What is it with this "N-word" crap?

[SpiritWarrior]

Is this just a media phenomenon or is it actually real? I find it hard to believe that people can really be so outraged when it is used by someone who is non-black. I can't really make sense of the contradictory way the media has highlighted the whole thing, but here is what i've gathered so far...

It's perefectly fine for a black person to use it even though it is used in the same way and doesn't change in meaning depending on who is using it.

Black artists/musicians can use this term in their music even though these artists have non-black fanbases who will (naturally) sing or repeat the lyrics.

Having non-black people repeat the lyric to songs containing these words is apprently okay, because they didn't originally say them...even though they are saying them now.

This word is taboo for non black people, but many black people who are heterosexual can use gay slurs and not have it ruin their careers the same way the "n-word" would.

Thoughts? Is it in fact just a media thing? This word is being uttered daily by hundreds of people of all skin colors. Why is the media just (seemingly) recently freaking out about it? Why do we now have to call it "the N-word?" as opposed to saying what it is? After all, we aren't using it against someone, but merely pronouncing the word in question and so it has no power. Has it come to the point where we are even afraid to mention the actual word while having a debate about it's impact? This is what children do in school, censor themselves so they don't "get in trouble". But adults are supposed to be mature enough to not do this, and have an open discussion about any topic.

[Illumina Drathiran'ar]

"It's perefectly fine for a black person to use it even though it is used in the same way and doesn't change in meaning depending on who is using it."

It depends. I don't know if it's "perfectly fine" as some black people will be offended by it. Ideally, nobody would feel the need to say it.

"Black artists/musicians can use this term in their music even though these artists have non-black fanbases who
will (naturally) sing or repeat the lyrics."

Yeah, what's with that?

"Having non-black people repeat the lyric to songs containing these words is apprently okay, because they didn't originally say them...even though they are saying them now."

I don't believe that's the case, actually. But it depends on who's hearing them.

"This word is taboo for non black people, but many black people who are heterosexual can use gay slurs and not have it ruin their careers the same way the "n-word" would."

Oh, we're working on that.

"Thoughts? Is it in fact just a media thing? This word is being uttered daily by hundreds of people of all skin colors. Why is the media just (seemingly) recently freaking out about it? Why do we now have to call it "the N-word?" as opposed to saying what it is? After all, we aren't using it against someone, but merely pronouncing the word in question and so it has no power. Has it come to the point where we are even afraid to mention the actual word while having a debate about it's impact? This is what children do in school, censor themselves so they don't "get in trouble". But adults are supposed to be mature enough to not do this, and have an open discussion about anytopic."

I don't know why the media is just (seemingly) recently freaking out about it. We need to call it "the N-word" because of a kind of hypersensitivity, I believe. I further believe that it's difficult to dissect things in a critical manner if you can't call it like it is. I once had a psych professor who would say "The N-word" but he'd say "faggot" and not "the F-word." Well, they're slurs of equal gravity, aren't they? There's a double standard there.

[Larry_OHF]

I think its a generational thing...meaning that only the older generation and those of the newer generation who have taken on the mindset of the older generation...these are the ones that are keeping this alive. I hear it told that another generation, and this word will weigh nothing like what it does today. Its already diminished in select societies and only the media keeps it alive, like you mentioned.

Its just another word, and weighs less than some, depending on where and how its used...in other words, there are worse things to be called that I cannot type on this forum, and would be more offensive if used than the N word.

[SpiritWarrior]

Yeah good points.

Like the word "Bitch". It seems to have lost alot of it's anti-female weight. Young men and women use it alot now, among their friends "What's up bitches!" and noone takes offense at all, because it's been so desensitzed that it holds no real meaning. People say it around me too, and it's true I don't for a second think anything of it anymore. But calling someone a bitch even jokingly back in the day just didn't happen. Now, it still has some power, like if it is aimed directly at someone and you know they're not joking - but my point is we have reached a time where it can be used in jest, and among the younger generation it is used alot more widely than ever.

[Illumina Drathiran'ar]

I have an older professor who winces when he hears the word "bitch." He's really perplexed at how acceptable it's become. I suppose it's a desensitization thing, and again a generational thing (he is quite an older guy).

[VulcanRider]

"The N-word" is just another example of Political Correctness Gone Berserk. In the PC world, the US Constitution guarantees Freedom FROM Speech. People seem to think they have the right to never hear anything they might find offensive. Anyone who violates that "right" by actually uttering something someone might not like gets branded by a smear campaign as a rascist/homophobe/whatever. Eventually people stop using those words to avoid the branding.

Cursing in general has less meaning now. "Dirty words" used to be shocking attention-getters that let the listener know the speaker felt strongly about the subject. Now they're just filler for people with poor vocabularies, or children who think they sound more grown-up when they use those words. I consider it another step in the downward spiral of society...

Illumina, I can understand not saying "the F-word" for faggot because that's already reserved for a different dirty word, and we wouldn't want to confuse the audience...

[pritchke]

A fag is a piece of wood on a wharf that you walk on. How did it ever come to be used the way it is today by the landlubbers?

This is the world of political correctness, but why it is OK for blacks to use the N word but other people can't is beyond me. It probaly isn't but the black community just don't go postal on there brothers.

[Dragonshadow]

Originally Posted by SpiritWarrior Yeah good points. Like the word "Bitch". It seems to have lost alot of it's anti-female weight. Young men and women use it alot now, among their friends "What's up bitches!" and noone takes offense at all, because it's been so desensitzed that it holds no real meaning. People say it around me too, and it's true I don't for a second think anything of it anymore. But calling someone a bitch even jokingly back in the day just didn't happen. Now, it still has some power, like if it is aimed directly at someone and you know they're not joking - but my point is we have reached a time where it can be used in jest, and among the younger generation it is used alot more widely than ever.

Very true. At my school, it is considered perfectly acceptable to call each other bitch for anything. I got called it several times today, in a joking way by my friend, and didn't think anything of it.
Shows how the words changes, I guess.

[Larry_OHF]

Call a woman a four-letter word that starts with a "C" and that to me is loads more degrading than calling a black person the word that starts with "N". My opinion, of course.

[Elif Godson]

Yeah Larry, thats the word I used to describe my dad's girl friend when she showed up with a lawyer and such to try and steal his estate when he passed away. It describes her to a T! As to the N word, it all goes back a few years so to speak and it was derogitory word then and it is now, why it has become accepted is beyond me, kind of like coolie or chink or kike or you name it! We have become desensitized in many ways but that is for another topic. The thing that kills me is the reparation part of it and that is where those coalitions come into effect.