I don't use the "n-word," and I consider whites who do to be scum.

[Archae]

But why do some blacks use it with near-impunity?
Especially in (c)rap music circles?

[bayareamike]

1. Crap music?

[Archae]

29. I like Will Smith, and that tune "I Like Big Butts."

It's that horrible "gangsta (c)rap that is just plain shit.

"Gonna shoot a cop/gonna bang my ho/cuss cuss cuss"

[bayareamike]

32. Well

Since I'm not black I don't feel too comfortable answering the actual question that you asked, but I will say that there is plenty of thoughtful, meaningful rap/hip hop out there. I'm a big hip hop head myself. Not all of it is "gonna shoot a cop/gonna bang my ho/cuss cuss cuss".

[cali]

2. OK, I''m not black, but I think the use of it among blacks

is at least partly and attempt to reconfigure the word, to make it their own. Maybe I'm wrong, but who cares? Isn't it enough for us as white people to simple NOT fucking use a word that's so freighted with historical pain and injustice.

Oh, and we don't deserve applause or kudos for not using it. It's the bare minimum of what we could and should do.

[TeamsterDem]

7. Excellent post. That's exactly how I feel. nt

[99Forever]

25. I couldn't agree more.

Nor do I think it's up to me to figure out the why of all of this. It's enough for me to know that I'm not contributing to something that we should have ended long ago.

[Incitatus]

3. Is a gay man calling another gay man a fag the same as a straight guy calling a gay man a fag?

[HillWilliam]

18. As a gay man, I'll chime in

It's a hateful word no matter who uses it. I'd correct a gay man as quickly for using it as I would a str8 man. It's in the same class as the N word or C word -- never to be used for any reason by anybody.

Some words need to die in order for all of us to move forward. Name-calling shames the person calling a name more than it does the one a name is hurled at.

[Behind the Aegis]

4. 3 possible reasons.

Linguistically

There is something called "in-group solidarity." Basically, it means those within the group have a certain vocabulary. It also means there are words used, while offensive if used by others, don't carry the same weight/meaning when it is someone within the group using it.

Psychological

Some may use it as a deterrent to abuse suffered by others who have used it against them.

Sociological

It can also be used by the "in-group" as a method of removing power from a historic slander, and actually diffusing the word for others in the group who are encountering the word by those who have typically used the word to humiliate and degrade them. It can also be used to generate comments, such as in your example, in order to cause some to explore possible issues of internalized racism (in this case).

[Ecumenist]

5. I'm black and I HATE rap music, (with a few exceptions) mainly for the disparaging language that

you too often hear directed at women. Using the word n****r in rap music BOTHERS me to the nth degree. I've said it once and I'll say it again. if using the word could reconfigure the word and by extension, make it disappear, it would have been obsolete over 100 years ago.

[seabeyond]

17. i agree. nt

[HillWilliam]

19. For that reason exactly

I don't like rap. The language isn't "cute" or disarming in the least. Just like the post above, I cringe when I hear other gay people use "fag". I HATE that word and us using it doesn't disarm or soften it in the least. As I saw posted earlier in the week, "some words need to die". Amen.

[Nye Bevan]

20. Yep. The misogyny in rap bothers me more than the use of the "n" word.

I'm not quoting any lyrics but here is a link: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/drdre/bitchesaintshit.html

[Marrah_G]

26. Me too

There is alot of it I just can't listen to.

IMHO, having men talking so badly about women, using such disgusting language, making their worth only about the sexual satisfaction of a man, makes much of it unlistenable to me.

Now rap that isn't like that, is poetry in motion and I think alot of it is great.

[bayareamike]

33. There is A LOT of hip hop out there that doesn't use "disgusting language"

Not sure that quoting Dr. Dre is the most relevant example...maybe if it was the late 1990s, you know?

[Marrah_G]

36. Oh- I didnt mean to say I don't like hip hop or rap

Just not the ones that are really nasty.

[bayareamike]

34. Here's an example from a great West Coast MC

God is love, then Hatin' is Satan
This anti-patience has got me sittin here waitin
For the day when it's ok to love
When black men won't pretend they're thugs
When teachers and doctors are treated like celebrities
You could get a job even if you got a felony
Check out my melody, let's live in harmony
We're in this together, no man has a conomy
No man is an island, immune to the violence
This rap race is no place to raise a child in
What's wrong with smiling? What's wrong with peace?
What's wrong is squashing people before they label you deceased?
Swallow your pride before you choke on your issues
I know you got family and folks that'll miss you
So don't misuse this gift you've been given
This life's but a dream, you're blessed to be livin

From Murs' "Everything"

[hlthe2b]

6. I really don't get the whole "reappropriate terms long considered slurs" thing

No, I don't get rap musicians or other African Americans doing so with the "N" word. But, that is their choice to do so, I guess. I know it pains many older African Americans to hear it casually tossed around. They were around to see the horrific sting associated with it, but their views don't seem to matter.


But, I also have to admit I still cringe when I hear the word "Queer" used--even though GLBT has "reclaimed" it. Obviously that is for the GLBT community to determine but I still remember a time when the term was used in the most ugly of ways and it bothers me. I certainly will not use it.

And, I become incensed when the "C" word is used--particularly by women who were fortunate enough to never have felt it's intended sting.

No, I don't get it. But, the OP is really going to be pissing some folks off with the derisive reference to rap. It may not be my favored genre either, but I can appreciate that not all rap is alike and it has transcended race and culture to become an international phenomenon, adapted to cultures the world over. So, I give it its due.

[HillWilliam]

21. I realize that younguns have claimed "queer"

but I still find it deeply offensive. When I was growing up, it was an epithet worse than the N word. Being black "could" get you dead. Being "queer" definitely would. That was a fightin' word, no doubt. I still feel like it's a fightin' word.

