6 ms·

How the N-Word Became Unsayable

45 points by georgecmu 6y ago

_hao 6y ago
The N-Word: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqwj--wGEgY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqwj--wGEgY
- mgerullis 6y ago
  When I was 16. I lived in the US for an exchange year and one of the cultural differences was how people dealt with profanity. I was baffled at how people tried to avoid bad words, yet still clearly invoking that word in my head. A few examples include: friggin, what the fudge/heck, gosh, darn it... Whereas I back in Germany it would be socially accepted to say these things as they are.
  - mcphage 6y ago
    > I was baffled at how people tried to avoid bad words, yet still clearly invoking that word in my head. Because it’s the word itself which is the problem. If you substitute a different word, then you’re saying a different word. > Whereas I back in Germany it would be socially accepted to say these things as they are. German doesn’t have euphemisms?
    - mgerullis 6y ago
      > Because it’s the word itself which is the problem. If you substitute a different word, then you’re saying a different word. You are right but that’s exactly the point the video is making. By trying to avoid saying the bad thing you still invoke the bad thing. > German doesn’t have euphemisms? Maybe but generally it’s not common.
sgt 6y ago
Used to have friends who regularly used words like "nigger" and "faggot", the latter was heavily part of 90s 2000s culture. South Park didn't help. Most people didn't care. It's very clear when it's used against someone to be nasty as opposed to being a joke or simply being mentioned in an article. We can't make jokes anymore because of the sheer amounts of trolls on the Internet.
kome 6y ago
That's a curious, almost etymological story of the world. But unfortunately the sociological and political consequences of this erasure are not really explored. Personally, saying "n-word" instead of "nigger", makes resonate the slur louder in my brain, am I they only one? Isn't creating a taboo getting the opposite effect of what it meant to? To me, this is follows some trend in North American political thinking that mixes language with reality. Like new Harry Potters*, some people think that language build and modify reality, but it is not like this. Modifying the language, doesn't even start to scratch the underlying problems. It just makes people to "feel" better, as if they are doing something, but they are just playing with language, in quite a hypocritical way. This feeling of relief may in fact hinder dealing with the structural problems underlying racism, that they mostly consist of redistribution of money and opportunities for a better and more inclusive welfare, education, healthcare and jobs. * https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/01/harry-potter-magic-liberalism-fantasy-fetishism https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/01/harry-potter-magic-libera... "Liberals love Harry Potter because it presents a world they desperately wish was a reality — one where the magic of facts and reason and elite education were enough to vanquish the ills of society."
LootCrateDev 6y ago
N
tway4cani4 6y ago
Has it become unsayable on 4chan?
Freak_NL 6y ago
In the Netherlands in the past two decades the word 'neger' (which corresponds roughly, but not exactly, to the American use of 'negro') has become a taboo word too, although it was already something you wouldn't use on its own for most of the twentieth century. The popular sweet known as chocolate-coated marshmallow treats was called 'negerzoen' in Dutch (negro's kiss) in the recent past, and it was boldly emblazoned on its packaging. An increase in awareness of racism and the impact of such names has led to it being abolished completely (the sickly sweet product is now known simply as 'kisses'). Nowadays that word is something you would only use to refer to the historic product name, or to explicitly show how you are 'resisting the woke trend'. It is now a word that that one older uncle might use at a family gathering, but otherwise it's pretty much gone and younger generations will marvel at it ever being used. Such is linguistic change. An aside: oddly enough Dutch language Wikipedia insists on using this outdated racist word for the lemma on this treat, because (in my experience with on a variety of topics) Dutch language Wikipedia editors are rather conservative in such issues and seem to hate certain linguistic shifts. To this Dutchman it comes across as thinly veiled racism under the guise of encyclopaedic integrity. This change happened alongside awareness of the change surrounding the 'N-word' in America, so recently in opinion pieces and public debate in Dutch people are using 'N-woord' in Dutch as well. But here something odd happened. The N-word refers specifically to 'nigger' in American use, which in Dutch has a rough approximation in the quite rude and outdated 'nikker', but nowadays here the 'N-word' seems to refer almost exclusively to 'neger' (or 'nigger' when used in English lyrics in a Dutch context, for example by Dutch rappers). Is this broadening of the scope something that happens just here, or is 'negro' also slowly falling under the definition of the N-word in the US? The taboo surrounding the spelling out of that word leads to 'N-word' leading its own semantic life, which is sometimes a bit confusing. It doesn't matter much in the grand scope of things (both words are frankly unnecessary for the most part outside of historic contexts, and are broadly seen as racist), but I find it interesting nonetheless.
