<p>Niquii, are you actually disputing that?</p>
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<p>[Straight</a> Talk about the N-Word | Teaching Tolerance](<a href=“http://www.tolerance.org/magazine/number-40-fall-2011/feature/straight-talk-about-n-word]Straight”>Straight Talk About the N-Word | Learning for Justice)</p>
<p>Also, open tolerance of the N word in rap music. Open tolerance in many movies with predominately black actors, writers, and director. Frequent discussions among African American leaders about use of the N word among African Americans. That enough evidence for you?</p>
<p>I’m not disputing it, but African Americans are not the only ones using the word. They’re the ones most open about. White people use it. Asians use it. My generation uses it.</p>
<p>A few months ago S2’s phone was beeping late at night, after he was asleep. I looked at it to see who was texting him. It turned out to be a friend who was actually texting him about a dozen times per day, and he used the n-word in almost every one. I looked at all the texts and S2 never used the word. I would have been surprised if he had. I talked to him the next day and told him to ask the friend not to text so often (many were during the school day) or so late, and most of all, not to use the n-word. S2 said that he and some other boys have asked this friend not to use the word, but he said that because he is half black, it is fine for him to use it. I asked him to tell the friend that we were offended by the word and to please not use it with S2. The friend, by the way, is a very sweet boy, who used the word in a matter-of-fact way, not in an angry or derogatory way. </p>
<p>I’m more or less baffled by this situation. A word that horrifies most people I know is used freely by black kids.</p>
<p>I was actually going to make a thread about this a while back. </p>
<p>I have black friends. They use it. I tell them they shouldn’t. They hold back on it. Not all black people use it. It’s definitely tied to one’s background and upbringing. </p>
<p>But white kids use it, too. Many parents would be surprised that Little Johnny uses the word.</p>
<p>Razorsharp, I’ll presume that you don’t have a lot of knowledge or information about the Jim Crow era in America, nor about the mores of the Dixieland of old.</p>
<p>What you seem to be confusing with that bygone era is the contemporary American penchant for casual vulgarity. Yes, young generations in America, including some young African-Americans, use that word too often. Where you lose most of us with your reasoning is your clear belief that displaying such ignorance is the norm for diligent and earnest ordinary African-Americans of sound mind. No. They hate it and in no way are acclimmated to its frequent use. Your subject group (your examples) are essentially some clueless kids (maybe even a lot of clueless kids) and idiot rappers. They alone do not a society make.</p>
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<p>Jim Crow ended in the mid-1960s. You can’t tell the difference between the mid 1960s and today? </p>
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<p>I am not confusing anything. You seem to be a bit confused, however. I think when African Americans use the N word they are engaging racist behavior. </p>
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<p>I didn’t say that. “Most of us?” I am guessing most of us is just you. </p>
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<p>How do you know?</p>
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<p>I didn’t say they made a society. Rap is major source of entertainment among African Americans and the N word is a favorite of rappers. And it’s been that way for a long time. I can remember the group N.W.A. in the 90s and my similar groups since then. Kendrick Lamar is popular today and he loves the N word. </p>
<p>My point was that the open use of the N word is by African Americans, not whites. Most whites know it is wrong to use the word, many African Americans think it is ok to use it so long as they are the ones using it. You have confirmed my point.</p>
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Do you think when other races use the N word they are engaging in racist behavior?</p>
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I’m surprised you didn’t use Lil Wayne…:rolleyes:</p>
<p>There is a glut of rappers that use the N word in every other line of their music, but what I feel you fail to realize, razor, is that those are the most popular rappers. Rappers that are listened to by a lot more races than just African Americans. Once you start going down the levels of popularity the word usage decreases.</p>
<p>Your blade is a bit dull today, Razorsharp. You’ve completely lost me with your line of “logic.”</p>
<p>Heard on the radio a little while ago that the Food Network has announced that they will not renew Paula Deen’s contract next month.</p>
<p>Sorry to hear that, Alwaysamom.</p>
