No American minority group has been caricatured as often or in as many ways as Black people. The N-Word carries with it much of the hatred and disgust directed toward Black Africans and African Americans.
The History of the N- Word *Note: Some of the Content in this Writing May Be Offensive to Children & Adults.
The history of the N-word is often traced to the Latin word niger, meaning Black. This word became the noun, Negro (Black person) in English, and simply the color Black in Spanish and Portuguese. In early modern French, niger became negre and, later, negress (Black woman) was unmistakably a part of language history... It is probable that the N-word is a phonetic spelling of the White Southern mispronunciation of Negro.
No matter what its origins, by the early 1800s, it was firmly established as a derogative name. In the 21st century, it remains a principal term of White racism, regardless of who is using it. Social scientists agree that words like the N-word, kike, spic, and wetback come from three categories: disparaging nicknames...
(Over time, racial slurs have victimized all racial and ethnic groups; but no American group has endured as many racial nicknames as Blacks: coon, tom, savage, pickaninny, mammy, buck, samba, jigaboo, and buckwheat are some. Many of these slurs became fully traditional pseudo-scientific, literary, cinematic, and everyday distortions of African Americans. These caricatures, whether spoken, written, or reproduced in media and material objects, reflect the extent, the vast network, of anti-Black prejudice.
The N-word, carries with it much of the hatred and disgust directed toward Black Africans and African Americans. Historically, the N-word defined, limited, made fun of, and ridiculed all Blacks. It was a term of exclusion, a verbal reason for discrimination. Whether used as a noun, verb, or adjective, it strengthened the stereotype of the lazy, stupid, dirty, worthless nobody. No other American surname carries as much purposeful cruelty. The following shortlist is important information on the word's use and meaning:
N-word luck: Exceptionally, but undeserved good luck.
N-word-flicker: A small knife or razor with one side heavily taped to preserve the user's fingers.
N-word heaven: Designated places, usually the balcony, where Blacks were forced to sit, for example, in an integrated movie theater or church....
The N-word is the ultimate American insult; it is used to offend other ethnic groups. Jews are called White-N-words; Arabs, sand-N-words; Japanese, yellow-N-words. Americans created a racial hierarchy with Whites at the top and Blacks at the bottom...
...The entertainment media, from vaudeville to television and film, portrayed Blacks as docile servants, happy-go-lucky idiots, and dangerous thugs, and they still do this today. The criminal justice system sanctioned a double standard of justice, including its unspoken approval of mob violence against Blacks and there is still a similar double standard today. Both American slavery and the Jim Crow laws which followed were saturated by anti-Black laws and images. The negative portrayals of Blacks were both reflected in and shaped by everyday material objects: toys, postcards, ashtrays, detergent boxes, fishing lures, and children’s books. These items, and countless others, portrayed Blacks with bulging, darting eyes, fire-red oversized lips, jet-Black skin, and either naked or poorly clothed...
The civil rights movement, Supreme Court decisions, the Black empowerment movement, broad civil rights legislation, and a general embracing of democracy by many American citizens have worn down America’s racial pecking order from slavery moving into Jim Crow period and today’s institutional racism.
Yet, the N-word has not left and its relationship with anti-Black prejudice remains symbiotic, interrelated, and interconnected. Ironically, it is co-dependent because a racist society created the N-word and continues to feed and sustain it. But, the word no longer needs racism, or brutal and obvious forms, to survive. The N-word today has its own existence.
Another interesting and confusing experience in American speech is the use of the N-word by African Americans. Poetry by Blacks is instructive; one can often find the the N-word used in Black writings. Major and minor poets alike have used it with startling results: Imamu Amiri Baraka, contemporary poet, uses *igger in one of his angriest poems, "I Don't Love You," and what was the world to the words of slick *igger fathers too depressed to explain why they could not appear to be men. One wonders how readers are supposed to understand "*igger fathers.”
Baraka's use of this imagery, regardless of his purpose, reinforces the stereotype of the worthless, pleasure-seeking “coon” caricature. Ted Joans's use of *igger in "The Nice Colored Man" is an example of explainable expression. Joans said he was asked to give a reading in London because he was a "nice colored man." Infuriated by the labels "nice" and "colored,” Joan's wrote a quintessential rebellious poem. While the poem should be read in its entirety, a few lines will do:
Smart Black *igger Smart Black *igger Smart Black *igger Smart Black *igger Knife Carrying *igger Gun Toting *igger Military *igger Clock Watching *igger Poisoning *igger Disgusting *igger Black *ss *igger.
