The 'N' Word. Why is it SO offensive to Black People?

Some people take offense readily, some dont care. Comes down to one's prior experiences with the word, and the context within which it is being used.

During the 60s in India, amongst the "upper-poor" economic rung, mothers would insult someone's baby by calling it a "body-baby", meaning it drank milk from the source, and compliment a healthy-looking plump baby by calling it a "bottle-baby", meaning it drank formula.

Within that segment of society, the slur was meant to bring attention to the parents' poor financial condition.

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Originally Posted by Dalton

It can be an offensive word, if used at people you dont know, but among friends it used all the time...:confused:

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exactly Dalton, it is offensive to strangers; friends know who you are and what you mean

Two years back while waiting for a flight at KIX, my eldest son was walking around the lounge counting the parquet carpet squares, skip-counting by two. An older British lady said to him, "Ooh, you are a clever one, aren't you?"

He smiled, I smiled, my wife got upset.

My wife was angry because she took the "compliment" to mean that the British lady was a racist and had not expected my son (non-Caucasian) to be able to skip-count by twos.

My son had taken it as a compliment and was happy.

I had taken it as a compliment, but my happiness was replaced with the dread of having to tolerate my wife's now-angry mood for the rest of the upcoming flight.


The two lessons I learned from this experience were:
1. Some people will get offended regardless of what is said to them.
2. Marry in haste, repent at leisure.

It's all about context. You would hardly walk into a black barrister's office & expect to hear the word nigger banded about, but in a local boozer, in Hulme or Moss Side, they are all calling each-other a lot more racist things than that.

They can't have it both ways.

If they want people to stop calling them names, they have to sort their own stall out first.

Sure, I called my black American pals nigger in jest. They called me honky. But I wouldn't say it in Harlem or Watts. Mind, it's not safe for honkies to go to Watts. We've got a native American friend. We call him all kinds of names, mostly when we're playing cards and he wins.

But you have to remember that not many races of people are as racist as the blacks either.

Sorry but thats the way it is, and the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jessy Jackson ain't gonna have it no other way.

^ Yep. And you can put Desmond Tutu in there as well. I saw him at a rally in Tokyo; guess he figured there'd be no honkies there. Jerk.
I think the NAACP better change its name, too. Coloured people...

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Originally Posted by zipcode

Two years back while waiting for a flight at KIX, my eldest son was walking around the lounge counting the parquet carpet squares, skip-counting by two. An older British lady said to him, "Ooh, you are a clever one, aren't you?"

He smiled, I smiled, my wife got upset.

My wife was angry because she took the "compliment" to mean that the British lady was a racist and had not expected my son (non-Caucasian) to be able to skip-count by twos.

My son had taken it as a compliment and was happy.

I had taken it as a compliment, but my happiness was replaced with the dread of having to tolerate my wife's now-angry mood for the rest of the upcoming flight.


The two lessons I learned from this experience were:
1. Some people will get offended regardless of what is said to them.
2. Marry in haste, repent at leisure.

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It's a cultural thing, can be frustrating but little to get worked up about. ;) 'Grenjai' will prevent some natives from asking another Thai for directions or where to find specific items in a store, because if the other person does not know it might cause them to lose face. Btw I've lost my para spacing again... In Japan it's offensive to compliment your host for an excellent meal, because this implies you expected it to be anything less.

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Originally Posted by blackgang

But you have to remember that not many races of people are as racist as the blacks either.

Sorry but thats the way it is, and the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jessy Jackson ain't gonna have it no other way.

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Gotta disagree with you there. The Koreans regard evryone else with contempt. The Chinese and Japanese are incredibly racist. Many Jews are also. And frankly, scratch many a whitey and you will come to an implacable belief in their own racial and moral superiority.

I think a large part of the sensitivity for racial nicknames such as nigger is historical- after all you are dealing with a history of the slave trade, widespread discrimination, not even being citizens of the USA and so on. More recently, economic disparity and ghettoisation.