- nonomaybeyes 6y ago
  The Dutch equivalent word is actually "nikker", but that is so much taboo that many youths will never have heard about it.
roenxi 6y ago
There is a certain sort of person who will be looking into the meaning of the word to find out what is offensive about it. And then getting confused because the etymology is "black" which is descriptive rather than prejudiced. The actual point, and the reason for the strange tip-toeing, is to do with some very rational effects around how groups signal. Any minority is always at risk from a majority. It helps to have a signal that can only be explained as a gesture of respect and which can therefore be interpreted as a sign that the majority isn't going to go genocidal (or even just dangerously exclusionary) at the drop of a hat. In the grand scheme of things, it is pretty reasonable to ban almost exactly one word as a gesture of respect, simply to show that an important part social contract is still holding. In amongst all the PC silliness of the world I'm glad there is a part that I can rationalise and support. It makes a lot of sense from a lot of angles. I'm not so convinced of this professor's article though, it reads a bit like someone who enjoys writing and likes words but hasn't thought enough about how social groups work to pull out the pattern.
- smhost 6y ago
  The taboo also signals the majority group's inability to confront the real conflict at the heart of the racial relation. You're exactly right that the taboo is a form of white supremacist signaling. I'm not surprised that that makes you feel better about the taboo.
- andreskytt 6y ago
  The interesting part is how this notion of the word being a slur expands. A Kenya-born person living in Estonia is likely to consider the word “neeger” a slur despite it never having had this connotation before the Internet arrived. And it is increasingly used as one, too. Which is why people are increasingly avoiding the word - no reason to be deliberately offensive. Curious how global culture can indirectly influence language.
bloak 6y ago
The article has some interesting data points, where the author reports his own experience, but it doesn't really answer the question in the title, and where the author goes beyond his own experience he makes some claims that need further exploration, I think. 1. The etymology of “aethiops” is uncertain. It was believed in ancient times that the word meant “burnt-face” but that may be just folk etymology. See the Oxford English Dictionary or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia#Etymology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia#Etymology 2. The connection he makes with Robert Burns and Winnie-the-Pooh seems like a wild bit of unsubstantiated speculation. OED confirms that Robert Burns wrote: "How graceless Ham leugh at his Dad, Which made Canaan a niger [rhyme vigour, rigour, tiger]." But what's the connection between an 18th-century Scottish poet, A. A. Milne, and an American children's rhyme?
- jgwil2 6y ago
  Just that "tigger" actually is how the word tiger was once pronounced, and there's a character in Pooh named Tigger. The connection to the children's rhyme is that we now say "catch a tiger by the tail," and in view of the above pronunciation of tiger as "tigger," you should be able to infer how the rhyme originally went (replace tail with toe so it actually rhymes with moe).
  - bloak 6y ago
    I'm not saying it's untrue, because I certainly don't know for sure, but what evidence is there that "tiger" was pronounced like "tigger" in America at a time that overlaps with the appearance of the children's rhyme? The article presents evidence that "tiger" rhymed with "vigour" in Scottish, but perhaps they both rhymed with "eager", not with "bigger". In Scotland. In the 18th century.
    - jgwil2 6y ago
      It's an opinion piece, it doesn't need to present evidence for everything it says. Take the thirty seconds to look it up on Wikipedia if you want to see all the details.
docdeek 6y ago
Not American but recently listened to the Audible edition of John Grisham's 'A Time to Kill' and the word is used dozens if not hundreds of times. Grating to hear but added to the story about race in a way that an alternative could not.
- adamrezich 6y ago
  classic book, and the movie is great too
shill4humanity 6y ago
I think it's just a test to see how far out western media reaches. Hopefully far enough towards all experiencing inequality so they can pick out a word they can also ban. Just be left with one indiscriminatory word - money. lmao America the controller of world speech
rotidodol 6y ago
Simple, just say nigga
rainworld 6y ago
