... woodpile

[buchmann]

There is a large sociolinguistic component to the contemporary use of "nigger."

Among blacks the usage endures among the upper middle and working classes.
"Hey, Nigger" is a not uncommon form of address [akin to similar forms of
affectionate
abuse by whites]. [It is a taboo usage for whites around blacks.] It is eschewed
by the
middle classes (especially intellectuals).

The use among whites as a simple descriptive term for blacks [with no (or slight)
slur
intended] is extant though diminishing in frequency. It is especially prevalent
among
those whites with continuing close contacts with blacks -- the upper and working
classes.
[In other words, a term with the same ubiquity -- and the same emotive value -- as

"Yankee" -- a descriptive term (with a slight negative affect).]

A few years ago I was discussing racism at UGA with black students and the point
was raised that one rarely heard "nigger" in Atlanta, but affluent whites who
would
never use the word would also never offer assistance to blacks; but the Athens
whites,
who still used the term, would stop to help blacks needing assistance.

However, Athens is just south of the 'white belt,' so overt racism is especially
prevalent there, and, among many whites from the mountains, "nigger" IS used
as a slur for people they have little history of contact with and who are seen as
alien.  In all cases that I have examined, "nigger" is an in-group bonding,
out-group distancing, word.

J-A BUCHMANN

Beverly Flanigan wrote:

>  I wonder if (a lot of) people in other countries assume all Americans think
> alike, and negatively, about such matters and so go through this wink-wink
> nudge-nudge if-you-know-what-I-mean kind of circumlocution with us.
> At 07:46 AM 9/22/00 -0500, you wrote:
> >Derrick Chapman wrote:
> > >   I don't know if the Brit lady was
> > > attempting to "speak Southern" to me, assuming (wrongly) that I wouldn't be
> > > offended.
> >This reminds me of something in my own experience.  The only time I've
> >ever heard the word "nigger" used (i.e., used as a normal part of
> >conversation, as opposed to being discussed as a word) was by a taxi
> >driver in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1969.