Few English people are sensitive about being called a pom by aussies. It is also interesting that a Cantonese sees nothing wrong with calling a westerner a GwaiLo (white devil) but hates being called a Chink.

Granted, there is a bit of racist in all of us, but from where I have been and the things I have seen, even including the Saudi's, I still say that the US negro is the most racist people I have ever seen, but to them it is a way to get what they want.

But they are the only ones that can riot and burn a city and loot everything in town and get away with it because a policeman arrested a black youth for breraking out windows or selling dope or pimping his girlfriend/wife/sister.

Than what you are calling racism BG I would more describe as victim mentality combined with opportunism and self serving attitudes. Yes, it is a losers philosophy but easily sold by the likes of Sharpton and Japanese nationalists- it has a populist appeal.

Actually a lot of overt racism comes from exactly this factor- historical resentment. But is this true racism or transfer of resentment? The two often coexist- one feeds the other.

The smug assumption of superiority is what I would describe as true racism, and this exists in the whites, Jews, Japs and Chinese.

Racism and prejudice are endemic on this Planet. So lets accept that simple fact and get a life!

oh, that's alright then, carry on chaps

Sure glad you feel that way, liberals generally do not as a rule.:)

Once when I was in the army and the head bottle washer for the night, I got a call about 3am from the base hospital.

It seems as though one of our brand new privates had his first night of freedom at Fort Bragg. Since he didn't drink he had instead decided to see a movie and then get a late meal at the local Burger King. After his meal he decided to call his girlfriend back in his home state of Alabama.

While in the phone booth apparently he stuck out his head and yelled at the local youths to be quite. According to the local police and the MPs, he screamed " Would you niggers shut up?" :doh:

The N word is just a means to an end.

If nobody on this planet ever uttered that word again -- ever -- there would be a "new" offensive word that's out-of-bounds within a year. Guaranteed.

After further thought, maybe it does boil down to common sense.

You'all can call me hillbilly. I will accept this term from DD, FF and maybe MtD.:)

If you other bastards refer to me as a hillbilly...

I think it best to just refer to a person by their name.

Can you guys imagine how I have suffered when I lived in N.Y. ?

Lots of N-guys called me the K-word! ;)

I once saw an upper scale black tourist nearly jump out of his skin, when exiting his posh hotel. Mind you, not the classic nigerian scammer type - just to generalize a bit - one sees down bkk's sukhumvit soi3. He was in the company of his white bint (wife?), pushing a pram with a cute coffee milk baby in it.

He was addressed by a thai with a loud shout of
"hey, hey you >> chocolate << man!!

Schadenfreude or just plain stupid innocence on somchai part? :)

If there are any niggers, yids, pakis or chinks reading this forum, we would welcome your point of view

all that have commented so far are just liberal honkies and right-wing extremists

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Originally Posted by DrAndy

If there are any niggers, yids, pakis or chinks reading this forum, we would welcome your point of view

all that have commented so far are just liberal honkies and right-wing extremists

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Well, as a Hindu, I would like to be able to start using the Swastik again...especially with Diwali this week...

But I do understand that folks in my neighbourhood might take offense at seeing colorful lanterns adorned with Swastikas...even if the people dont say or do anything, my rep will suffer

Will have to use the "Aum" symbol again...no problem:)

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Originally Posted by DrAndy

If there are any niggers, yids, pakis or chinks reading this forum, we would welcome your point of view

all that have commented so far are just liberal honkies and right-wing extremists

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What would you call yourself if I may ask ?

He's a honking liberal extremist. (Honk if you hate Bush.)

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Originally Posted by HermantheGerman

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Originally Posted by DrAndy

If there are any niggers, yids, pakis or chinks reading this forum, we would welcome your point of view

all that have commented so far are just liberal honkies and right-wing extremists

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What would you call yourself if I may ask ?

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Andy

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