[Shankapotomus]

8. Probably because

there's no way to mean it if you're African American. Yes?

[tclambert]

9. I disagree with Oprah on this one. Jeff Foxworthy destroyed the insult value of "red neck"

by making it a joke. That's how you take away the power of a once offensive term. Forbidding anyone to say it gives it MORE power, precisely because it's forbidden.

[cali]

10. redneck was never the potent insult that the n word was and is. Never.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

13. Correct.

Even though when I use it, it is dripping with disdain.

[panzerfaust]

15. "The problem with you is you will always be a nigger"

Scotland Yard is facing a racism scandal after a black man used his mobile phone to record police officers subjecting him to a tirade of abuse in which he was told: "The problem with you is you will always be a nigger" ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/mar/30/police-racism-black-man-abuse

This is why the n-word is so potent ... it has long, and still is, used by those in power to keep their foot on the neck of black people.

[surrealAmerican]

11. The "marketplace" for art and music is so crowded ...

... that, in order to get people listening, some artists will try to shock their audience. It's basically the same as using other forms of profanity, except for one thing: it defines and limits who you intend your audience to be. It's a way of saying, "this is OUR music - not YOUR music", which is a common characteristic of popular music in the last half-century or more.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

12. I think black people who use it are idiots.

And it bugs the crap out of me that when one of them uses proper grammar they tell them they are "talking white." No. They're just not into being idiots. It makes me crazy. My friend at work's mom taught them to speak properly, now she tells them that. Seriously? THAT'S HOW YOU RAISED THEM! Makes me INSANE!

[Smarmie Doofus]

14. Many problems ensue when this topic is raised.

And a myriad of paradoxes.

What about someone who's 1/2 AA ? Is she or he be allowed to use it?

How about 25% AA? Can he/she use it 25% of the time?

What about someone who's 25% AA , 50% Dominican, 25% caucasian?

What about dark-complected Sicilians wearing hip-hop attire?

What if the users are non-AA *kids*? What if they are hanging out in mixed-race groups?

I live in the Bronx. None of these scenarios are in the remotest way hypothetical. They are reality itself.

[madokie]

16. Add my name in there too as I agree with you 100%

I correct any and all when I hear this word. Personally I've come a long way in this direction in my life.
I was in the first grade when I seen my first black person in person and then it was years later before I seen another, Hispanics was another case where I didn't know or see any until I was grown. You see where I grew up all there was living there then was poor whites and Cherokees. I love my Cherokee brothers and sisters, partly because I understand their plight and partly due to my Cherokee blood. I adore my President and first family as I feel this man is in my corner as JFK was, as Carter was. I am color blind even though I can see all hues.

[HillWilliam]

24. I grew up in western NC

I started school in only had one school; elementary through high school in two big buildings. We all went to school together and didn't think anything of it. I never heard the N word until I was in fourth grade. I honestly didn't know what it meant, so I asked my granddad. He sighed sadly and sat down on the front porch, asking me to sit with him. He told me that there are some words that some people use to try to keep other people down. Those words weren't allowed in the house, not even childish name-calling (like "stupid&quot between my brother and me.

My parents and grandparents taught us that name-calling shames the person calling a name more than it does the person a name is being called at. I still feel that way.

We were gawdawful poor, but we had dignity. Pleasant speech was considered part of a dignified, gracious existence. If you want peace, sow peace.

BTW, I share a few drops of Cherokee blood. I'm melungeon: that's an Appalachian mix of about everything, including Native American. The used to call melungeons "black Irish" or POCs. There's a lot of ugly, oppressive history that fell on melungeon people.

[alcibiades_mystery]

22. Wow...white folks very concerned about non-white folks use of language

There's a new thing in the world!

[Marrah_G]

23. Because it's their right to use it

And I am sure they think the music you like is crap too.

[cbrer]

27. The biggest problem with those words

IMHO, is that it diverts attention that needs to be spent on problems that we can solve. As a society. I wish there was a magic formula to make people less sensitive, and hateful.

[polly7]

28. I believe because that for so long it was used against them as bigoted, racist term of hatred

they have the right to claim it and use it in any way they please. I'm not being snarky, I just think it's empowering to take something that's hurt you deeply and use it yourself, for whatever reason you like.

[RebelOne]

30. My son is an Obama supporter,

but he uses the "N" word. He was born in Florida, but lived in Alabama and Mississippi with his father since he was 12 years old, so he learned that word in those red racist states. But I moved to Georgia from South Florida and convinced him and his wife to move here. I am still trying to erase that word from his vocabulary.

[agenda 21.]

31. It's a sign of lack of class.

(C)rap is coarse, base stuff. So is the N-word and the rest of them. Unfortunately, we are far, far away from songs like "Blackbird" and "The Circle Game." It's all about crass materialism, dumbed-down mentality, vulgarity, and zero musical and poetic talent.

[MrSlayer]

35. The only time I do say is when I'm rapping along with Ice Cube.

Or whatever gangsta rap I happen to be listening to. Other than that I completely agree with you. I call people out on it all the time. Of course I get looked at like I'm the one who is wrong. It's kind of amazing that this sort of thing goes on as much as it does.

I have no explanation as to why rappers and the like use it as often as they do.

[Iggo]

37. I consider anybody who uses it to be, well...

...not welcome at my house.

Use it in my house, you're out the door.

Use it in your house, I'm out the door.

[Zax2me]

38. Because they can, with impunity, while whites cannot.

The same applies to 'black boy' which is forbidden - yet you hear blacks refer to white men as whiteboy frequently.
Basically, pettiness.

[jp11]

39. Absolutes are awesome.

[sendero]

40. That is of no concern to me..

.. but as a white person it is a word I would never use in any context.