5 ms·
Obviously the guy should have been fired if the intent was to offend or demean. Personally, I would never in any circumstances use the word. But do we or don't
by abnry 8y ago
Obviously the guy should have been fired if the intent was to offend or demean. Personally, I would never in any circumstances use the word. But do we or don't we want black culture to shape all of american culture? The word shows up in movies, TV shows, and music that white people consume and enjoy. When a word is offensive enough that it is derogatory when a white person uses it no matter the context, but okay for a black person, that is a cultural form of separate but equal. Either make the word something everybody can say or nobody can say. I vote the latter but if black people truly want to reclaim the word as a positive, then I am okay with that as long as anybody can use the word (at least with positive intent).
EDIT: Black people took a word that meant something horrible and made it into such a good thing among themselves that even white people want in on the goodness of the word. How is that not a huge cultural achievement that they should be proud of and allow the broader culture to take up? Doesn't it show the strength of their community to make something awful into something good?
- jaas 8y agoI think this is the best answer to your question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO15S3WC9pg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO15S3WC9pg
- abnry 8y agoThank you for sharing. I accept the first half of his argument, which is why I don't use certain words. However, Coates gives himself the freedom to use certain words he would not himself use in situ. The news article posted appears that there is a word that white people cannot utter in any context, even in describing why they don't use it.
- threatofrain 8y agoI think his context is as a speaker on stage speaking in a meta way. Did he successfully predict audience reaction?
- yycom 8y agoThe parent didn't ask for a link to a video, so a link to a video cannot be an answer to the question. Perhaps you could summarise or quote the part of the video that you believe answers the question.
- b6 8y agoThe speaker in your video used the word "faggot" the same way, with no intent to offend. How should he be punished? If we're going to have this debate via videos, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRJy48JWiHk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRJy48JWiHk
- booleandilemma 8y ago"To be black is to walk through the world and watch people doing things that you cannot do." Citation needed. It's 2018. We have had a black president. Don't use your skin color as an excuse for not achieving your goals. Does racism still exist? Sure, but not for black people more so than any other race.
- ceejayoz 8y ago> We have had a black president. Said black president had even the facts of his own birth challenged, including by the man who succeeded him in the backlash.
- b6 8y agoIf we're comparing how much they have been criticized and challenged, I'm sorry, I think Trump has Obama beat.
- ceejayoz 8y agoBirtherism is a baseless conspiracy theory. “Trump is a fuckup President” can at least be argued for. You’ll find even conservatives like George Will and Republican Senators doing so.
- pcwalton 8y agoYou're going to go with the verbs "criticize" and "challenge" to describe flagrantly racist birtherism nonsense? Really?
- rayiner 8y ago> Does racism still exist? Sure, but not for black people more so than any other race. Black people in the US make a third less income on average than white people. If this is not the result of racism (either ongoing or the lasting effects of past racism), then please tell me what causes that difference.
- tptacek 8y ago
- devoply 8y agoThe ownership of the n word is a metaphorical reparation for slavery. Its existence is a reminder that white people did something terribly wrong to black people. Much like Holocaust denial it's not just a logical construct but a blasphemous one.
- nailer 8y agoThe Holocaust is a fact. All white people being descendents of slave owners is not.
- nailer 8y agoI know HN etiquette isn't to complain about downvotea, but the idea that a single person disputes either of those statements is disturbing.
- abnry 8y agoTo me, if you want reparations, economic ones would be more helpful. As strict as the current cultural enforcement of the word is, I see it as only a way to divide and not a way for black culture to be part of all America.
- cfadvan 8y agoThe problem is that like “Black people” the phrase “White people” is meaningless. Plenty of people who Americans would lump together as “blacks” were never enslaved ( or had ancestors enslaved). Plenty of people Americans would lump together has “whites” had nothing to do with the slave trade. I’m of Russian descent for example, and no one in my admittedly very white family tree enslaved anyone of African descent. The whole world doesn’t have to answer to the crimes of Americans, Western Europe, and West Africa. That’s (presumably) your baggage, not mine. By contrast my ancestors have a lot to answer for where Tatars are concerned, and yet you fellow “white” person, had nothing to do with it.
- ironjunkie 8y agoI agree with you, and this is the whole issue with identity politics. It is all about categorizing people and assuming everything about them based on their groups. We should look at the individuals.