unreasonable to suggest that only black people have the right to be offended by the term.

I'm sorry, what? Who else should be offended?


What other race has such a negative history with the term that their being offended even matters?

 

[Beefy]

What? It's completely unreasonable to suggest that only black people have the right to be offended by the term.

That's not what he is saying

 

[Ponn]

See, this is why this topic is pointless in 2017.

Almost 5 years of Black Lives Matter. Years of seeing black folks rage via social media over being disrespected and shot dead in the streets. Years of seeing us drag celebs to the pits who didn't know their goddamn non-black ass place.

I find it hard to believe that many people in 20-hog-ass-17 are all that confused about whether or not they can say the word "nigga." They KNOW they can't say it. What they want is permission to say something that they know they can't say. But nobody here can give you that.

They want to make the conversation a joke (like you see happening in this thread), but the shit ain't funny.

So don't say nigga, or wigga, or chigga, or bligga, or any variation of the word. It's not cool, and people KNOW that.

Actually, you know what, go ahead. Say it. Say it to your heart's content. But when some black person who's had enough bullshit for one day walks up and knocks your ass across the face, don't say Royalan from NeoGAF didn't try to tell you.

They think Bish can give them a license they can print out and keep in their wallet.

 

[Enzom21]

What? It's completely unreasonable to suggest that only black people have the right to be offended by the term.

Yes I am sure a person completely divorced from the negativity of the word is quite offended.
Also, I didn't write shit about people being offended. The discussion about black people using it is only for black people to have and no one else.
You get no say in what we call each other.

This is quite amusing coming from you of all people. Still think everyone gets to say it or no one should say it?

Why are these two things mutually exclusive?

I don't really care when people say it, I really don't. It doesn't offend me. But to suggest that only one particular skin colour should be allowed to say it is ludicrous.

That's not to say I think white people should be allowed to say it, but there definelty shouldn't be this conditional usage. That's what creates the disparity.

So basically, either everyone should be cool with anyone using it, or nobody should. I know that's an incredibly niave POV, I'm not saying it's a viable option, but it's the unattainable ideal.

I thought it didn't offend you?

 

[Nepenthe]

What? It's completely unreasonable to suggest that only black people have the right to be offended by the term.

Other people can or cannot be offended by the term. But other people- especially white people- don't have a final vote concerning the word's use because, frankly, it has nothing to do with them.

 

[fastmower]

I'm sorry, what? Who else should be offended?


What other race has such a negative history with the term that their being offended even matters?

Any reasonable non racist should be offended by racial slurs being used disparagingly.

 

[Sch1sm]

Any reasonable non racist should be offended by racial slurs being used disparagingly.

Reread my last line in what you just quoted, because that's my final thought on this.

You aren't wrong, but what anyone else thinks doesn't matter to us when the debate about use of this word comes up. That's it.

 

[MechaX]

Personally, I only catch myself saying nigga around the friends I grew up with (we are all black and went to public high school). I never say it around any other friends and it would be very distressing if I heard it from any one of them. There was one dude in undergrad, had doctor parents and looked like he was straight out of the Wonder Years and shit, who liked to drop the word casually.

Needless to say that he was pretty close to getting the shit beat out of him when he dropped it on the wrong people at the wrong time.

I'm training for work on rural Missouri. Everyday I hear terrible racist white men say the word 'nigger' very casually. It scares me and depresses me to no end.

I had a probate case several years ago that involved a family from rural Missouri (and I mean rural), and a family member didn't approve of her son's interracial relationship.

She left a hot-ass mess of a voice mail, but ended it with "she's a nigger! and I don't mean that because she's Black, because I like black people, but because she's dumb!" This line of thought is hauntingly common (and still astronomically stupid reasoning) in the super rural areas.

And this is not withstanding how another attorney loved to call me "boy" when I was practicing down there a few years back, but that is neither here nor there.

 

[Mammoth Jones]

Any reasonable non racist should be offended by racial slurs being used disparagingly.

That's just it. When my boys and I call each other "nigga" we ain't using it disparagingly. Context matters. It's the equivalent of us saying "dude".

When a White guy gets mad in traffic and calls me a nigger the context, the intent of the word is completely different.

Context matters.

 

[Moosichu]

What? It's completely unreasonable to suggest that only black people have the right to be offended by the term.

The power of the word comes from how it was deliberately used as a slur against black people over many, many, many years of slavery and inequality. What about that is hard to understand? Sure, anyone can be offended by it, but you can't deny the history of the word.