This piece uses adjective upon adjective attached to the N-word.
The reality is that many of these uses can be heard in present-day African-American society. Herein lies part of the difficulty: The N-word, endures because it is used over and over again, even by the people it insults. Writer Devorah Major said, "It's hard for me to say what someone can or can't say, because I work with language all the time, and I don't want to be limited."...
The N-word was and still is a word of disrespect. More to the point, the artificial dichotomy between Blacks or African Americans (respectable and middle-class) and *iggers (disrespectable and lower class) ought to be challenged. Black is a *igger, regardless of behavior, earnings, goals, clothing, skills, ethics, or skin color.
Finally, if continued use of the word lessened its damage, then the N-word would not hurt or cause pain now. Blacks, from slavery until today, have intinternalized many negative images that White society cultivated and broadcast about Black skin and Black people. This is mirrored in cycles of self- and same-race hatred. The use of the N-word by Blacks reflects this hatred, even when the user is unaware of the psychological forces involved. The N-word is the ultimate expression of White racism and White superiority no matter how it is pronounced. It is linguistic corruption, an attack on civility.
...The N-word is one of the most notorious words in American culture. Some words carry more weight than others. But without trying to exaggerate, is genocide just another word? Pedophilia? Clearly, no and neither is the N-word. After a period of relative dormancy, the N-word has been reborn in popular culture. It is hard-edged, streetwise, and it has crossed over into movies like Pulp Fiction (1994) and Jackie Brown (1997), where it became a symbol of "street authenticity" and hipness. Denzel Washington's character in Training Day (2001) uses the N-word frequently and harshly.
Richard Pryor long ago rejected the use of the word in his comedy act, but Chris Rock, Chris Tucker, and other Black male comedy kings use the N-word regularly and not affectionately. Justin Driver, a social critic, makes a case that both Rock and Tucker are modern minstrels shucking, jiving, and grinning, in the tradition of Step 'n Fetchit.
White supremacists have found the Internet an indispensable tool for spreading their message of hate. An Internet search of the N-word using Netscape or Alta Vista locates many anti-Black web pages: *iggers Must Die, Hang A *igger for America, *igger Joke Central, and many others. Web searchers find what most Blacks know from personal experience, that the N-word is an expression of anti-Black hostility.
Without question, the N-word is the most commonly used racist slur during hate crimes.
http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/...
No matter what its origins, by the early 1800s, it was firmly established as a derogative name. In the 21st century, it remains a principal term of White racism, regardless of who is using it. Social scientists agree that words like the N-word, kike, spic, and wetback come from three categories: disparaging nicknames...
(Over time, racial slurs have victimized all racial and ethnic groups; but no American group has endured as many racial nicknames as Blacks: coon, tom, savage, pickaninny, mammy, buck, samba, jigaboo, and buckwheat are some. Many of these slurs became fully traditional pseudo-scientific, literary, cinematic, and everyday distortions of African Americans. These caricatures, whether spoken, written, or reproduced in media and material objects, reflect the extent, the vast network, of anti-Black prejudice.
The N-word, carries with it much of the hatred and disgust directed toward Black Africans and African Americans. Historically, the N-word defined, limited, made fun of, and ridiculed all Blacks. It was a term of exclusion, a verbal reason for discrimination. Whether used as a noun, verb, or adjective, it strengthened the stereotype of the lazy, stupid, dirty, worthless nobody. No other American surname carries as much purposeful cruelty. The following shortlist is important information on the word's use and meaning:
N-word luck: Exceptionally, but undeserved good luck.
N-word-flicker: A small knife or razor with one side heavily taped to preserve the user's fingers.
N-word heaven: Designated places, usually the balcony, where Blacks were forced to sit, for example, in an integrated movie theater or church....
The N-word is the ultimate American insult; it is used to offend other ethnic groups. Jews are called White-N-words; Arabs, sand-N-words; Japanese, yellow-N-words. Americans created a racial hierarchy with Whites at the top and Blacks at the bottom...
