Spinlight said:

StonedImmaculate said:

And there is a big difference between the "a"and "er" forms of the word.

No, there's no difference. It's the same ass thing. You call someone a nigger or a nigga, you say the same thing, you summon the same ghosts, and you further the strife. Keep it alive, forever, so that you never move on or rise above it.

I have the same issue with gay people who say fag and faggot. It's complete bullshit, its not empowering, and unless the word is being said in an antiseptic manner (like how Barbra and Whoopi said "nigger") it is a painful recollection of insidious abuse. There's nothing empowering about being insulted.

[Edited 10/4/11 12:34pm]

Yes and no. N***er & N***a is two totally different meanings depending on which generation of people we're talking about.

Make no mistake, N***er is a racial slur and all racial slurs are fighting words. N***er means "trash" and/or "machine"

But n***a on the other is a term of endearment among best friends & allies within a close inner circle. For example, If I and my closest friends & allies choose to greet each other in saying "what's up my n***a?", then that's on us.

[Edited 10/5/11 21:25pm]

vainandy said:

I don't think the word should be used by any race, including black people, no matter how you spell or pronounce, it still means the same damn thing. However, I see no problem with actually saying or typing the word when referring to what someone said as long as you make it clear that it is not you that is saying it but merely repeating it for the purpose of telling what someone else said. The word exists and it sounds completely stupid and childish for grown adults to either be saying or tying "N-Word". It reminds me of kids telling on other kids and saying "F-Word" in their description of what the other kids said. It just looks and sounds rediculous when adults start talking like children to describe something that's real.

When reporting hate crimes, or showing movies about slavery or segregation times, it looks totally rediculous when the word is beeped out. How the hell are you supposed to show a true depiction of how horrible those eras were without the word included in the scripts? I don't believe in sugarcoating anything and the word definately has it's place in telling history or reporting hate crimes. Can you imagine the movie "Roots" without the word? It would look totally rediculous. There is such a thing as being so politically correct that it becomes childish. The word was a hateful word in history and should be used in telling history. As for simply using it in everyday talk or in music as something that you call your friends or acquaintances, yeah, beep that shit out. But as for history and present day racism, the word exists and is a reality and people need to wake up and face reality and stop reporting it with the childish "N-Word" which looks rediculous.

Excuse for disappointing you a bit, but some grown black men and women will still say n***a among themselves. Again, it's all about context.

2elijah said:

angel345 said:

If the black community continues to use that word loosely, then others will follow suit, and think that it's ok. This is what happens when contemporary black Americans are not taught the evil connotations, and history behind that word.

No disrespect to you angel345, but I'm not buying that, because I hear and have heard other people within non-black groups, calling each other certain terms, just for the sake of it, that I know are considered, offensive racial slurs. If I said the same to them, regardless if I hear them joking with each other about it, doesn't mean I should get a pass and get away with saying it to them; nor because some in those groups use it daily, gives me a reason or pass to do it too;especially when I'm in full knowledge that 'specific' terms are offensive to others within or outside of my racial/ethnic group.

I used to hear some of my White co-workers, when I worked in the south calling each other a term, which in my opinion, is offensive/racist. Now if "I" had said what they said to one another, they would feel it differently coming from someone outside their racial/ethnic group.

It's also a lame excuse to put the blame on Blacks for the use of the term, as a reason, excuse or justification for someone else outside their group to have a pass to use it. As far as 'some' Blacks (not all within the Black community as a whole as I know the entire Black community does not use that term within their everyday language(s) or conversation(s) ) who choose to use it among themselves today, well guess what, it's 2011, and there's no reasonable excuse that can convince me that there is a 'need' to use it, as a term of endearment, just for the sake of it, amongst those one chooses to converse with, because at the end of the day, if their child called them that term with or without the 'a' at the end, it would 'sting' them hard. The dictionary is not short of words/terms to use, that one finds they have to rely on that particular term to complete a phrase, sentence or conversation or use it as a 'term of endearment'. Simply put..no excuses.

I personally blame NWA (Niggaz With Attitude). This whole thread is 1988 all over again.

