N-word - def. not covered

[William Salmon]

> 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?

This seems to be what Senator Robert Byrd is getting at with his use
of "white nigger" in this interview:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FIBJt-c2o0



> 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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>

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