Provoke me all you want---I'd never call an African American a Nigger.

[trumad]

What--Cracker---Whitey---

Please....

[KingFlorez]

1. Good for you

There is never any excuse to stoop to racial slurs

[americanstranger]

10. It was done once, for good, by Lenny Bruce.

Michael Richards, You're No Lenny Bruce.

Bruce had the right idea. And that's why Bruce was a visionary, and Richards is a guy who used to be on a TV show.

- as

[helderheid]

2. It's inconceivable to me. I would never call an African American that vile word.

[mdmc]

3. me neither

I was once lovingly called "an old school hippy nigga".
I replied that he was "an old school african american."
lol. i'm a liberal.

[mdmc]

5. actually, in truth, everytime I get cut off in traffic

I say a bunch of shit that I would be embarrassed to say here. awful.

[Lex]

4. Exactly! Being mad is no excuse.

Unless one is already so inclined to say that in the first place.

[zappa_parappa]

6. Whatever honky.

[Blackthorn]

7. Well, that obviously makes you a better person...

That's the whole point of this thread isn't it?

[trumad]

13. No asshole

better....

[JuniperLea]

8. That's how I was raised too

I'd never be able to utter the word.

My son and his friends (20-22 years) call each other by that word all the time, equally the white, black and brown buddies. A stroll on the campus of the college my oldest attends will render the same. Is the next generation trying to take the sting out of that word? When I asked the young black buddies how they could joke like that, they said the word means nothing.

I don't get it.


:shrug:

[marmar]

17. I don't think they get it either....

I don't really think they understand the history of the word and everything that's attached to it. I'm a African American GenXer, so I grew up with hip-hop and the rather gratuitous use of the word in the music, so I've heard all the arguments about turning a negative word into a positive (such as Jewish people referring to each other as "heebs" or gay men calling each other "fags"), but I just don't see it that way. Nazi will never be considered a positive word, neither should "nigga." I would be more than happy to never hear it again.

[Texasgal]

9. Ni**er is the WORST word

No one can use that word and not be considered a racist.

[Redstone]

11. We never heard the word where I grew up. There weren't any black people there,

and when we went to visit our grandmother in Boston, there were three black families out of the five houses on her block, so you can bet we didn't hear it there either.

Redstone

[pooja]

12. I don't even call an African American and African American...

They live in this country and they are citizens... sorry that makes American in my book...By the way, I don't think one American of African heritage or any other heritage would even know how to survive in Africa.

[Sperk]

14. I know, I can't imagine that word coming out of my mouth for any reason

I'm a woman and it would be like calling a woman the "c" word.

[northofdenali]

15. I tried that despicable word out when I was about 4

I didn't really know what it meant, but Mom washed my mouth out with - literally - soap and I had to go to bed for the rest of the afternoon.

This was in or around 1958.

[blondeatlast]

16. Amen to that. I'm as lily-white, blonde and lue-eyed as it gets, raised

by a Southern belle, and she raised me properly.

There is no excuse. Period.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

18. I'm going to lock this.

Do not post messages that are bigoted against (or grossly insensitive toward) any person or group of people based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, lack of religion, disability, physical characteristics, or region of residence.

While specific words are not automatically forbidden, members should avoid using racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise bigoted terminology.

This is also flame bait.

best,
wakemeupwhenitsover
DU Moderator