[img:$uid]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d2/N.W.A.StraightOuttaComptonalbumcover.jpg[/img:$uid]

TonyVanDam said:

2elijah said:

No disrespect to you angel345, but I'm not buying that, because I hear and have heard other people within non-black groups, calling each other certain terms, just for the sake of it, that I know are considered, offensive racial slurs. If I said the same to them, regardless if I hear them joking with each other about it, doesn't mean I should get a pass and get away with saying it to them; nor because some in those groups use it daily, gives me a reason or pass to do it too;especially when I'm in full knowledge that 'specific' terms are offensive to others within or outside of my racial/ethnic group.

I used to hear some of my White co-workers, when I worked in the south calling each other a term, which in my opinion, is offensive/racist. Now if "I" had said what they said to one another, they would feel it differently coming from someone outside their racial/ethnic group.

It's also a lame excuse to put the blame on Blacks for the use of the term, as a reason, excuse or justification for someone else outside their group to have a pass to use it. As far as 'some' Blacks (not all within the Black community as a whole as I know the entire Black community does not use that term within their everyday language(s) or conversation(s) ) who choose to use it among themselves today, well guess what, it's 2011, and there's no reasonable excuse that can convince me that there is a 'need' to use it, as a term of endearment, just for the sake of it, amongst those one chooses to converse with, because at the end of the day, if their child called them that term with or without the 'a' at the end, it would 'sting' them hard. The dictionary is not short of words/terms to use, that one finds they have to rely on that particular term to complete a phrase, sentence or conversation or use it as a 'term of endearment'. Simply put..no excuses.

I personally blame NWA (Niggaz With Attitude). This whole thread is 1988 all over again.

[img:$uid]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d2/N.W.A.StraightOuttaComptonalbumcover.jpg[/img:$uid]

What an epidemic. Straight out of Compton.

N****r and nigga are 2 completely different things. Yes its the same word but it's like Their There and They're. Same word different meanings. Go watch any black comedy show. You'll nigga said a million times but not one person will ever say n****r.

Why would Whoopie use the "nigga" instead of "nigger" when in the next breath she is stating bout the importance of the world in literature and how it shouldnt be censored? She seems to be owning the usage of it when the word is being used intelligent conversation bout the meaning and usage of it in the culture we live in. Every clip I have seen of this has both whoopi and barbara's words bleeped out. So I don't know who said what, but I dont think changing the "er" to an "a" makes a difference when approaching this subject.

This is a news story and should be treated as such. Hell I think more people should be pissed bout the fact that Perry and his family didn't move the rock in the first place if they were so offended.

lazycrockett said:

Why would Whoopie use the "nigga" instead of "nigger" when in the next breath she is stating bout the importance of the world in literature and how it shouldnt be censored? She seems to be owning the usage of it when the word is being used intelligent conversation bout the meaning and usage of it in the culture we live in. Every clip I have seen of this has both whoopi and barbara's words bleeped out. So I don't know who said what, but I dont think changing the "er" to an "a" makes a difference when approaching this subject.

This is a news story and should be treated as such. Hell I think more people should be pissed bout the fact that Perry and his family didn't move the rock in the first place if they were so offended.

Let's call the real problem for what it is. Gov. Rick Perry & his parents have used the word "n****er" behind close doors of The Perry Family household for decades and they had no issue about an area once know as "N***erhead". Gov. Perry is only deeply sorry that the ugly truth has finallly went public and may have ruining all chances in hell for him to become president of the USA.

END OF.

shorttrini said:

ThreadBare said:

I know free speech isn't absolute. I just think we go overboard about a word in really confusing (to others) ways and inconsistently. Are we alone in that inconsistency with regard to slurs? Not hardly. But the longer and harder we react to some utterances of the word, the more people with racist agendas are going to try to use it in subtle ways to set us off. Let it go, unless it truly can be proven to violate your civil rights some way (like at your job or at your bank). It all comes off as being immature to me: "Mommy! Timmy doesn't like meeee!"

Tell my great-great grandfather that, who was a slave. Or let's not even use the example of that word. Let's use the example of a kid or someone who has been verbally and mentally abused. It could be by a parent or a bully. Is it still a case of, "Mommy! Timmy doesn't not like me"? Yes, people have different breaking points, but why would you not take something that is meant to be negative, so seriously. I am disabled, and I am stared at and sometimes called names, on a daily basis. Should I let it go all the time, that somebody just went out of their way to call me, "crip" or "gimp"? Now, I am not saying that it bothers me all the time. But, there are times, when you can't just, "let it go". Calling me those names, hurt just as much as calling me, that word that I refuse to say within this reply. Let me just say this....Until you walked in a man's mind, let alone his shoes, you have NO idea, what he has gone through or what his breaking point is.

