Is it offensive to a black person to: 1) say ****#r if your singing along to rap 2) if you call them a ***?

Question

what are your thoughts?

Answer 1

If you're white you can't say it. If you're black it's ok under circumstances. If you are black you will know what those circumstances are.

For white people the 'N' word is kind of like "don't try this at home". You are best to just avoid it.

Answer 2

If you are not Black you can't use that word. Blacks don't use that word much except for gangster types and rappers. I work with a lot of Black people in my office and they don't use that word. It's offensive.
I was called the N word a lot when I came to California back in 1958. I am not black I am Puerto Rican and I am white. I have dark brown skin like many Latinos but I am most definitely not Black. I got to experience the whole black discrimination personally and it really sucks. I go into some stores and I don't get helped. I once went to a Denny's in Bishop and sat there with my very white wife at the time for an hour and was not waited on. I asked for service several times. I finally got up and we went to the front counter and announced we are from Denny Headquarters and you did not serve us. My wife was in charge of distribution at Denny's head quarters at the time in Buena Park. I should have sued them but She worked for them.
No the N word is not cool.

Answer 3

Okay say n*gger if you are reffering to an ignorant person a black person who is offended by that needs to get over it because that is the definition of n*gger. Okay you're singing along to a rap song say it you're not directing towards any black person in a offensive way. I can see your point many black people are sensitive to this stuff and can be easily offended but I'm not like that at all and niether are all black people.

Answer 4

my thoughts are: I do not know what will offend someone but I do know that saying that word offends me- it does not come out of my mouth or enter my thoughts. I was reared in the south in the early and mid 1960's, I find the whole use of such terms quite distasteful and when it is used in rap songs and such I think it dishonors the memories of those great civil rights leaders of the past. I am sure they did not fight so long and give so much, so this term could be bandied about so nonchalantly

Answer 5

I don't listen to rap music. It's not something I enjoy. And to my surprise, sometime ago, I also heard a black person express a dislike for it. I was in a shopping mall, and I heard an older black man tell a teenager that he didn't like rap because the performers always sounded like they wanted to hurt someone. The teen didn't seem to understand. Possibly to him, the performers sounding tough was probably great, because as a teen, projecting an image of being tough helped soothe his insecurities--so, what could be bad about that? When he gets older and sheds some of his insecurities, I guess he'll then better understand the old man's point of view.

As for calling someone a N, I don't think I would ever engage in such behavior. Of course, I'm an old guy now, but I felt the same way when I was younger. I was first introduced to the N word when I was in the US Navy. I think I was 19 years old at the time. It happened in Washington, DC, when a black person asked me for a handout. When I gave him a couple of dollars, one of the guys in our group asked me very unhappily why I had done that. I responded that I was just helping him out with a few bucks, and asked him why he didn't approve of my doing that. He told me "Because he's a N; that's why." I had never heard the N word, and so I asked "What's an N?" He told me I was stupid, and said "Don't you know anything?" I was embarrassed, and tried to come up with something intelligent to say. My best shot was to say "I'm not sure; maybe an N is someone from Nigeria, and you don't like people from there?" Word of the incident got back to the ship, and a black man aboard it came by to visit me. He told me I was a curiosity, and that he knew many people down south who would listen to his recounting of my story in disbelief. I was pretty uninformed and had never met black people before. I was just a young boy from a small town up north--Lewiston, Maine.

Because I'm white, I really can't say whether the N word or any other word is truly offensive to black people. I can only go by my gut feeling. And my gut feeling is that for the most part, blacks probably look on the N word as a tool more than an insult. In other words, if someone of another race calls a black person a N, then the person uttering the word has pretty much identified himself/herself as a prejudiced individual. He can then easily be made to pay dearly for his ignorance. For example, at work, he could possibly lose his job--and a black person could possibly replace him. Yet black people can call each other N's and not pay a similar price for their actions. I hope this makes clear why I view the N word as a tool more than an insult.

I've also noticed that black companies, such as BETV, Black Entertainment TV, have been accused by whites of employing only blacks and getting away with it. On another occasion, I overheard a black woman (at work) praising the work of her new dentist and going on and on about how happy she was to have found him. Because his place of business was (according to what she said) in the same town I live in, I asked her about him. She told me discretely that I didn't want to go to him. She explained that he was black, all his employees are black, and all his clientelle are black. I got the message, and I thanked her for her frankness.

I think all of this stuff serves some valuable purposes. For one thing, it teaches non-black people what it's like to be discriminated against, and for another it teaches black people that they are showing themselves equally capable of prejudicial behavior. I think that every race has some good and some bad people, and some pretty smart people in the government, have found a very clever way of making that truth obvious to everyone.

Answer 6

Well I am assuming your not black. I say, there are a lot of rap songs out there and when black rappers make rap songs that include the word N****R they are not assuming only blacks will listen to them. It is okay to sing along with them, but I would watch who you sing it around....especially if you are singing it around people you don't even know. I don't like the word at all but if you have to sing it with the song then I would just be cautious!

Answer 7

Of what I know. the word is offensive.

Unless it is said by a black person and less if said singin along to rap of course.

But I really think that if you were black and proud, that word wouldn't have to be offensive (unless it is said in an offensive tone).

Offensive words like "fat", "ugly" or even "ni@#r" are there because of our great distorted view of what "is" beauty.

Answer 8

Only blacks can say stuff like that and about white people calling them cracker or whatever..lol

Haha..but to be honest here, I do understand a few things, or the way they should be. I wouldn't want to call them that in a disrespectable way. When they say that to each other, it's usually in a joking and loving way, that's why it's only okay if they do it. It would be a rare thing for a white guy to call them that in a joking/loving tone to a close black friend.

Answer 9

wat do u think????? if u r not black then yes it is offensive even if u r singing a song. that word has history behind it and when someone that isn't black uses it, it is meant to be derogatory...on the other hand if someone black uses the word, it doesn't have the same meaning or effect....that's just one of the many double standards of our society.

Answer 10

Every person is different, but it is offensive to most black people to say any form of the N word. Don't use it unless the black person you are with is a good friend of yours and you know that they don't mind.