a term of endearment

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Permalink Reply by Kaila Davis on June 13, 2010 at 8:11pm

I've lived in areas where "blacks" are the majority and areas where we were rarely seen. The arguement is mostly the same with today's (my) generation. I get the answer that "niggA isn't the same as niggER". Also, people have stressed that the context the word is used in makes a huge difference. In my experience, teenagers of every race have used the word "nigga". Most of the time jokingly, though it is obvious that they have become comfortable with the word. I think it is due to the fact that they have "black friends" so that they are "down" or "cool". Though I've only lived in the northeast, so I can't say how it is in other regions.

Personally, that word has too much history and negative connotations placed on it and I tend to refrain from using it. I don't like when others use it but I can't control what others do. I can only let them know how I feel and how that word makes me feel.

Permalink Reply by Q.A.Bradford on June 14, 2010 at 2:54am

I generally don't use th word myself, but I've very much noticed that the rap and hip-hop culture has helped many a non-African American person internalize Negro habits that the word actually fits facets of their lifestyle. Redneck culture hasn't been so easy for immigrants and foreign people to infiltrate (though they tend to be culturally more similar), the Negro, (post civil-rights, pre-African American transformation) is one that has become a common denominator even for Redneck culture. The only difference is that "nigga" as a redeemed slogan is more objectively used than redneck, chink, jap, gook, injun, etc. While I get that there is some neutrality being achieved in the flourishing of such linguistic pessimism, the toxicity indicator is how a person who forgoes the usage for the sake of political correctness usually receives angsty backlash.

Kaila Davis said:

I've lived in areas where "blacks" are the majority and areas where we were rarely seen. The arguement is mostly the same with today's (my) generation. I get the answer that "niggA isn't the same as niggER". Also, people have stressed that the context the word is used in makes a huge difference. In my experience, teenagers of every race have used the word "nigga". Most of the time jokingly, though it is obvious that they have become comfortable with the word. I think it is due to the fact that they have "black friends" so that they are "down" or "cool". Though I've only lived in the northeast, so I can't say how it is in other regions.

Personally, that word has too much history and negative connotations placed on it and I tend to refrain from using it. I don't like when others use it but I can't control what others do. I can only let them know how I feel and how that word makes me feel.

Permalink Reply by Princess Jasmine on June 29, 2010 at 6:43am

Thats How I feel about the word too. Whenever I hear it it makes me cringe.

Kaila Davis said:

Personally, that word has too much history and negative connotations placed on it and I tend to refrain from using it. I don't like when others use it but I can't control what others do. I can only let them know how I feel and how that word makes me feel.

I had a conversation about this boy who said depending on how you spell it, the word isn't bad (or means something else). And I told him, when you say it there's no speech bubble above your head with the spelling it sounds and means the same thing. And I also believe that all versions and spelling of that word were used to negatively refer to black people.

Permalink Reply by momowilly on June 30, 2010 at 9:17pm

I think the word is awful. And I won't respond to anyone calling me that.

But...

it wasn't always that way. And I can hear old rhymes where I used it and I cringe. I think it becomes an offensive word when you reach a particular place in a knowledge of self.