I can point to great-great grandparents who were slaves, and to parents and other relatives who lived through Jim Crow. I think they, too, having lived through the struggle past segregation and all other associated evils and humiliations might have have perhaps a sharper sense of what is real and what is imagined.

I'm not saying being called a slur is not an indignity. Neither am I saying a sense of progress would not entail a society where no one is called any type of slur. I'm saying it would probably be best for black Americans to develop a more nuanced or practical reaction to occurrences of the word -- particularly when we collectively ask broader society to accommodate our own dualistic (some might say schizophrenic) attitude about this particular word.

And, while I empathize with your situation, I still think it's different from the societal baggage surrounding this one word. Previous posters have mentioned how it's used affectionately and in multiple facets of popular culture. I don't know that the context is really the same here. Like you said, everyone has breaking points and buttons that can be pushed.

"not" edit.

[Edited 10/6/11 4:58am]

TonyVanDam said:

shorttrini said:

These woman don't have enough sense to come out of the damn rain!! Sherri needs to get a clue and realize that no matter how you say it or spell it, the conatation behind it, is STILL the same. Whoppi and her old, "I STILL love Ted Danson In Blackface" ass, also needs to get a clue. She needs to figure out what side of the fence she wants to play on....The Darkside or the Light side, because it is impossible to kiss both sides of that ass, without getting a mouth full of shit...smh.

You know ABC/Disney (never mind The View) is doing real bad business when Elisabeth Hasselback is the one on her best behavor this week.

Just saying.

True...

Walters did an interview with Richard Pryor in the 70's where he taunts her and goads her into saying it on air. She did, and he said something like, "you sound like you've had some practice, don't you?" It was funny to see how Richard did that, and it's the first thing I thought of when I heard this story.

angel345 said:

StonedImmaculate said:

And there is a big difference between the "a"and "er" forms of the word.

The "a" version derives from "er". Where else could it come from?

Exactly! Here in the northeast (Maine) a lot of people pronounce words ending in "er" as an "a" instead (and vice versa). So growing up whenever I heard a racist person, they would say "nigga." And then when I got older and started watching movies on BET, I would hear the word "nigga" some more but they were using it differently. But it's pronounced the exact same way where I come from.

MidniteMagnet said:

angel345 said:

The "a" version derives from "er". Where else could it come from?

Exactly! Here in the northeast (Maine) a lot of people pronounce words ending in "er" as an "a" instead (and vice versa). So growing up whenever I heard a racist person, they would say "nigga." And then when I got older and started watching movies on BET, I would hear the word "nigga" some more but they were using it differently. But it's pronounced the exact same way where I come from.

And mind you, the rap group Niggaz With Attitudes" changed the word to an "az". I'd say they're all cut from the same cloth.

One of my white friends said, "White people are just upset their not in the "N" word club"

That made me giggle

formallypickles said:

One of my white friends said, "White people are just upset their not in the "N" word club"

That made me giggle

I'm going with your friend on this one,

It's so odd to me because I don't feel in any way excluded when I'm around other groups who use ethnic slurs towards each other. There is no way I would think it appropriate for me to join in the banter.

The whining about "why can't we say it too" is just weird to me.

babynoz said:

formallypickles said:

One of my white friends said, "White people are just upset their not in the "N" word club"

That made me giggle

I'm going with your friend on this one,

It's so odd to me because I don't feel in any way excluded when I'm around other groups who use ethnic slurs towards each other. There is no way I would think it appropriate for me to join in the banter.

The whining about "why can't we say it too" is just weird to me.

But you know they don't see it like that

SCNDLS said:

babynoz said:

I'm going with your friend on this one,

It's so odd to me because I don't feel in any way excluded when I'm around other groups who use ethnic slurs towards each other. There is no way I would think it appropriate for me to join in the banter.

The whining about "why can't we say it too" is just weird to me.

But you know they don't see it like that

It's like that whole Dr. Laura mess...wtf? It's like a person owning every KFC in the world whining because they see you eating a drumstick you fried at home in your kitchen.

babynoz said:

SCNDLS said:

But you know they don't see it like that

It's like that whole Dr. Laura mess...wtf? It's like a person owning every KFC in the world whining because they see you eating a drumstick you fried at home in your kitchen.

