3 ms·

> For non-Black people, the word should not be spoken as there is almost no context in which it is appropriate or constructive (even when singing a song or read

> For non-Black people, the word should not be spoken as there is almost no context in which it is appropriate or constructive (even when singing a song or reading a script) Alright, I'll ask it: why? Or, perhaps a better question: how can you justify saying that there are situations in which it is constructive for a black person to say it but not for a white person? Is this not simply its own form of racism? As a word, I understand that it has cultural charge, but why should people's right to speak a word be derived simply from who they happened to be born to, an event completely outside of their control?

dwaltrip 8y ago
There's no "rights" at play here. It's just moral and social norms. Black people took ownership of the word. White people using it is disrespectful to that fact, as well as to the complex, terrible history and large impacts that history is still having even today.
- earenndil 8y ago
  Once again, I ask: why, because someone happens to be born black, do they get 'ownership' of the word? What does it even mean for an ethnic group to have ownership of a word? A single word doesn't have enough meaning to express a complete idea.
  - dwaltrip 8y ago
    You don't have to agree that they have ownership. There are some people who disagree. It's an emergent phenomenon. There is no committee that decides this. But you would be fighting a difficult uphill battle, one that doesn't seem to have much upside (from my perspective). The word's complex meaning is found in its enormously rich historical and cultural contexts.
  - pvg 8y ago
    This is a very common, slightly less obvious variant of 'how come there is no white history month'. You can google your way to plenty of discussions of it, including a recently very popular Ta-Nehisi Coates video.
- echaozh 8y ago
  What about other minorities that have never repressed the black using the n-word? What if the white people invent some other insulting words to replace the n-word? Do the black people automatically own those words as well? Say, after the word becomes enough popular? I think censoring the language never solves the problem. The attitude is much more important. If by chance a black person is a racist toward other black people, and using the n-word to humiliate other black people, his use of the word should be as offensive as the white, right?

dwaltrip 8y ago

There's no "rights" at play here. It's just moral and social norms. Black people took ownership of the word. White people using it is disrespectful to that fact, as well as to the complex, terrible history and large impacts that history is still having even today.

earenndil 8y ago
Once again, I ask: why, because someone happens to be born black, do they get 'ownership' of the word? What does it even mean for an ethnic group to have ownership of a word? A single word doesn't have enough meaning to express a complete idea.
- dwaltrip 8y ago
  You don't have to agree that they have ownership. There are some people who disagree. It's an emergent phenomenon. There is no committee that decides this. But you would be fighting a difficult uphill battle, one that doesn't seem to have much upside (from my perspective). The word's complex meaning is found in its enormously rich historical and cultural contexts.
- pvg 8y ago
  This is a very common, slightly less obvious variant of 'how come there is no white history month'. You can google your way to plenty of discussions of it, including a recently very popular Ta-Nehisi Coates video.
echaozh 8y ago
What about other minorities that have never repressed the black using the n-word? What if the white people invent some other insulting words to replace the n-word? Do the black people automatically own those words as well? Say, after the word becomes enough popular? I think censoring the language never solves the problem. The attitude is much more important. If by chance a black person is a racist toward other black people, and using the n-word to humiliate other black people, his use of the word should be as offensive as the white, right?