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Related: About this forumThe N-Word is NOT a Term of Endearment!
Thom Hartmann callers weigh in on comedian Larry Wilmore's defense of his use of the N-word in reference to President Obama during Saturday night's White House Correspondents Dinner.
Kelvin Mace
(17,469 posts)Words have differing meaning within the variable contexts uttered. I really don't know why this is so hard for people to understand.
liberalnarb
(4,532 posts)It has a horrible past and it was never meant to be used as a term if endearment. It was always a disgusting degrading term. Larry Wilmore was terrible.
Kelvin Mace
(17,469 posts)The oppressor class really has no say in the matter. The oppressor class also doesn't get to use the word. Now, that doesn't mean the people of African descent can't dislike the word (see Richard Pryor's evolving views on the word), but non-African/Blacks can't use the word outside of a academic sense without being offensive.
markpkessinger
(8,401 posts). . . and it is not unlike the use of the word "faggot" by gay people among themselves (I am gay). That word, likewise, has a horrendous history, but when members of an oppressed group co-opt a label that has historically been used to oppress them and use the term among themselves, it serves as a means of depriving the term of its former power over them. And just as with the "N-word," that doesn't mean that all members of that oppressed group will necessarily agree or see it the same way.
Kelvin Mace
(17,469 posts)or when reporting news to actually not use the word. It becomes like Lord Voldemort's name, something people fear saying, which in itself give the word power. If a politician or other public figure calls someone a "nigger", "faggot" or "cunt", hiding behind "n-word", "f-word" or "c-word" is stupid and inaccurate. People say they do this to avoid "offending" or showing disrespect". Well, the person they are talking about had no such reservations, and that is important context to the story that should not be omitted.
Similarly, when we are having an academic/etymological discussion we should not refrain from using the words since the whole point of the discussion is to explore the context and impact of the words in question. It reminds me of politicians who refuse to use the correct words for genitalia because that is "impolite".
It also reminds me of the scene in High Anxiety where Mel Brooks starts to discuss Freudian sexuality, but pulls up short when he notices one of his colleagues has brought his kids to the lecture. He then starts talking about "Pee pee envy".
Just a pet peeve of mine, and now it will probably get me in trouble.
liberalnarb
(4,532 posts)He wasn't trying to get a point across, he just wanted to be the center of a controversy.
femmocrat
(28,394 posts)EdwardBernays
(3,343 posts)I don't think this is settled either way.
stonecutter357
(12,697 posts)Bucky
(54,027 posts)Hiraeth
(4,805 posts)If you ain't family you don't get it and, you ain't supposed to.
Bucky
(54,027 posts)You know that smile when Obama acknowledged Wilmore's use of "nigga". That was nobless oblige.
Hiraeth
(4,805 posts)I'll set him free
Hiraeth
(4,805 posts)to make a joke at your own expense while at the same time avoiding a direct answer to my implication. Casper the ghost couldn't be any whiter.
fuck, I hate conversation with a coy man no matter their color.
uponit7771
(90,347 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)for all kinds of similar things.
And, context.
Short answer, it's really not up to me to tell those two gentlemen whether it was appropriate, or not.