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A_womon
Veteran Poster
Username: A_womon
Post Number: 1672
Registered: 05-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, July 05, 2007 - 06:51 pm: | 
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We have discussed quite a few times the effect that using this word among ourselves CAN have both positive and negative affects on our communities. I'd like to know if you think-- in light of the fallout with the Imus thing,--- if using this language in writing a novel, even for the sake of "keepin' it real" should be censored, banned, or morphed into more acceptable language like Negro, brother, or sister, ect. I don't know. Negro Please! Just doesn't get it for me. But what do you think? |
Sabiana
Regular Poster
Username: Sabiana
Post Number: 136
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 06, 2007 - 05:17 am: |
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The use of the N word is not new, not even during the times of slavery, I'm sure black people used it towards each other even then.
However, I still doesn't stop me from cringing everytime its used. Nigga is just a word, but if you look at it, its a [powerful] word. It depends.
I think it should be a choice whether someone should use it or not. Around my friends I make sure they respect my wish not to use the word around me.
However, are you okay with white people using it?
Do you believe that it is actually, our word, as if black people created it?
I dunno, but I have to explain for one last time to a white person why a black person can say it and why they can't, I'm going to scream.
And also, A_woman....what if a black person calls another fellow "negrow" nigga in a hateful way? With a tone full of contempt? Should it be any differnt from a White person using it the same way?
Also, do you see anybody else (races), call themselves {chinks, etc}.
I myself can't use the word. Its a personal choice of mine.
It's sorta like a privilege, isn't it?
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A_womon
Veteran Poster
Username: A_womon
Post Number: 1675
Registered: 05-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 06, 2007 - 08:30 pm: |
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"However, are you okay with white people using it?"
No. The thing with the word nigga, it's like I guess with the clique I kicked it with in college it was just a natural thing. Nobody was really on whether or not it was right, wrong, good bad, or indiffernt. It was used as a term of endearment at times, and at others, if you heard someone called that in an angry way, you knew that most likely, someone was about to get in their ass. It's a difficult thing to explain, either you get it or you don't. And these days a lot of people don't.
"Also, do you see anybody else (races), call themselves {chinks, etc}."
Yes! All groups have names they use among each other in a joking fashion that they wouldn't allow others to call them. And I've read about it, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Irish, ITALIANS (now tell me you have never heard an Italian use the word "goomba" and other things to describe each other? Their playful negative name-calling toward one another just doesn't get the airplay that ours does. I guess for the same reasons you hear "black on black" crime, but you don't hear any other group's crimes grouped that way-as someone on the board has mentioned before- but that doesn't mean that those groups aren't committing crimes against each other, now does it?
It's a very complex issue, one that we will probably never fully understand.
"It's sorta like a privilege, isn't it?"
The simple answer is yes Sabiana, I believe it is on some level.
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A_womon
Veteran Poster
Username: A_womon
Post Number: 1676
Registered: 05-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, July 06, 2007 - 08:31 pm: |
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BTW Sabiana, thanks for your input!  |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 4831
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 07, 2007 - 10:32 am: |
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I believe in the Lennie Bruce arguement.
The more you ban the word the more it will be used, just like Victorian repression soon led to an sexual explosion.
Lennie thought that we should use the word until it lost its power.
I know I am in a minority--but there is a precedent.
The use of the word black.
There was a time when if you called an African American black he was ready to kill you.
Now we glory in it.
I am not going to hold my breath--but the word isn't going anywhere and you can't stop it and when you agonize about it you only let folks know it can hurt you. |
A_womon
Veteran Poster
Username: A_womon
Post Number: 1681
Registered: 05-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 07, 2007 - 11:22 am: |
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The more you ban the word the more it will be used
I agree Chris. But when I was reading the July issue of Ebony, they reminded me that Ebony has done just that---banned the word from usage in ANY article they publish. Although they've made an exception for an article they are running on black disrespect this month. And I don't agree with their decision to do this. |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 4836
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 07, 2007 - 11:26 am: |
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The more you ban the word the more it will be used
I agree Chris. But when I was reading the July issue of Ebony, they reminded me that Ebony has done just that---banned the word from usage in ANY article they publish. Although they've made an exception for an article they are running on black disrespect this month. And I don't agree with their decision to do this
(They can do what they want. But I am reminded of a tactic that attorneys use sometimes. They will deliberately say something that will be objected to. The objection and the ruling of the judge make it more likely that the jury remembers it) |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 9188
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, July 07, 2007 - 03:47 pm: |
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"N i g g e r" is a very empowering the word. It can make or break a person. The only word that rivals it in impact is the use of the word "boy" by a white person when referring to a black man in a face-to-face encounter. |
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