It’s not just that word. You’re not allowed to say anything negative about blacks as a group. You’re putting yourself in hot water saying something deservedly negative about an individual. Some pointers for those desperate to torch their career: Mention the fact that they commit at least 56% of the murders (FBI stats 2019). Mention that crime and murder are way up thanks to last years racial reckoning. Mention that the perpetrators of hate crimes, anti-asian and otherwise, are overwhelmingly black. Mention intellectual, academic performance. Mention IQ. Best thing is you don’t even have to mean anything by that, intent has become irrelevant. Land of the free, home of the brave.
- mgerullis 6y ago
  You forgot to mention that the vast majority of mass shooters are white.
  - rainworld 6y ago
    It will surprise you to hear that that’s not true, but you’re forgiven for thinking so, given the state of american media. Admittedly, blacks tend to produce more wounded rather than kills. It will also surprise you to hear that long guns (i.e. AR-15) are involved only in a small percentage of crimes (including mass shootings) involving firearms. The vast majority of such crimes is committed with handguns, many unlicenced.
    - Hasnep 6y ago
      > Between 1982 and April 2021, 66 out of the 123 mass shootings in the United States were carried out by white shooters. By comparison, the perpetrator was African American in 21 mass shootings, and Latino in 10. When calculated as percentages, this amounts to 53 percent, 17 percent and eight percent respectively. https://www.statista.com/statistics/476456/mass-shootings-in-the-us-by-shooter-s-race/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/476456/mass-shootings-in...
      - rainworld 6y ago
tragomaskhalos 6y ago
Not to detract from the main point of the article, but the general linguistic Puritanism of Americans it describes is very startling to British (and, I am sure, Australian) ears - here, even an old person would never be so coy as to utter "gosh darn it", and the first time I encountered the term 'restroom' (as a tourist in an American airport) I actually laughed out loud, suspecting a joke.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
  Is it purely linguistic, though? I'd say the language reflects the mind.
- StavrosK 6y ago
  Off topic, but tragomaskhalos is such a fun word, I'm going to implement it into my daily speech.
smitty1e 6y ago
What garbage. There is an entire genre of sound celebrating this anagram of "ginger". I jokingly call this verbal nitroglycerin the #BiggerDiggerTrigger just to laugh at our collective silliness. Will Arnold Schwarzenegger be forced to change his name to appeas the Woke godz? To hell with this mess, say I.
randompwd 6y ago
> But today, for Tom to even mention the word at all would be considered beyond the pale — so to speak. Hmmm, maybe a bit too cutesy covering the etymology of a racist slur and then using a different racist slur in a light hearted manner) Beyond the pale being historical phrase to refer something savagery(Dublin being the Pale, rest of Ireland being outside it), which was anti-Irish racism by the Brits at it's finest.
- wankeler 6y ago
  Still in current usage and almost entirely disconnected from historical context. And while we are being so critical of evil Brits I’m sure the phrase has never been uttered by native Dubliners giving their own view of the largely rural regions of their own country? Edit: BTW are you actually suggesting the Irish of the time were a race apart from other indigenous people of the British Isles?
  - stavros 6y ago
    > Edit: BTW are you actually suggesting the Irish of the time were a race apart from other indigenous people of the British Isles? Where did you get that from?
    - wankeler 6y ago
      Well if the Brits are making racist comments about the Irish it rather suggests they are a different race or prone to putting themselves down. Ah, hold on a moment …
    - extra88 6y ago
      randompwd described "beyond the pale" as a racist slur and an example of anti-Irish racism. Sounds like they're calling Irish people a race to me. Or they're confused and think "racist" is synonymous with "bigot." It's not, it's bigotry against people of a certain race (or not of a certain race). I've seen a couple of instances of people using "racist" when race wasn't a factor; they meant "bigot" or "prejudiced" and I assumed they didn't have a broad vocabulary that included those more accurate words.
hirundo 6y ago
I wish the problem was isolated to just a few words that I could learn and avoid. But not so much. I couple of years ago I went to a small hardware store to buy a shovel. I couldn't find what I needed so asked the clerk, who looked at me strangely and got prickly and hostile, like I was weirdo asking for something weird. They didn't have what I wanted and I left. About a week later it dawned on me. The clerk was a black man, the only one in the village. I had asked for spade, the kind of shovel with a pointy end for breaking ground. Apparently he had taken it as a slur, and that I had been playing some kind of game with him. Sorry about that. I suppose I should have asked for a shovel with a pointy end.
- dekhn 6y ago
  I've heard people say this ("spade is a bad word") but I think it's entirely regional.

