The "N"word..

[OrlandoMike]

Just watched a story of Fox about what happened on the View today..

Here is the clip..

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3HWXej9N8Vg&feature=related

I guess my question is, do you think you can change the meaning of a word?

If your black, by using the N word at home does it make it easier to deal with idiots who use it the wrong way?

Handicapped?

Gay?

I know in our house, we drop the "F" word occasionally, and the last time a guy called me a F.....t! I laughed in his face! I wanted to say "Thats all you got?"

So what do you think? Are these words ever appropriate? Can you change the meaning of these words?

 

[foxysilver]

I think that word should be put to rest. As long there's a double standard surrounding it than it can't be changed. I don't think that one race should be able to say a word but the others can't. Obviously the N word is a horrible word w/ its original meaning, so until it can be completly changed to have a positive meaning that everyone can use than I don't think it should be used by anyone.

It kind of seemed to me like Whoopi was flaunting that she could say the word but Elizabeth couldnt. Whoopi kept repeating the whole word it & Elizabeth kept saying " nword". And as Elizabeth said, how do you explain that to a child?

 

[orlandomom]

Thanks for the clip Mike, I didn't get to see the show.

Yanno... most of the time I cringe at the thought of listening to Elizabeth, (she can be so narrow minded), but this time I have to agree with her. It seems as much as we take 5 steps forward in this equality evolution..... it ends up being 10 steps backward Why must we still live in different worlds? The Whoopie's and Jessie's of this world continue the racial setbacks with that way of thinking. Jessie is one of the biggest racist on the planet (IMHO) Why can't we accept people for WHO they are and not WHAT they are? How can we raise our children to respect others when they don't respect themselves?
I remember when the father of one of my daughters friends used the "n" word in our house.... she kicked him out!!!! and she was 9 or 10 at the time.
Perhaps I do live in another world..... I did raise my daughter correctly

stepping down now

 

[LukenDC]

I find the N word extremely offensive and will not associate with anyone who uses it. I ride the Metro to work each morning and a fair number of African-American teens get on to go to school. Several of them use the N word and it always bothers me. I also notice the look of hurt and resentment on the faces of older African-American riders when they hear kids using that word.

A diversity instructor in grad school summed it up best when she said that the N word "holds a lot of pain for all decent people in this country."

 

[Mackey Mouse]

I do not like the word and grew up during the times when it was used derogatorily against the African American people... I vowed as a child growing up then that if I had children, I would never allow anyone to use that word in front of them....nor would I. I did have children...and the grandparents who may have used the word in the past were instructed not around my children.. not in my house or in their presence. It is offensive and I have to say it still bothers me to hear it. I did not think it was a nice word then and I still don't......but, here is that big but, while I do not use the word or my family or my husband do not, I feel that if the African Americans want to use that word amongst themselves, I have no right to stop them. It is a free country.

Thanks for the link to the program, I did watch it and I understood where Elizabeth was coming from... and then I heard Whoopie and the other woman, who I did not recognize, say yeah well we can say it, but you cannot. Not sure how I feel about that except to say what I said above it is a free country and if they choose to refer to themselves in that manner.. then so be it.

 

[DisneyCheshire]

You can't exactly change the meaning of a word..It will always mean something different to other people. I mean things really got heated on the show, and Elizabeth really made sense. But honestly, why use negative words to begin with. I mean people use handicapped as a joke for someone who's playing stupid, that changes the word..but is it still right? No. I'm just voicing my opinion.

DC

 

[Timon-n-Pumbaa Fan]

Corey's sister, Joelle, was once married to an African American. They had two kids that both have the pigmentation of their father. Both of these kids use the N word. I cringe everytime they drop it and they drop it all of the time. I hate to hear the word. I realize that among people of color, it has a very different meaning, but in my head, it's meaning is wrapped in hate and it makes me horribly uncomfortable. I wish that it could be wiped from our vocabulary forever.

