Video: “People Died Because Of That Word” – College Students Call Old Man A ‘N*gga’ While He Buys B

[StillFaggyAF]

@stiff African-Americans dont use nigger to refer to themselves because the root means black so the point is moot

 

[NothingButTheTruth]

First off, we (as in black people) don't need to stop saying the word around each other in general. As far as saying it around other races, that's up to you. Personally, I don't see why you would, unless you're okay with them saying it back or you like flexing on others, but do you. Everyone doesn't think and act logically and I more than understand that.

Second, it isn't too late to stop saying the word. I don't know where y'all are from, but I can go months or longer without hearing the word. There are plenty of substitutes for the word. Not to mention, most of the people in my (real) circle don't use the word (like that), and we certainly don't speak with any suspect language around our elders because we were raised not to do so.

... As far as the old man, he needs to check his tone. He had no reason to threaten the younger guys with his pistol. He should have simply said what he had to say in a stern tone, but with the intention to teach. If the younger guys didn't want to listen, he could have left it with, "well don't call me that word, because I consider it disrespectful" and went on with his day.

 

[Shizlansky]

I finally watched the video.

That old dude talking bout respect your culture but he making threats.

Talking bout he carry a gun.

If he would have got his ass whoop saying that shit. Oh Well.

He was probably acting a fool in the store prior to filming.

 

[Cunt_Lyfe]

African Americans are the only people that take a slur like nigger to describe themselves. Imo it reflects internalized racism

Not necessarily.

Like I said earlier, gays call each other faggots and dykes positively. Women refer to each others as bitches and cunts positively.

I've heard Latinos refer to themselves as Spics before.

Honestly, I haven't heard anyone argue why marginalized people don't have the right to use a word, if they know the history and want to use it amongst themselves to subvert the oppressive meaning behind it.

 

[Cunt_Lyfe]

Actually i think its def a reflection of internalized racism.

Our brothers in South Africa were called kaffirs (which has the same connotation as nigger) and they actually banned it, they never tried to identify themselves as kaffirs

South Africa:

Act No. 4 of 2000: Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act.

10. (1) Subject to the proviso in section 12. no person may publish, propagate, advocate or communicate words based on one or more of the prohibited grounds, against any person, that could reasonably be construed to demonstrate a clear intention to -

(a) be hurtful;

(b) be harmful or to incite harm;

(c) promote or propagate hatred.

Not the same bro. The South African word Kafir comes from the arabic word "Kafir" which means infidel or outsider. So when whites in South Africa called blacks "kafir" they were essentially calling them outsiders in their own homeland. A word like that could never be flipped because it represents in it's essence how white people came from Europe, took over and then pushed the native people to the bottom of society.

Like I said, nigger comes from nigre which means Black in latin. Before it was a slur it was a neutral term for Blacks. We also can't ignore connotation. The only reason "nigger" is an insult is because we're told that it is. It'd be different if Black people were walking around calling each other porch monkeys--then I'd see your point about internalized racism.

If its not internalized racism why dont other English speaking people of African descent use it to describe themselves

Like who? Black Canadians do, Caribbean people that I've met here do

Only the ones obsessed with american culture/hip hop

In the islands they dont use that to describe themselves in English speaking africa they don't use it either

What do you think the difference is?

History and difference in culture. Every English speaking country today besides America was a British colony up into the mid 20th century(with a few exceptions maybe). I could ask you the same question: If it's internalized racism then how come only American Blacks use the term? Blacks worldwide were oppressed under similar conditions. I just think American Blacks reacted differently then Blacks that were under the British sphere of influence, but I don't believe Blacks in America have lower self-esteem than Blacks elsewhere.

Every nation in the western hemisphere had slavery yet only american blacks use slurs to identify themselves. Nigger is a slur on all English speaking countries.

And honestly do believe that african -americans have more successfully internalized white supremacy than other groups due to differences in the type of slavery in america

I went to Botswana and people my age there would use nigga frequently. :-??

 

[Cunt_Lyfe]

I've said it once and I'll say it again, it's time we Black people use the word LESS. I understand the word is gonna slip out some days and maybe even a lot but we should ALL, people of all races, use the word less from this point on. I think way too many of us are overusing the word. Let's all make this effort.

The NAACP had a day a long time ago trying to ban this word and it was pointless. Nobody listened.

Honestly, I can see the point, but why keep making this a huge issue?

Why aren't we talking about racial profiling, the prison industrial complex, poverty, or gentrification with the same passion, as it has a more immediate effect on how we live and survive?

 

[Stiff]

@stiff African-Americans dont use nigger to refer to themselves because the root means black so the point is moot

@BlackJerryMaguire‌ I don't disagree with this. What I'm going against is the argument/belief that we shouldn't refer to ourselves as nigga because the term "nigger" was invented to demean us, or because it's somehow connected self-loathing or anything like that.

