Azealia Banks weighs in on the Nig***/Nigga debate
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"Wicked"?
I feel like there's just no way to explain this to you. Words are a complex, nuanced, ever evolving means of expression. They are not the same word no matter what you personally believe, sorry.
I agree with what you said here, but think about the people who hear the word and find it offensive. How are they supposed to differentiate two words that sound exactly the same? If the word fucking "evolved", why the new spelling?
"Nigga" is definitely used in a negative way more often than not.
Ex 1.) "that nigga ain't shit"
Ex. 2) "That nigga Malik is always in the studio talkin' bout he gonna blow up soon"
I just have a hard time accepting a word with such ugly roots as being anything other than. I can kind of see where the "difference" is, though.
There's a major difference, though. The vast, vast majority of people who say "gypped" have no idea that gypsy is pejorative. There's also the fact that many groups, especially non-Roma nomads, identify as gypsies.
Everyone who says nigga knows its history and that very many people find it offensive.
Bad example because:
1. That man ain't shit
2. That man Malik... (insert good or bad description here)
Eppy Thatcher
God's had his chance.
Definitely don't wanna throw in on one side or the other here but they very clearly sound different. Especially with whatever chosen inflection the word is given when used.
As in - if someone is fucking angry - and drops "Fuck you, Nigger" it's pretty clearly different from a couple of friends tossin it about while they play Madden or some shit. Come on now..
It's almost as if you shouldn't make blanket statements like "playful" and "endearing".
HUELEN10
Member
Just as a variant of a word that has ugly roots can be used quite non-ugly, so can a non-offensive word be used for hate.
Take Jew.
"I a a Jew, I am a Semite, and I keep kosher."
Nothing wrong with that, right?
"Look at that greedy fuck Jewing us out of our home"
See the difference? Same words, 2 totally different context and feelings.
man is a noun. "nigga"/"nigger" is an adjective.
Think of it like: That asshole ain't shit. That jerk aint shit. That asshole malik....
you're modifying/describing the noun with a negative word.
No, I understand what you mean. It's like how people use "cunt." It has no good meaning behind it, but we aren't living in the days where an insult necessarily offends all of us...and so we take the insult because we're either familiar enough with the person delivering it or simply desensitized. Like, I've been told to kill myself by a few people, but it doesn't offend me.
DiscoJer
Member
Well, the US (and I guess Canada) really doesn't have gypsies/Roma in any great number. AFAIK, we pretty much just have these, who are Irish
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Travellers
And they are only maybe 40,000 people in a country of 300 million (plus another 30 in Canada). So there is no connection between the phrase and any particular sort of people. At least in the eyes of most people, because they've never met or even seen one, so don't connect the phrase to a people.
HUELEN10
Member
"Fuck you, black man."?
"Fuck you, cherio."?
"Fuck you, peanut."?
It's not the spelling of the word that makes the difference here, it's the "Fuck you".
So give me an audio clip of the same accent saying the two words differently. Then what I will do is find a racist saying it the way you think the former version is said, but it will "sound racist". There is no audible difference.
What you are trying to say is that the intent of the person saying the word makes the difference. To you maybe, to others it doesn't matter what you intend on saying. It's a racial slur regardless and there is no better understanding when using that word over the tens more you could have used instead.
I don't think you know what the difference between a noun and an adjective is.
ChubbyHuggs
Member
Can I guest star and spit ether on some niggas?
BKatastrophe
Member
Something about these sentences is intensely funny to me and I can't for the life of me quite figure out why.
Wait what?
I actually want to agree with him because it's somehow hilarious and "true" in a stoned way.
I hate the nigga/nigger conversation.
Like some people even get mad when you say "nigger" as in when you're saying "I said nigga not nigger".
It's just letters next to each other making up a word it only has meaning if you are specifically saying something.
"This nigga just did that"
"they used to call black people niggers"
Those are both regular sentences.
Now, its bad when you use it in an offensive way, and it's not bad because you're using the word, its bad because of what you are saying.
Sentences can be evil, but words can not.
Like some people even get mad when you say "nigger" as in when you're saying "I said nigga not nigger".
It's just letters next to each other making up a word it only has meaning if you are specifically saying something.
"This nigga just did that"
"they used to call black people niggers"
Those are both regular sentences.
Now, its bad when you use it in an offensive way, and it's not bad because you're using the word, its bad because of what you are saying.