Why I cain't enjoy my chicken wing without somebody mean muggin???

babynoz said:

formallypickles said:

One of my white friends said, "White people are just upset their not in the "N" word club"

That made me giggle

I'm going with your friend on this one,

It's so odd to me because I don't feel in any way excluded when I'm around other groups who use ethnic slurs towards each other. There is no way I would think it appropriate for me to join in the banter.

The whining about "why can't we say it too" is just weird to me.

Its not weird to me. I know exactly why they're whining. And fuck them for it too.

SCNDLS said:

babynoz said:

I'm going with your friend on this one,

It's so odd to me because I don't feel in any way excluded when I'm around other groups who use ethnic slurs towards each other. There is no way I would think it appropriate for me to join in the banter.

The whining about "why can't we say it too" is just weird to me.

But you know they don't see it like that

I don't disagree. However comma.

A lot of the folks asking these questions may be young "majority" folk who were born in the post-NWA hip-hop era. The word was and is being marketed to them. because they are the main vein for hip-hop sales. They literally buy it, they go to shows to hear it, they sing along to it, it is perhaps the ultimate anti-establishment word in their minds . . . but they can't use it.

To impressionable minds what makes perfect sense to us is understandably confusing to them.

namepeace said:

SCNDLS said:

But you know they don't see it like that

I don't disagree. However comma.

A lot of the folks asking these questions may be young "majority" folk who were born in the post-NWA hip-hop era. The word was and is being marketed to them. because they are the main vein for hip-hop sales. They literally buy it, they go to shows to hear it, they sing along to it, it is perhaps the ultimate anti-establishment word in their minds . . . but they can't use it.

To impressionable minds what makes perfect sense to us is understandably confusing to them.

I go to hip-hop concerts all the time and the audience is largely middle-class white folks of all ages, and many of them use the word cuz I be checking. Like I said, I really don't care as long as they ain't chasing a black person with a rope when they say it.

SCNDLS said:

namepeace said:

I don't disagree. However comma.

A lot of the folks asking these questions may be young "majority" folk who were born in the post-NWA hip-hop era. The word was and is being marketed to them. because they are the main vein for hip-hop sales. They literally buy it, they go to shows to hear it, they sing along to it, it is perhaps the ultimate anti-establishment word in their minds . . . but they can't use it.

To impressionable minds what makes perfect sense to us is understandably confusing to them.

I go to hip-hop concerts all the time and the audience is largely middle-class white folks of all ages, and many of them use the word cuz I be checking. Like I said, I really don't care as long as they ain't chasing a black person with a rope when they say it.

yeah, the same folks were in college when I was, sometimes in front of me in line buying NWA and Ice Cube albums.

I do find it funny when white boys call each other the N word. I just look at them.

Barbara Walters pronounced the word properly and the way she saw it on the sign. The original wordage did not have that word ending with the letter "a," the word ended with letters "er." the sign was not written in engrish. the spelling was (unfortunantly and sadly) right.

imo, it was so stupid on Sherry Shephard's part to make such a retort. it showed total lack of forethought on her part.

so now what, we should change the entire structure of whole english language?

i feel she should have the instant-wisdom to think before she speaks before the television and media world. statements like this cause polarization and can be used as fodder.

sherry honey think before you speak and keep it until after the show is (ova, i mean) over to discuss team disagreements. don't be gett'n all caught up in megla me and my (sidebar) squabblin'.

also i agree with:

deebee said:

That was a bizarre bit of the discussion, I thought. In the clip I saw, they muted it when Whoopi and Barbara said the word, so I couldn't hear if the former really did say 'N***ahead', as Sherri then claimed. To my mind, it would seem very strange and possibly even a bit trivialising to do that, and certainly nothing to make a virtue of. It was the bit where Shepherd seemed most confused and out of her depth, awkwardly trying to shoehorn the discussion at hand into the terms of reference of a different discussion that she had a view about.

At that moment, I did rather wish there was someone with a crook-handle walking stick within yanking distance!

The kicker was when Sherri tried to get a a dinner invite from Barbara? Old gal should be happy she threw you a bridal party and signs your checks.

[Edited 10/7/11 17:09pm]

lazycrockett said:

The kicker was when Sherri tried to get a a dinner invite from Barbara? Old gal should be happy she threw you a bridal party and signs your checks.

[Edited 10/7/11 17:09pm]

Did you know Sherri Sheep has a reality show on the preparation for her nuptials? Its the end of days.