Like @Cunt_Lyfe‌ said there are way more pressing issues that we as people should be worried about and the "n-word debate" to me is really a non-issue and a distraction.

 

[blacktux]

Nobody died because of that word. People give that shit way too much power. It's just a word. People died because of racism, and maybe that word was in the mix, but it's silly to act like the word is a cause of racism as opposed to a result.

You're much smarter than that.

People can nosign and call what I said wack all the want, but I bet no one can launch a logical counter. The N word is just a word and that's all it is. It's only as powerful as we make it. This ain't the 50s and 60s, and even then, it wasn't the word that was hurtful, it was everything that was behind it. White people weren't stringing black people up because of the N word. That would have done that shit whether they had that or not. Again, no one died because of that word. People died because white people were racist pieces of shit, and the word is a symptom of that not a cause.

That's my stance on it. People also act like nigger was the only word people used like and words like jiggaboo, darkie, boy, coon, monkey...etc wasn't just as offensive.

Nigga is a colloquial term now, it is what it is. The constantly scrutiny ain't gonna change it, it's just a word. The apparatus now has new words for the record, they don't have to call you a nigger now they can call you a crack junkie or welfare queen, an imbecile or moron (terms they used when they ran forced sterilization on us). Folks marginalizing their own plight believing the world would be a better place if only we could get rid of the word nigger, yeah fuckin right.

Yea but black people dont call themselves or their loved ones those words with pride, there lies the problem.

 

[SneakDZA]

this guy is really in here arguing that nigger isn't an offensive word and it just means "black"?

sounds like a prime candidate for the pseudo-intellectual thread.

Not entirely. He's arguing that the word's original meaning was neutral and the derivative terms are negative mostly through context and not the word itself.

Exactly.

I think you missed my point - I was saying your whole argument is pseudo-intellectual. The etymology of the word is irrelevant and the fact that you think that "nigger" having it's root in "negro" is some kind of hidden knowledge available only to you is only more evidence of this.

Let me see how you feel if an old white man walks up to you and says "whassup, my nigga?" - you gonna be like "oh it's cool - he was smiling when he said it"? I guess also by your logic it's cool to call people darkie as long as they have dark skin?

Nah I didn't think so. You're just arguing for the sake of it which is corny.

 

[blacktux]

I've said it once and I'll say it again, it's time we Black people use the word LESS. I understand the word is gonna slip out some days and maybe even a lot but we should ALL, people of all races, use the word less from this point on. I think way too many of us are overusing the word. Let's all make this effort.

The NAACP had a day a long time ago trying to ban this word and it was pointless. Nobody listened.

Honestly, I can see the point, but why keep making this a huge issue?

Why aren't we talking about racial profiling, the prison industrial complex, poverty, or gentrification with the same passion, as it has a more immediate effect on how we live and survive?

@ bolded. Because all of those factors are influenced by outside sources, we need to get the inside correct first.

Anyone claiming to be "pro-black" yet applauds the fluent use of a destructive slave term needs to stop faking it.

You can't be "pro-black" and "pro-nigga" at the same time. You on the oppressor side and don't even know it.

 

[SneakDZA]

I've said it once and I'll say it again, it's time we Black people use the word LESS. I understand the word is gonna slip out some days and maybe even a lot but we should ALL, people of all races, use the word less from this point on. I think way too many of us are overusing the word. Let's all make this effort.

The NAACP had a day a long time ago trying to ban this word and it was pointless. Nobody listened.

Honestly, I can see the point, but why keep making this a huge issue?

Why aren't we talking about racial profiling, the prison industrial complex, poverty, or gentrification with the same passion, as it has a more immediate effect on how we live and survive?

But why are you pretending that...

a) people don't talk about these things

b) you have to choose between one or the other

3) prisons aren't full of people that society considers to be niggers

 

[jono]

Nobody died because of that word. People give that shit way too much power. It's just a word. People died because of racism, and maybe that word was in the mix, but it's silly to act like the word is a cause of racism as opposed to a result.

You're much smarter than that.

People can nosign and call what I said wack all the want, but I bet no one can launch a logical counter. The N word is just a word and that's all it is. It's only as powerful as we make it. This ain't the 50s and 60s, and even then, it wasn't the word that was hurtful, it was everything that was behind it. White people weren't stringing black people up because of the N word. That would have done that shit whether they had that or not. Again, no one died because of that word. People died because white people were racist pieces of shit, and the word is a symptom of that not a cause.

That's my stance on it. People also act like nigger was the only word people used like and words like jiggaboo, darkie, boy, coon, monkey...etc wasn't just as offensive.