Sentences can be evil, but words can not.
There are actually a pretty large number of ethnically Roma people in the US, but as far as I can tell, they're completely assimilated into mainstream white America.
You expect Azealia Banks' twitter to be a place for a nuanced discussion of race in America?
So, in your opinion, nothing is a racial slur if you don't intend it to be?
It never occurred to me that gypped was a reference to gypsies. It looks completely obvious to me now.
Yeah, as a kid I thought it was spelled "jipped" anyway.
What is a racial slur anyways?
If you don't intend something to be offensive and it is somehow received as such, then that is an issue that can easily be solved by talking about it.
"dude you just said ("racial slur") I find that offensive."
"sorry, I wasn't trying to offend you"
"okay, wait, where we talking about?"
At least that's how it should go.
lol. i s2g y'all niggas got me fucked up.
I seem them used today more as adjectives than nouns because they are almost exclusively descriptive. I've seen people try to separate and categorize blacks as being "normal" or "niggers" based on whether they seem them as ghetto, ratchet, or whatever demoralizing term they want to use. In that sense, it isn't naming "something," but attempting to describe it. In the past, I would say the word was used as both, but obviously leaned more towards a noun.
Yeah, the argument is more so rooted in the flexibility of the word and its etymology.
O.K.
Why yes, you are perfectly free to do anything. But when you do say something and someone is within earshot of your racial slur and disagrees that intent is somehow enough to justify your seemingly lack of vocabulary (like, why use the slur in the first place), don't be surprised or feel like that person is stupid when they get offended.
I was kidding, but we might be on the same wavelength if we got high and talked about this. I don't imagine that our opinions are actually different, but you should relearn what a noun and adjective means.
You really live in your own little world, don't you?
I bet most Americans think so.
But that's just a misunderstanding. Like, why should something escalate to it being an issue with the stranger that was within earshot?
BKatastrophe
Member
What if her name is actually Marvin? I'd flip if it was.
To be honest though, this debate that's being had, right now? Look, I understand the history of the word. I grew up with the knowledge of never saying this word, because it's offensive and just shouldn't use it. But as I grew up, and heard "nigger" used in what is quite frankly almost every single possible contextual sense and permutation imaginable. At that point, shit gets a little blurry. I'm not afraid to admit that, as a white guy, I have no idea what it fucking means any more, if I ever did. I'm not saying I want permission to use it, but when even the culture that this word emanates from can't decide on what it means, it gets to be real confusing as to why anyone else can't use it. Again, not saying I want permission, and I know it's a touchy subject and it's a word with awful roots (which is why I avoid it), but I'm honestly confused. I'm pretty sure there's a reason why this is the only slur, racial or otherwise, that people are confused on.
You're right in that it shouldn't. I am for these words having no racist meaning when everyone on the receiving end isn't reminded of racism anymore. That would be awesome since there would be no way to be offensive without actually trying to be offensive.
But really, there are people who just hate the word. They hate the word for a valid reason, you can't fault them for that. It's pretty much social respect because, if it weren't for the racist background to begin with you wouldn't even have learned the word.
The issue is that there can be a lot of power and hatred behind words, even if people don't intend those words to be powerful and hateful.
This is why the n-word is controversial.
No I live in a world in which evolved animals have produced language as a way of communicating between each other. In language the point is to communicate your own thoughts to another person.
To get a meaning across.
A specific meaning in relation to whatever situation is going on.
Yes the word was used to demean persons before, but that's not how its usually used now.
Saying what's up to a person is NOT an attack on them.
It is not saying "slavery was cool"
It is not saying "I hate you"
It is saying hi.
You put it correctly, there isn't so much an agreement on how to handle the word because even within the Black community there are a difference of opinion and also that its not just one giant monolith but a large group of people.
So really be aware of the company you are with if you ever find the urge to use that specific set of characters.
So you're the authority on how a word should be interpreted by a group of marginalized people?
You speak for the whole of the black community?
IrishNinja
Member
why some of ya'll still give this absolute dumpster fire of a human being attention, i'll never know
like, some of her music's not bad, but following her twitter? sharing her garbage thoughts with others? nah
royalans just hoping another racial thread will continue the necessary culling, i see you
like, some of her music's not bad, but following her twitter? sharing her garbage thoughts with others? nah
royalans just hoping another racial thread will continue the necessary culling, i see you
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