If the word Ni gg er is so offensive, why do black people call each other it???

Question

I notice the usual PC mob are getting on their high horses, some even saying it is none of my business. It is mine and everybody elses business when in a modern society people are trying to integrate and put racism to bed, and the very people we are trying to integrate with are useing the names were all trying to forget, it just doesnt make sense.

Answer 1

I moved us to the city when the boys were young. It was a dominate black neighborhood which we had no problems with at first.
We realized this was unsafe when children started pulling knifes on my kids for being white kids. The police told me to never go talk to the parents which if this cop was not walking down the road was my first instinct.
Anyhoo my middle boy had a little friend and they loved to play with each other. The mother always called her son that word, so obviously my son started calling him this too. He was little and new no better, his mother was calling him this and I never thought about having such a talk with the boys who were all under 10.
Well the mother herd this and wanted to beat me up. I was more then shocked at this hostile behavior from a grown women. I too did not understand this language the mother was calling her child to just come inside to eat or just calling her son this in general.
Thank goodness we moved back home where this kind of language is not used....
Education might be the key here? The uneducated have there own language....

Answer 2

Many people have answered this question with something resembling "White people can't say it because when they do, it's a racial slur. Blacks can use it because they themselves are black."

That's a load of crap.

I have heard many black friends and co-workers of mine call someone else who's black the N-word, and it wasn't in a nice or racial-solidarity sort of way.

What I've come to learn is that the word seems to have two meanings when blacks use the word to another black. Either they say it to overcome the past negative stigma that's been a persistent issue in the past, and give the word a new meaning; (like how homosexual men describe themselves as gay) OR they use it in a way that's about the equivalent of calling someone a "jerk" or an "a$$hole".

What amazes me, however, is when a white person who has mostly black friends hears everyone calling each other the N-word, and one day uses the N-word (without any racism intended, but rather to just be one of the guys) and all the sudden this white person who's been nothing but a friend to his black friends is ostracized for using the word. NO BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT is given to him, despite the non-racial use of the word.

THAT'S what's really at the heart of this question.

I think this question ought to have been phrased, "How can some blacks get offended by the N-word while using it themselves to identify with each other?"

Answer 3

I have heard the word mentioned by the people concerned , and what's more I have heard them say to each other blood clot , I know this has an insulting meaning , but thankfully I do not known what is meant them, the words themselves are quite legitimate , it's the meaning behind them and the tone of voice , that makes it an insult or a compliment . At least that's my understanding , thus, far . Like the word gay , I cannot use it anymore because it no longer has its our regional meaning . It is also interesting to note that in the USA have heard people use the term get up off your Fanny. If you say that to a woman in the UK you end up getting a slap around the face because the word refers to a woman's sexual genitalia . So much for the English language and P C. etc.

Answer 4

Sometimes I wonder the same question! The word was not developed by african-americans. It was used as an insult, especially doing the time after slavery was abolished, and because it was formally use by white people in a most negative way, it became offensive only to none-blacks. What I have notice that young teenagers kids have the tendency to mostly use the word, and even though they are aware it is a put-down or to show (so-call) evilness in a person. When they use it, it is not use a praise, but as being dumb or stupid. For example: Tony and William

"Why don't you let me borrow a hundred dollars?" Tony asked.
"******, please. I don't even have a damn dollars!" William replied with quizzically expression.

It seem that when the word is use by african-americans the effect is not too insulting, but non-black uses the word (because of History) it is serious insult since it was basically use doing time of the most troublesome era in U.S.A.

Some african-americans secretly believe that their actually derives from the Jewish race, because of the continue treatment. Also keep in mind, when America was born every nationality had their freedom to come to this country by their own choice, including the Jews. But african-american came to this country by
force, and you know what happens after wards.

Many african-americans tries to step out from the niggerist role, like Micheal Jackson, and others, and honestly including myself.
As a non-black person, please don't use that word to a black person, because it emotionally hurt worst.

Answer 5

When white people used that word they used it in a way that was offensive and wasn't really wanted by the black population but when black use it they say ***** not Ni gg er as you put it but black people will take offense to it if a white person said it because of the context white people put it into at the time

Answer 6

You have to remember not all black people use this word and until such time when all and I mean ALL black people use it, it's not ok for any one else to use it. Some people say if you say it enough times it loses its meaning. I say that's BS! There's a lot of pain and history attached to that word and I'm not just talking about 400 years ago, I am talking from 400 years ago up to the present.

Someone said earlier about there being a difference in the spelling. There is no difference between nig-ga and nig-ger that argument makes no sense and is foolish.

Personally I hate the word and I will tell anyone off who uses it regardless of their colour. But I know this question has come up a million times and here is my theory.