Nigga is a colloquial term now, it is what it is. The constantly scrutiny ain't gonna change it, it's just a word. The apparatus now has new words for the record, they don't have to call you a nigger now they can call you a crack junkie or welfare queen, an imbecile or moron (terms they used when they ran forced sterilization on us). Folks marginalizing their own plight believing the world would be a better place if only we could get rid of the word nigger, yeah fuckin right.

Yea but black people dont call themselves or their loved ones those words with pride, there lies the problem.

There is no problem.

 

[jono]

.

 

[jono]

I've said it once and I'll say it again, it's time we Black people use the word LESS. I understand the word is gonna slip out some days and maybe even a lot but we should ALL, people of all races, use the word less from this point on. I think way too many of us are overusing the word. Let's all make this effort.

The NAACP had a day a long time ago trying to ban this word and it was pointless. Nobody listened.

Honestly, I can see the point, but why keep making this a huge issue?

Why aren't we talking about racial profiling, the prison industrial complex, poverty, or gentrification with the same passion, as it has a more immediate effect on how we live and survive?

@ bolded. Because all of those factors are influenced by outside sources, we need to get the inside correct first.

Anyone claiming to be "pro-black" yet applauds the fluent use of a destructive slave term needs to stop faking it.

You can't be "pro-black" and "pro-nigga" at the same time. You on the oppressor side and don't even know it.

Why not? Cuz you said so?

 

[StillFaggyAF]

African Americans are the only people that take a slur like nigger to describe themselves. Imo it reflects internalized racism

Not necessarily.

Like I said earlier, gays call each other faggots and dykes positively. Women refer to each others as bitches and cunts positively.

I've heard Latinos refer to themselves as Spics before.

Honestly, I haven't heard anyone argue why marginalized people don't have the right to use a word, if they know the history and want to use it amongst themselves to subvert the oppressive meaning behind it.

idk about gays but latinos use nigga more than spic, there's really no comparison in the use of nigger in the Af-Am community and any other group

the only word that comes close is "nèg" in Haiti which has the same root as nigger but is used by all Haitians

Actually i think its def a reflection of internalized racism.

Our brothers in South Africa were called kaffirs (which has the same connotation as nigger) and they actually banned it, they never tried to identify themselves as kaffirs

South Africa:

Act No. 4 of 2000: Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act.

10. (1) Subject to the proviso in section 12. no person may publish, propagate, advocate or communicate words based on one or more of the prohibited grounds, against any person, that could reasonably be construed to demonstrate a clear intention to -

(a) be hurtful;

(b) be harmful or to incite harm;

(c) promote or propagate hatred.

Not the same bro. The South African word Kafir comes from the arabic word "Kafir" which means infidel or outsider. So when whites in South Africa called blacks "kafir" they were essentially calling them outsiders in their own homeland. A word like that could never be flipped because it represents in it's essence how white people came from Europe, took over and then pushed the native people to the bottom of society.

Like I said, nigger comes from nigre which means Black in latin. Before it was a slur it was a neutral term for Blacks. We also can't ignore connotation. The only reason "nigger" is an insult is because we're told that it is. It'd be different if Black people were walking around calling each other porch monkeys--then I'd see your point about internalized racism.

If its not internalized racism why dont other English speaking people of African descent use it to describe themselves

Like who? Black Canadians do, Caribbean people that I've met here do

Only the ones obsessed with american culture/hip hop

In the islands they dont use that to describe themselves in English speaking africa they don't use it either

What do you think the difference is?

History and difference in culture. Every English speaking country today besides America was a British colony up into the mid 20th century(with a few exceptions maybe). I could ask you the same question: If it's internalized racism then how come only American Blacks use the term? Blacks worldwide were oppressed under similar conditions. I just think American Blacks reacted differently then Blacks that were under the British sphere of influence, but I don't believe Blacks in America have lower self-esteem than Blacks elsewhere.

Every nation in the western hemisphere had slavery yet only american blacks use slurs to identify themselves. Nigger is a slur on all English speaking countries.

And honestly do believe that african -americans have more successfully internalized white supremacy than other groups due to differences in the type of slavery in america

I went to Botswana and people my age there would use nigga frequently. :-??

i bet they were into American culture correct?

@stiff African-Americans dont use nigger to refer to themselves because the root means black so the point is moot

@BlackJerryMaguire‌ I don't disagree with this. What I'm going against is the argument/belief that we shouldn't refer to ourselves as nigga because the term "nigger" was invented to demean us, or because it's somehow connected self-loathing or anything like that.

Like @Cunt_Lyfe‌ said there are way more pressing issues that we as people should be worried about and the "n-word debate" to me is really a non-issue and a distraction.