45 points by georgecmu 6y ago

_hao 6y ago

The N-Word: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqwj--wGEgY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqwj--wGEgY

mgerullis 6y ago
When I was 16. I lived in the US for an exchange year and one of the cultural differences was how people dealt with profanity. I was baffled at how people tried to avoid bad words, yet still clearly invoking that word in my head. A few examples include: friggin, what the fudge/heck, gosh, darn it... Whereas I back in Germany it would be socially accepted to say these things as they are.
- mcphage 6y ago
  > I was baffled at how people tried to avoid bad words, yet still clearly invoking that word in my head. Because it’s the word itself which is the problem. If you substitute a different word, then you’re saying a different word. > Whereas I back in Germany it would be socially accepted to say these things as they are. German doesn’t have euphemisms?
  - mgerullis 6y ago
    > Because it’s the word itself which is the problem. If you substitute a different word, then you’re saying a different word. You are right but that’s exactly the point the video is making. By trying to avoid saying the bad thing you still invoke the bad thing. > German doesn’t have euphemisms? Maybe but generally it’s not common.

sgt 6y ago

Used to have friends who regularly used words like "nigger" and "faggot", the latter was heavily part of 90s 2000s culture. South Park didn't help. Most people didn't care. It's very clear when it's used against someone to be nasty as opposed to being a joke or simply being mentioned in an article. We can't make jokes anymore because of the sheer amounts of trolls on the Internet.

kome 6y ago

That's a curious, almost etymological story of the world. But unfortunately the sociological and political consequences of this erasure are not really explored. Personally, saying "n-word" instead of "nigger", makes resonate the slur louder in my brain, am I they only one? Isn't creating a taboo getting the opposite effect of what it meant to? To me, this is follows some trend in North American political thinking that mixes language with reality. Like new Harry Potters*, some people think that language build and modify reality, but it is not like this. Modifying the language, doesn't even start to scratch the underlying problems. It just makes people to "feel" better, as if they are doing something, but they are just playing with language, in quite a hypocritical way. This feeling of relief may in fact hinder dealing with the structural problems underlying racism, that they mostly consist of redistribution of money and opportunities for a better and more inclusive welfare, education, healthcare and jobs. * https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/01/harry-potter-magic-liberalism-fantasy-fetishism https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/01/harry-potter-magic-libera... "Liberals love Harry Potter because it presents a world they desperately wish was a reality — one where the magic of facts and reason and elite education were enough to vanquish the ills of society."

LootCrateDev 6y ago

tway4cani4 6y ago

Has it become unsayable on 4chan?