 

[DVCajun]

I'm sorry, that word is offensive, period. To me it's worse than the "C" word, or any other word I can think of. *Very* offensive. I grew up in Louisiana, and it was definitely used in a derogatory way. I now have a black son, and that's a word that will never fly at my house.

 

[TuckandStuiesMom]

IMHO it's an awful word -- too much ugly history,

 

[Vijoge]

I am white. My husband is white. We have three sons who are black and were all adopted as infants. My boys have never, ever, in their whole lives, heard either of us utter that word. And all three of them use it. My boys are 30, 28, and 19.

 

[mykidsintow]

I think its an awful word.... I don't think you should use it anymore than you should call your girlfriend the "C" word. I mean comeon... grow up. You can say its different because you are black, well its not. Its not a term of endearment. You are a moron to think it is.

My son does not hear the word. If he used it I would go off and I don't care if he is 55. He may get a mouth of soap.... I will *not* have it... or any other offensive word. There are quite a few words that people of different backgrounds think are acceptable.... but others can't use them. Its a big ole pot of hooey and I don't feel any of them should be used, period.

 

[OrlandoMike]

This is my take on it.

If a word has been used for generations against you, and you take posessition of that word, and re-work the meaning of it, then the word is no longer offensive to you. If you're black, and you hear from your friends..."Hey N! Whats up?" You get used to this word as just another word. So along comes some jerk, and he calls you a N, it really means nothing, it's no longer offensive.

I agree, as a White person I find it an offensive, terrible word, but I can see the other side of the story. I can see why Blacks use it.

Kind of like Shrek and I. We occasionally and jokingly call each other the F word. When a jerk calls me a F, It really does not bother me at all....

Years ago the word queer was thought to be very offensive, now one of the most popular shows on TV is Queer as Folk! Another example of taking ownership of a word?

 

[cdog12]

I usually don't post here but the titlte of the thread attracted me

Being blackI think the n word is a fine word and i occassionally use it.

iT;s all how on how it is suppose to mean.Like if i say hey N it's means you what's up hey friendetc.

but if is meant to be offensive then no it is not right then it is bad

I know a few white people who say who mean it a friendly matter

i have no problem with it

I see it's also part of our culture the word has been used against us for many years we turn the word into something good and that's bad ? id on't think so you tell me

This is like saying only black people can sing black music which is false i know many white hip hop r and b jazz etc artists my favorite is joss stone and robin thicke(justin timberlake is not rand b he is pop)

 

[TuckandStuiesMom]

This is a GREAT thread! I was really hoping an African American would find their way here and put up a post. THANK YOU cdog12!

I am certainly not a sociologist by any stretch of imagination but because of circumstances in my own life (recently brought to the forefront of my attention and documented/debated in excruciating detail elsewhere on this board -- LOL!)I'm somewhat familiar with the work of Robert Park and his work on "marginal groups". BTW -- "marginal" in this context is, in NO WAY, related to its definition in psychology.
From Wiki: "At the University of Chicago, where American sociology became involved more with people than with methodology, Robert Ezra Park developed the idea of a marginal personality (Park & Burgess, 1921). He postulated that the loyalties that bind persons together in primitive societies are in direct proportion to the intensity of the fears and hatreds with which they view other societies. This concept is developed as theories of ethnocentrism and in-group/out-group propensities. Group solidarity correlates to a great extent with animosity toward an out-group." -- Billie Davis, Marginality in a Pluralistic Society
and
"The marginal man...is one whom fate has condemned to live in two societies and in two, not merely different but antagonistic cultures....his mind is the crucible in which two different and refractory cultures may be said to melt and, either wholly or in part, fuse." -- Robert E. Park, 1937


Who knows -- maybe we REALLY ARE moving past the whole "we/they" thing. Wouldn't that be a totally awesome incredible thing?!?!

 

[SanFranciscan]

I will subscribe to this so that I can read the other replies since I have to get moving to go to work. I will say this though. These "Do as I say, not as I do" types have never gotten any respect from me.