...The entertainment media, from vaudeville to television and film, portrayed Blacks as docile servants, happy-go-lucky idiots, and dangerous thugs, and they still do this today. The criminal justice system sanctioned a double standard of justice, including its unspoken approval of mob violence against Blacks and there is still a similar double standard today. Both American slavery and the Jim Crow laws which followed were saturated by anti-Black laws and images. The negative portrayals of Blacks were both reflected in and shaped by everyday material objects: toys, postcards, ashtrays, detergent boxes, fishing lures, and children’s books. These items, and countless others, portrayed Blacks with bulging, darting eyes, fire-red oversized lips, jet-Black skin, and either naked or poorly clothed...
The civil rights movement, Supreme Court decisions, the Black empowerment movement, broad civil rights legislation, and a general embracing of democracy by many American citizens have worn down America’s racial pecking order from slavery moving into Jim Crow period and today’s institutional racism.
Yet, the N-word has not left and its relationship with anti-Black prejudice remains symbiotic, interrelated, and interconnected. Ironically, it is co-dependent because a racist society created the N-word and continues to feed and sustain it. But, the word no longer needs racism, or brutal and obvious forms, to survive. The N-word today has its own existence.
Another interesting and confusing experience in American speech is the use of the N-word by African Americans. Poetry by Blacks is instructive; one can often find the the N-word used in Black writings. Major and minor poets alike have used it with startling results: Imamu Amiri Baraka, contemporary poet, uses *igger in one of his angriest poems, "I Don't Love You," and what was the world to the words of slick *igger fathers too depressed to explain why they could not appear to be men. One wonders how readers are supposed to understand "*igger fathers.”
Baraka's use of this imagery, regardless of his purpose, reinforces the stereotype of the worthless, pleasure-seeking “coon” caricature. Ted Joans's use of *igger in "The Nice Colored Man" is an example of explainable expression. Joans said he was asked to give a reading in London because he was a "nice colored man." Infuriated by the labels "nice" and "colored,” Joan's wrote a quintessential rebellious poem. While the poem should be read in its entirety, a few lines will do:
Smart Black *igger Smart Black *igger Smart Black *igger Smart Black *igger Knife Carrying *igger Gun Toting *igger Military *igger Clock Watching *igger Poisoning *igger Disgusting *igger Black *ss *igger.
This piece uses adjective upon adjective attached to the N-word.
The reality is that many of these uses can be heard in present-day African-American society. Herein lies part of the difficulty: The N-word, endures because it is used over and over again, even by the people it insults. Writer Devorah Major said, "It's hard for me to say what someone can or can't say, because I work with language all the time, and I don't want to be limited."...
The N-word was and still is a word of disrespect. More to the point, the artificial dichotomy between Blacks or African Americans (respectable and middle-class) and *iggers (disrespectable and lower class) ought to be challenged. Black is a *igger, regardless of behavior, earnings, goals, clothing, skills, ethics, or skin color.
Finally, if continued use of the word lessened its damage, then the N-word would not hurt or cause pain now. Blacks, from slavery until today, have intinternalized many negative images that White society cultivated and broadcast about Black skin and Black people. This is mirrored in cycles of self- and same-race hatred. The use of the N-word by Blacks reflects this hatred, even when the user is unaware of the psychological forces involved. The N-word is the ultimate expression of White racism and White superiority no matter how it is pronounced. It is linguistic corruption, an attack on civility.
...The N-word is one of the most notorious words in American culture. Some words carry more weight than others. But without trying to exaggerate, is genocide just another word? Pedophilia? Clearly, no and neither is the N-word. After a period of relative dormancy, the N-word has been reborn in popular culture. It is hard-edged, streetwise, and it has crossed over into movies like Pulp Fiction (1994) and Jackie Brown (1997), where it became a symbol of "street authenticity" and hipness. Denzel Washington's character in Training Day (2001) uses the N-word frequently and harshly.
Richard Pryor long ago rejected the use of the word in his comedy act, but Chris Rock, Chris Tucker, and other Black male comedy kings use the N-word regularly and not affectionately. Justin Driver, a social critic, makes a case that both Rock and Tucker are modern minstrels shucking, jiving, and grinning, in the tradition of Step 'n Fetchit.
White supremacists have found the Internet an indispensable tool for spreading their message of hate. An Internet search of the N-word using Netscape or Alta Vista locates many anti-Black web pages: *iggers Must Die, Hang A *igger for America, *igger Joke Central, and many others. Web searchers find what most Blacks know from personal experience, that the N-word is an expression of anti-Black hostility.
Without question, the N-word is the most commonly used racist slur during hate crimes.
http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/...
Thanks Jen.... Let's continue to educate!