Freak_NL 6y ago

In the Netherlands in the past two decades the word 'neger' (which corresponds roughly, but not exactly, to the American use of 'negro') has become a taboo word too, although it was already something you wouldn't use on its own for most of the twentieth century. The popular sweet known as chocolate-coated marshmallow treats was called 'negerzoen' in Dutch (negro's kiss) in the recent past, and it was boldly emblazoned on its packaging. An increase in awareness of racism and the impact of such names has led to it being abolished completely (the sickly sweet product is now known simply as 'kisses'). Nowadays that word is something you would only use to refer to the historic product name, or to explicitly show how you are 'resisting the woke trend'. It is now a word that that one older uncle might use at a family gathering, but otherwise it's pretty much gone and younger generations will marvel at it ever being used. Such is linguistic change. An aside: oddly enough Dutch language Wikipedia insists on using this outdated racist word for the lemma on this treat, because (in my experience with on a variety of topics) Dutch language Wikipedia editors are rather conservative in such issues and seem to hate certain linguistic shifts. To this Dutchman it comes across as thinly veiled racism under the guise of encyclopaedic integrity. This change happened alongside awareness of the change surrounding the 'N-word' in America, so recently in opinion pieces and public debate in Dutch people are using 'N-woord' in Dutch as well. But here something odd happened. The N-word refers specifically to 'nigger' in American use, which in Dutch has a rough approximation in the quite rude and outdated 'nikker', but nowadays here the 'N-word' seems to refer almost exclusively to 'neger' (or 'nigger' when used in English lyrics in a Dutch context, for example by Dutch rappers). Is this broadening of the scope something that happens just here, or is 'negro' also slowly falling under the definition of the N-word in the US? The taboo surrounding the spelling out of that word leads to 'N-word' leading its own semantic life, which is sometimes a bit confusing. It doesn't matter much in the grand scope of things (both words are frankly unnecessary for the most part outside of historic contexts, and are broadly seen as racist), but I find it interesting nonetheless.

nonomaybeyes 6y ago
The Dutch equivalent word is actually "nikker", but that is so much taboo that many youths will never have heard about it.

roenxi 6y ago

There is a certain sort of person who will be looking into the meaning of the word to find out what is offensive about it. And then getting confused because the etymology is "black" which is descriptive rather than prejudiced. The actual point, and the reason for the strange tip-toeing, is to do with some very rational effects around how groups signal. Any minority is always at risk from a majority. It helps to have a signal that can only be explained as a gesture of respect and which can therefore be interpreted as a sign that the majority isn't going to go genocidal (or even just dangerously exclusionary) at the drop of a hat. In the grand scheme of things, it is pretty reasonable to ban almost exactly one word as a gesture of respect, simply to show that an important part social contract is still holding. In amongst all the PC silliness of the world I'm glad there is a part that I can rationalise and support. It makes a lot of sense from a lot of angles. I'm not so convinced of this professor's article though, it reads a bit like someone who enjoys writing and likes words but hasn't thought enough about how social groups work to pull out the pattern.

smhost 6y ago
The taboo also signals the majority group's inability to confront the real conflict at the heart of the racial relation. You're exactly right that the taboo is a form of white supremacist signaling. I'm not surprised that that makes you feel better about the taboo.
andreskytt 6y ago
The interesting part is how this notion of the word being a slur expands. A Kenya-born person living in Estonia is likely to consider the word “neeger” a slur despite it never having had this connotation before the Internet arrived. And it is increasingly used as one, too. Which is why people are increasingly avoiding the word - no reason to be deliberately offensive. Curious how global culture can indirectly influence language.

bloak 6y ago

The article has some interesting data points, where the author reports his own experience, but it doesn't really answer the question in the title, and where the author goes beyond his own experience he makes some claims that need further exploration, I think. 1. The etymology of “aethiops” is uncertain. It was believed in ancient times that the word meant “burnt-face” but that may be just folk etymology. See the Oxford English Dictionary or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia#Etymology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia#Etymology 2. The connection he makes with Robert Burns and Winnie-the-Pooh seems like a wild bit of unsubstantiated speculation. OED confirms that Robert Burns wrote: "How graceless Ham leugh at his Dad, Which made Canaan a niger [rhyme vigour, rigour, tiger]." But what's the connection between an 18th-century Scottish poet, A. A. Milne, and an American children's rhyme?

