How is the N word racist?

Question

im not racist just curios why black people can say it but not white people!

Answer 1

I think the intent of usage matters more than the word itself.

Answer 2

Its considered racist because whites used it as a derogatory term directed at blacks for centuries.

The use by black people to each other doesn't change that. The sociology of this sort of thing is complicated, I'll admit. But it has plenty of parallels. For example, athletes on a team will often use terms among themselves ("locker room chatter" that--if a non-team member called them that on the street, it would probably start a fight. Within the "group" the terms have a different meaning entirely--and may even be a compliment.

Much the same is true here. Pretty much everyone understands that a white person directing the "n"word at a black person is being racist. But--within the black community (at least parts of it) and when used by and to each other, it has a different connotation.

And some people think sociology is a "easy" subject (sigh)! :)

Answer 3

the n word came from the word ***** which white people squished into ******. But now that they have freedom, they just call themselves the n word because their black and it doesn't hurt them.

But if a white person calls them it, that means they are racist. It depends if u are white or black or not. No one really cares if Asian or south Asian people say it or not. lol

Sorry for sayin the n word, i jus wanted to show you the word and the relation to *****.

Answer 4

I am still amazed at the ignorance of the American public. The answer is simple: Anyone ever heard of "connotation” and “denotation”? It’s inherent to the English language and even though the word has a history of use that means something specific. it like other words has taken on a different connotation as times or I should say people have changed. The connotation of a word can differ from culture to culture. If an African American uses the word “hoe” are they referring to a garden tool? If a white or European American uses the same word a bigger percentage of the time they are indeed referring to a garden tool. White people usually say “whore”. So as you can see connotation can change depending upon who is using the word.

Answer 5

My mom asks me this all the time.

It drives me crazy.

The thing is, black people are still hung up on that whole slavery issue. But WE had nothing to do with that. As far as I'm concerned, my ancestors were to busy killing the jews to give a damn about black people.

But I do understand it. For them, it's putting other black folks at their level, you know? It's like...hey, we're both black, we been through **** together, so this is who we are. And it's ok.

Yet, if a white person says it, it's just like we're trying to be on their level. And we're not. I don't mean "level" as a racist thing. I mean it as...like...homeboy closeness bonding thingie. Either that, or we mean it in a racist, derrogatory way. Which is wrong. And if I were black and someone directed the word to me in a racist, derragatory way, I'd rip them a new asshole, put their cellphone on vibrate, shove it up their ***, and call them until the damn battery died. then i'd replace the cell with a straw and blow in it.

Answer 6

John Lennon had a lyric that went, "Woman is the n*gger of society." I think basically the term n*gger was supposed to mean anyone who is ignorant, irregardless of their skin color, but somehow it got attached to Black people as a racial slur. See the definition below from Merriam Webster on-line under my sources.

In turn, some parts of Black culture (rap and hip-hop) co-opted this nasty label and made it a kind of badge of honor; namely, that being a "n*gger" is cool and means you don't let the "white man" or anyone else rule over you.

Answer 7

It's a term that white people used in slavery times to call blk people, like an animal. Why blk people can say it and not white people is kind of weird, but I guess it's because it's a joke when one of them says it and it's offensive when a white person does it.

N- word comes from the spanish word Nigro which means simply black.

Answer 8

it is racist to say that someone else can do something but I can't, if the differentiating factor is skin color.

In fact, in New York, there was a court case where a white man beat up a black man. In addition to the charge of assault and battery, they tried to add on the "hate crime" tag and entend his sentence because he used the N word during the fight. He won because they proved that the N word is a prevelant word used by millions of people to describe black people, so it can't be a racist hate crime to use such a prevelant word

Answer 9

Its a racist word. White people must avoid using it. I do not think it is right that Black people use it, either--it degrades all the suffering, all the struggles of leaders like Dr. King and Rosa Parks. Blacks should honor the race by not using that word.

Answer 10

This question gets asked about everyday.
No One should be saying the "N" word!

When other people say it they pronounce the "R"
at the end. When blacks use it, we don't say it the same way that it was used against us.

We took the word and now we use it for power and not pain. We took it and changed the pronunciation and the meaning.

When other people use it it's used as an insult because that's what all other races called us.

You guys can't use it anymore to degrade us!
We took it.
It's ours now.

But it's time to make a bigger change and stop saying it all together, but every year there's new youth, youth that feel powerful when they use it.
It's hard to get them to stop.
But it needs to stop.

Answer 11

It's all in the history. There is a load of awful stuff behind the word as white people have used it in reference to blacks over the past 200 years or so. Not so with blacks using it with other blacks.