"Nigga" untrademarkable?

[Wilson Gray]

Back in the '50's, in an otherwise forgotten story in a science-fiction mag
of the day, a character noted that "[someone] Martianed me down."

Does anyone else remember the play and/or the movie from the '60's, "The
Boys in the Band"? The (Jewish) protagonist notes that:

"No matter how you figger,
It's hard to be a nigger.
But it's even harder still
To be a Jew."

To coin a phrase: "I heard that!"

-Wilson

On 3/18/06, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
>
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Nigga" untrademarkable?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Right-wing politicians and hate-radio ranters seem to assume
> that using "Democrat" as an adjective or attributive noun
> ("the Democrat scheme," "Democrat candidates," even "the
> Democrat Party") will be deemed especially derogatory
> (thence preferred to "Democratic").  The same, of course, is
> the case with the word "Jew" ("Jew merchants," "the
> international Jew conspiracy").
>
> Is there a general Rule of Offensiveness that covers such a
> process, I wonder?
>
> Together with the offensive use of "Jew" as a verb, that
> application of "Jew" might further occasion sensitivity
> regarding the noun "Jew" as a personal or (to a lesser
> degree) group designation.
>
> To answer the question of a very early reponder to my
> original observation/query:  My student who found the
> noun "Jew" offensive was, indeed, herself Jewish--having
> grown up in a part of the country (the deep South) where
> Jews constitute a tiny minority, although her hometown of
> Savannah harbors a very old and active Jewish community.
>
> --Charlie
>
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