I am thinking much more, but it is too undiplomatic for Disney boards because I am really fed up with certain groups wearing their bigotry like a badge of honor while screaming the R word at others over every little thing. I support gay marriage and so forth because that is just a matter of fairness. However, if gays had the same double standards as I am expected to put up with on the basis of race, I would be in the pews of these right-wing anti-gay churches myself.

 

[idieh]

This is easy for me to say...I'm a white, Angelo Saxon male. But words are just that..words. There are lots of them; they are often misspelled and usual improperly used, but they are harmless. I tell me son (age 9) that they can only hurt you if you let them.

That being said, however, I cannot imagine how the aged black gentlemen sitting on the train feels when he hears the youth of today use the N word with every breath! To him it was not a term of endearment!

 

[mykidsintow]

I usually don't post here but the titlte of the thread attracted me

Being blackI think the n word is a fine word and i occassionally use it.

iT;s all how on how it is suppose to mean.Like if i say hey N it's means you what's up hey friendetc.

but if is meant to be offensive then no it is not right then it is bad

I know a few white people who say who mean it a friendly matter

i have no problem with it

I see it's also part of our culture the word has been used against us for many years we turn the word into something good and that's bad ? id on't think so you tell me

This is like saying only black people can sing black music which is false i know many white hip hop r and b jazz etc artists my favorite is joss stone and robin thicke(justin timberlake is not rand b he is pop)

So if ALL black people had this idea then it would be an ok word!

However, on the video Whoopie or the oher chic clearly states to Elizabeth "I DON'T want to hear that word out of YOUR mouth." Well you are her friend, why not?

Why is it ok for you to use it and not for Elizabeth to use it, if she is your friend. Its a double standard and wrong, in my not-so-humble-opinion.

 

[cdog12]

So if ALL black people had this idea then it would be an ok word! Yes :0

However, on the video Whoopie or the oher chic clearly states to Elizabeth "I DON'T want to hear that word out of YOUR mouth." Well you are her friend, why not?Because you don't know how she intends it to be (being she is white it may be hard to interpret)

Why is it ok for you to use it and not for Elizabeth to use it, if she is your friend. Its a double standard and wrong, in my not-so-humble-opinion.

Before i say anything i am suscribing to this thread as well,as i see your views interesting

 

[DVCajun]

o if ALL black people had this idea then it would be an ok word! Yes :0

However, on the video Whoopie or the oher chic clearly states to Elizabeth "I DON'T want to hear that word out of YOUR mouth." Well you are her friend, why not?Because you don't know how she intends it to be (being she is white it may be hard to interpret)

But if she is her friend, it would seem that her meaning would clearly be affectionate. Where's the confusion?

 

[TinkerChelle]

Wowzer! Never expected this thread on the DisBoards!

My brain isn't quite ready this Sunday morning to articulate all I feel on this topic. BUT, i'll give it a try:

I am a gay, jewish woman who is married to gay (obviously!) jewish, Bi-racial woman. Her father is African American and her mother is white. So, half of my extended family is African American. Her grandfather is in his late 90s and still lives in Mississippi where he has lived his whole life. He grew up in the segregated South! While I do not feel comfortable speaking for him, I can tell you that if the N word was uttered anywhere around him-you would be asked to leave immediately! My father-in-law, who is one of the most caring men I have ever met-taught his family this golden rule: "If you speak as if you are ignorant-then you will be treated ignorantly!" In other words, if you dumb down or speak improper English or in "slang" then you can expect others to treat you as if you are dumb. This is coming from a man who grew up in the South in the 60s.

BUT

As a gay woman, I do undersand the ownership of a word. This is what I believe Whoopi was trying to explain to Elizabeth. I use the word dy** frequently and the word queer, etc. BUT I own that word! These words are part of WHO I AM. Now, if someone came up to me and called me a ****-it might sting a little but I could easily laugh it off and say "yes, so what's your point?"