<p>I’d have to know more about the “Plantation Party” she reportedly planned before I would even consider throwing her under the bus. Deen is friendly with Oprah and Gail, so I’d like to hear their take on this brewing tornado.</p>
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<p>Of course. The problem is that too many African Americans don’t think they are engaging in racist behavior when they use the N word. </p>
<p>I’m pretty sure I know a lot more about rap music than you do Niquii77. BTW, the N word isn’t my only concern with rap music. It’s funny how the FCC does not hesitate to sanction shock jocks, but seems to give a pass to music the portrays women as dogs.</p>
<p>As a foodie with an interest in nutrition and also someone generally concerned with public health, I’m not sorry. (I realize it won’t make a whit of difference.)</p>
<p>I’ve lived in Texas since I was 6 or so. I’ve heard one person EVER say the N word in my presence, and I was 24 years old at the time. Not only that, she (an elderly lady) used a term to describe a young black child that I had never even heard before. I was appalled and shocked. It sure wasn’t a common word in my world. Can’t speak for other southerners, though I’m not really sure Texans are considered southerners. I think we’re just called Texans, lol.</p>
<p>I don’t know who Paula’s PR people are but they are have randomly released three separate "apology"videos all somewhat awkward - three, pieced together random videos . The first one was quite poor in quality - looked like a definite paste and cut job!</p>
<p>In my lifetime, and in my own experience, the use and perception of the N word has changed considerably.</p>
<p>I grew up in a far northern, very small town. It was 100% white. I was seven, visiting extended family in Illinois the first time I saw and spoke to an African American. </p>
<p>In my small hometown, there were many phrases that kids used without really understanding what they meant. As we got older, and as the 1960’s and the civil rights movement and television ( and for me, my parents correcting me) taught us about the wider world, we kids learned to say:</p>
<p>Brazil nuts instead of N toes.
Dog pile (on Susie) instead of N pile.
Cheat instead of Jew down.
“Great tan.” instead of “Hey, N!”</p>
<p>I can only speak for myself, but as a small child playing in the neighborhood, yelling “N pile on Susie!” didn’t have any particular meaning beyond “Susie’s got the ball! Everyone tackle her!”
We had no context. It was like yelling “All ee all ee in free!” </p>
<p>I am appalled that we said those things, but they were said out of ignorance, by gangs of little kids. But if I was being deposed I would have to say that I had used the N word in my lifetime.</p>
<p>Please don’t flame me. I’m tellling this story about myself just to illustrate how I have grown, and how the world has changed in the past half century. We are all better people than we once were. (I never heard those phrases from an adult, ever. They were kid phrases, used out in the kid world of the neighborhood.)</p>
<p>^^^^^Thanks for telling your story. To hear some people tell it, there is no such thing as what you’ve described in the North/Northeast. It really does illustrate Maya Angelou’s quote “When you know better, you do better.”</p>
<p>So she will not renew her contract with the Food Network. Bets on if she will simply move the the Country Music Channel? </p>
<p>And this coming from a Midwestern redneck.</p>
<p>Growing up in Texas in the 60’s-if I had used the N-word I also would have had my mouth washed out with soap. (I did get my mouth washed out with soap from time to time-but for using other words!)</p>
<p>I grew up in the far north as well, but did not hear that word except in books. Maybe it was a different area. My parents had gone to college in NYC, and my mother was from there, so although I didn’t know any black people personally until I was a tween, they did not allow us to think our little world was the real one most people saw.</p>
<p>I dated two of the handful of black guys in my HS, my parents were fine with that. It was a family friend who was black, though, who really educated us as to what it was like to be black in a small New England town…</p>
<p>Fast forward to decades later and I’m in Seattle, married to a black guy who’s helped me realize that my childhood education didn’t begin to scratch the surface. It was in a town nearby where, a few years ago, my H was pointed at by a white toddler, who said, “Look, Mommy, an N!” It was here where my biracial D was called names by 4th nad 5th graders in one of the “better” schools in the city, here where H’s nephew was thrown off the bus with an “expired” transfer, while my (white) son had the same exact one and allowed on…But people like to think we’re above that here. It was also here where his race has affected his job.</p>
<p>H says he’d rather be called names and treated differently to his face, than have it hidden under pretext. We’ll be visiting the deep south next summer. We’re all interested to see what we discover there.</p>