nigger vs. negro (was: INDIAN vs. INJUN)

[Peter A. McGraw]

I'm also aware of a class distinction involving the n-word, but I don't
think it's quite the same as the one Mark alludes to.

My grandmother, a wealthy society matron in Oklahoma City in the days long
before Brown vs. Board of Education, didn't have a malicious bone in her
body but lived in a world where the Order of the Universe was that whites
and "colored people" lived and moved in separate spheres and the twain met
only in very specific settings.  She employed a succession of black
domestics, each of whom worked for her for a very long time--that was one
of the main settings where interaction between the races was appropriate.
She spoke of her maid's husband warmly as "such a nice colored man."

Well, you get the idea.  I think for her to utter the word "nigger" would
have been as unthinkable as to sit down for a meal at the same table as a
"colored" man or woman, for a different but somehow related reason.  It
would have been seen as a "bad word," perhaps similar to saying
"damn"--something only trash, or maybe "hicks", would say.

Peter Mc.

--On Thu, Jan 11, 2001 11:26 AM -0500 Mark_Mandel at DRAGONSYS.COM wrote:

>  If he knew the word "Negro" at all, it was
> as an educated pronunciation as likely to be heard from a white racist
> (perhaps a politician) as not-- or more likely, considering the prevalence
> of racism there and then. So I think that, in that community, the
> distinction between /'niy.grow/ and /'nig.R/ was one of education and
> register, not of attitude.



****************************************************************************
                               Peter A. McGraw
                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu