N-word - def. not covered

[Wilson Gray]

On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 10:35 PM, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> OED
> 2b. Any person whose behaviour is regarded as reprehensible. derogatory.
>
> The AHD is similarly close:
>
> 2. Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive . a person of any race or origin regarded as contemptible, inferior, ignorant,etc.

Do these usages have any genuine existtnce outside of literature? In
the wild, I've often heard, for lack of a better term, "loser-grade"
speakers from among members of the black underclass - we boojies don't
live in any such dream - attempt to redefine "nigger" as having this
kind of non-racist pseudo-meaning. I've already posted a paraphrase of
the mockery of this argument that occurs in the anime, The Boondocks,
spoken by the whigger, Gin Rummy: "When I say "nigger," I don't mean
no disrespect, 'cause, by 'nigger,' I mean 'a ignorant motherfucker'
and a ignorant motherfucker can be _any_ race."

Well, needless to say, it's true that an ignorant motherfucker _can_
be "any race."

But, in the United States, not a nigger.

BTW, in some parts of the world, even "Negro" presents a problem for
some speakers. As I was reading the synopsis written by an Indian of a
Bollywood movie, I was startled to see one of the characters described
as a "Dravidian _Negro_."

> Here, not only is being productive the issue, but apparently being a _recent_ African immigrant evidently > > > disqualifies him from fitting the definition.

More likely, it's his being a Muslim that precludes the possibility of
his being, in his mind, any parts of "nigger." But, would a black
foreigner already be fully aware of what it means to be referred to as
a "nigger" and be prepared to defend himself against the charge?
Richard Pryor once posited as, presumably, a joke, the existence of
schools run by the INS to train the fresh-off-the-boat in the ways of
American racism.

However, as, e.g. V.S. Naipaul, among others, has noted, in
sub-Saharan Africa and, IMO, even in the Middle East, Muslims,
regardless of their personal phenotypes, regard themselves as
absolutely non-black and non-Negro, in any sense of these terms
whatsoever, whether cultural or racial, even as they break-dance,
high-five, and rap. These things are, after all, _American_. They have
nothing whatever to do with any "niggertry," to borrow once more from
The Boondocks.

Hasn't anyone here besides me ever actually _looked_ at photos of
random Saudi or, especially, Sudanese "Arabs"? Would former Saudi oil
minister, Prince Ahmed Zaki Yamani, look at all out of place at an
NAACP meeting? Are there any Sudanese "Arabs" at all fairer of
complexion than Johnny Mathis? Or even my own brothers, for that
matter? Did no one else see the members of the troupe of Berber
musicians on the Daily Colbert Hour, the other night?

OTOH, there was the time when I casually mentioned to a Turkish
friend, Engin - you know him, don't you, Larry? - that, when I had
merely seen him around, I thought that he was some kind of black
person, possibly from the Caribbean, he. was. Absolutely. Fucking.
SHOCKED! STUNNED! MIND-BLOWN! His reaction was, in fact, so
overwhelmingly, surprisingly negative that, if we hadn't already
enjoyed a close friendship of over a quarter-century, I would have
immediately cut him out of my life. As it is, the revelation that, in
order to be my friend, he's had to overcome his "natural" antipathy
for the darker brother has permanently colored <har! har!> our
relationship.

Despite the darkness of his complexion, the bluntness of his features,
and the curliness of his hair, it was simply beyond his comprehension
that it could be at all possible for anyone to mistake him for a
Negro. He forgot that "Negro" doesn't necessarily refer to the
tar-black-skinned, Brillo-haired, thick-red-lipped, flat-nosed,
blackamoor Sambo caricature in the United States, I reckon.

The use of "n-word" in the subject nearly prevented me from realizing
that there was anything of interest to me in this thread.
--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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