I still believe its a sign of internalized racism i don't believe we should be using that to describe ourselves. It was not created as a slur you are correct but it is something we all agree is slur

 

[Cunt_Lyfe]

I've said it once and I'll say it again, it's time we Black people use the word LESS. I understand the word is gonna slip out some days and maybe even a lot but we should ALL, people of all races, use the word less from this point on. I think way too many of us are overusing the word. Let's all make this effort.

The NAACP had a day a long time ago trying to ban this word and it was pointless. Nobody listened.

Honestly, I can see the point, but why keep making this a huge issue?

Why aren't we talking about racial profiling, the prison industrial complex, poverty, or gentrification with the same passion, as it has a more immediate effect on how we live and survive?

@ bolded. Because all of those factors are influenced by outside sources, we need to get the inside correct first.

Anyone claiming to be "pro-black" yet applauds the fluent use of a destructive slave term needs to stop faking it.

You can't be "pro-black" and "pro-nigga" at the same time. You on the oppressor side and don't even know it.

Of course you can be pro-Black and still use the word nigga. Just like you can NOT use the word and don't do shit for your people at all, anyway. I fully understand the history of the word and the pain that it caused my ancestors. However, I can utilize the word to my own ability to mean something totally different in my own community. That's it.

I've said it once and I'll say it again, it's time we Black people use the word LESS. I understand the word is gonna slip out some days and maybe even a lot but we should ALL, people of all races, use the word less from this point on. I think way too many of us are overusing the word. Let's all make this effort.

The NAACP had a day a long time ago trying to ban this word and it was pointless. Nobody listened.

Honestly, I can see the point, but why keep making this a huge issue?

Why aren't we talking about racial profiling, the prison industrial complex, poverty, or gentrification with the same passion, as it has a more immediate effect on how we live and survive?

But why are you pretending that...

a) people don't talk about these things

b) you have to choose between one or the other

3) prisons aren't full of people that society considers to be niggers

I'm not pretending anything--I'd just like to see y'all discuss other issues with the same fervor. The usage of the n-word in the Black community is NOT an issue to me at all. It's nowhere near as pressing as someone Black being killed every 36 hours for looking suspicious, or the fact that more Black men will be incarcerated at higher rates due to systematic racism. When I think about the broader scope of our problems, 16 year old Black kids calling each other nigga doesn't matter to me in the slightest.

 

[blacktux]

16 year olds calling eachother niggas shows their lack of understanding of history and pride.

When i was growing up, from my grandpeople to their children...they always put hot pepper in our mouth or beat us and told us not to use that word in their house. They understood, and things were more tight knit in the community back then than they are now.

But your grandma was using the word so I can understand you being so comfortable with it.

That word is a symptom and you keep listening consequences.

 

[ineedpussy]

nice thread. i put it like this for me. i dont say nigga around other races in public. even with friends its a no nigga policy cause i dont want them getting comfortable. also if we could get niggaZ from saying nigga in all the rap music then maybe we could start the process of getting it back to where niggaZ only said that word among ourselves but that's probably a pipe dream

 

[SneakDZA]

...

I'm not pretending anything--I'd just like to see y'all discuss other issues with the same fervor. The usage of the n-word in the Black community is NOT an issue to me at all. It's nowhere near as pressing as someone Black being killed every 36 hours for looking suspicious, or the fact that more Black men will be incarcerated at higher rates due to systematic racism. When I think about the broader scope of our problems, 16 year old Black kids calling each other nigga doesn't matter to me in the slightest.

First of all all of these topics come up on this site pretty regularly. Second, you can't act like you're aware and conscious of racism and related issues but completely ignore the psychological aspect of it. If young black men are identifying themselves as the same term that racist whites created to describe them as something that is less than human how can think that isn't going to be self-destructive?

What you call "looking suspicious" a racist white would just consider a "nigger". When you say 16 year old black kids are killing each other and they call each other "nigga" guess what whites call them? When you say black men are incarcerated at higher rates due to systemic racism, a racist just thinks "there's a lot of niggers in jail."

I'm not sure how you're able to remove the word from its context so easily.

 

[Cunt_Lyfe]

16 year olds calling eachother niggas shows their lack of understanding of history and pride.

When i was growing up, from my grandpeople to their children...they always put hot pepper in our mouth or beat us and told us not to use that word in their house. They understood, and things were more tight knit in the community back then than they are now.

But your grandma was using the word so I can understand you being so comfortable with it.

That word is a symptom and you keep listening consequences.

Dawg, come on. I was reading Malcolm, Huey, Angela, and Black lit back when I was 16. And yes, I still was using the word nigga with no problems.

Oan, Granny never used it when I was growing up. Moreso in joking reference to my grandfather now that I'm older.

Honestly, you feel however you feel about it, and I respect that.

But you have to see that it's not really an issue of "people who use the word nigga are self-hating". It's not really that black and white.