When black people use the N word it's a sort of term of endearment (believe it or not) a word used to describe a kind of brotherhood amongst each other, you know like some people will say "hi friend". Basically you'd be saying that you have this in common with each other (I mean when black people use it with other blacks).
Now pay attention this is where people get lost. When someone outside of the black race uses it, it's often used in a derogative and aggressive term. It's pointing out a negative difference between people. Now some white people use this term amongst black friends and their black friends accept it. I guess it depends on the context. If a white person said it to a black friend they probably wouldn't think they'd be insulting them. But on the other hand a real friend would not use that word.

But this idea is not uncommon. Pakistani people often refer to each other as Paki's but used by someone outside of that nationality and it's classed as a derogative term. Same with some lesbians, they refer to each other as "dykes" but again, used by someone outside of that group and it's classed as being derogative.
I could go on forever listing examples.
Bottom line not to use any derogative term; you never know how it could be perceived by the person you are saying it too, even if you mean no harm by it.

But I totally agree with you, in a modern society we can never eradicate that word and the racism that goes with it if black people keep on using it.

Richard Pryor said (and he was notorious for using the n-word) that black shouldn’t use it "that word was used to describe our own wretchedness". This was an epiphany he had after visiting Africa and from that trip he stopped using the n-word altogether.

Hope that helped and please don’t let some of the answers you’ve received discourage you from being a forward thinker.

Answer 7

To start this ball rolling lets look at the reasons why that horrid word is still about with us.
The word is popularised in most rap music and seems to have got to an almost desensitized state in world which in my eyes is very bad. It was not so long ago that our parents wre having to put with that disgusting word and now it seems almost a generation or two are deeming it socially acceptable. My parents are mortified to hear black people are using the word n*gg3r.

The worst part of it is certain other groups (extreme right wing) are seeing as total domination and bolster there belief in that they are the supreme.

My way to combat this word in the black community is to not use or glamourise it. Stop feeding the hype!!!!

Answer 8

Have you thought about your question or are you a closet racist?

It's called the RE-APPROPRIATION OF LANGUAGE. It's the same as women calling each other "b*tches" or "birds" or men calling each other "dog".
If you really thought about your question perhaps you will realise that for some it is a political statement; reclaiming and re-using a negative label and turning it into something else.

Language is context bound, so when a racist uses the term Ni gger it is wholly derogative and has the history of African slavery/segregation/oppression attached. In another context, ie used by a black person, it means something else .

The difficulty is that this makes it difficult for anyone on the outside looking in to understand - hence your simplistic reasoning.

I personally do not agree with its use and many other black people do not. You are using this as an attempt to justify racism - which is really pathetic.

Next time you hear a woman refer to her friends as my "b*tches" or "birds" then you'll understand. Enlightened?

Answer 9

I am an African American women who will try to answer this questions to my best ability. There is simply a silent fine line between having your friends call you the n word and someone of another race, in particular the white race, refer to you as a the same thing. In the eyes of African Americans, we tend to view other races using it to degrade who we are...but when our friends say it, it seems to be out of a bond, something that holds us together. Now I am not saying it's right as in the incident with Kramer. But I guess the best example to use would be for Caucasian people refering to each other with negative names that you may find offensive if another race used them as well! For example red neck, or poor white trash (just using examples) are terms, if said out of my mouth as a Black women would most likely offend you but used from a close best friend would be nothing more than harmless. The N word needs to be removed from everyone's vocabulary as any other negative term used to describe a race as a whole. But we are not a perfect world and it will never happen. What can happen is everyone taking responsibility for what they say and how they react to it! I hope this message finds you well and informed of how SOME Blacks view being called the N word by other races and their own! Take Care!

Answer 10

i will try to explain, when two black people use the n. word to each other it cannot be offensive as they are on the same level - colourwise

when a white person uses it to a black person,it can only be offensive due to the way the whites used it to the black people during slavery and up to the present day

it is a way of taking a word, that has, and still is causing so much pain and turning it into a positive for each other

Answer 11

Actually, when I've asked that question to people who were African Americans (not Africans, but Afro-Americans) I got this answer each time (Thanks to yahoo!'s censorship, I'll have to edit) but..
-er ending after ni gg: ignorant person, term used to describe uneducated jackass, described as racist term used back in the day or in modern day to define race and ignorance
-a ending after ni gg: term of endearment
Basically, the word was taken out of it's dictionary meaning and changed to mean something kind instead of something so the word would not have the power it once did, at least that's how it was explained to me; honestly, I don't give a rat's if somebody else uses it but I won't (it's tied to too strong of an emotional hatred for me); it's like the swastika on the NAZI flag (which as most of us know by now had religious significance to Hindu's I believe before the NAZI's used it) or the Southern US's Confederacy flag; some people argue "Well, I have southern pride, that flag's my heritage", well the flag is tied to hatred and I am born and raised from the South but it's tied to too much hatred for me to respect it as a sign of heritage; but I guess it's PC people like me who screw it up for the rest of ya'll... sorry :)