jgwil2 6y ago
Just that "tigger" actually is how the word tiger was once pronounced, and there's a character in Pooh named Tigger. The connection to the children's rhyme is that we now say "catch a tiger by the tail," and in view of the above pronunciation of tiger as "tigger," you should be able to infer how the rhyme originally went (replace tail with toe so it actually rhymes with moe).
- bloak 6y ago
  I'm not saying it's untrue, because I certainly don't know for sure, but what evidence is there that "tiger" was pronounced like "tigger" in America at a time that overlaps with the appearance of the children's rhyme? The article presents evidence that "tiger" rhymed with "vigour" in Scottish, but perhaps they both rhymed with "eager", not with "bigger". In Scotland. In the 18th century.
  - jgwil2 6y ago
    It's an opinion piece, it doesn't need to present evidence for everything it says. Take the thirty seconds to look it up on Wikipedia if you want to see all the details.

docdeek 6y ago

Not American but recently listened to the Audible edition of John Grisham's 'A Time to Kill' and the word is used dozens if not hundreds of times. Grating to hear but added to the story about race in a way that an alternative could not.

adamrezich 6y ago
classic book, and the movie is great too

shill4humanity 6y ago

I think it's just a test to see how far out western media reaches. Hopefully far enough towards all experiencing inequality so they can pick out a word they can also ban. Just be left with one indiscriminatory word - money. lmao America the controller of world speech

rotidodol 6y ago

Simple, just say nigga

rainworld 6y ago

It’s not just that word. You’re not allowed to say anything negative about blacks as a group. You’re putting yourself in hot water saying something deservedly negative about an individual. Some pointers for those desperate to torch their career: Mention the fact that they commit at least 56% of the murders (FBI stats 2019). Mention that crime and murder are way up thanks to last years racial reckoning. Mention that the perpetrators of hate crimes, anti-asian and otherwise, are overwhelmingly black. Mention intellectual, academic performance. Mention IQ. Best thing is you don’t even have to mean anything by that, intent has become irrelevant. Land of the free, home of the brave.

mgerullis 6y ago
You forgot to mention that the vast majority of mass shooters are white.
- rainworld 6y ago
  It will surprise you to hear that that’s not true, but you’re forgiven for thinking so, given the state of american media. Admittedly, blacks tend to produce more wounded rather than kills. It will also surprise you to hear that long guns (i.e. AR-15) are involved only in a small percentage of crimes (including mass shootings) involving firearms. The vast majority of such crimes is committed with handguns, many unlicenced.
  - Hasnep 6y ago
    > Between 1982 and April 2021, 66 out of the 123 mass shootings in the United States were carried out by white shooters. By comparison, the perpetrator was African American in 21 mass shootings, and Latino in 10. When calculated as percentages, this amounts to 53 percent, 17 percent and eight percent respectively. https://www.statista.com/statistics/476456/mass-shootings-in-the-us-by-shooter-s-race/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/476456/mass-shootings-in...
    - rainworld 6y ago

tragomaskhalos 6y ago

Not to detract from the main point of the article, but the general linguistic Puritanism of Americans it describes is very startling to British (and, I am sure, Australian) ears - here, even an old person would never be so coy as to utter "gosh darn it", and the first time I encountered the term 'restroom' (as a tourist in an American airport) I actually laughed out loud, suspecting a joke.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
Is it purely linguistic, though? I'd say the language reflects the mind.
StavrosK 6y ago
Off topic, but tragomaskhalos is such a fun word, I'm going to implement it into my daily speech.

smitty1e 6y ago

What garbage. There is an entire genre of sound celebrating this anagram of "ginger". I jokingly call this verbal nitroglycerin the #BiggerDiggerTrigger just to laugh at our collective silliness. Will Arnold Schwarzenegger be forced to change his name to appeas the Woke godz? To hell with this mess, say I.

randompwd 6y ago

> But today, for Tom to even mention the word at all would be considered beyond the pale — so to speak. Hmmm, maybe a bit too cutesy covering the etymology of a racist slur and then using a different racist slur in a light hearted manner) Beyond the pale being historical phrase to refer something savagery(Dublin being the Pale, rest of Ireland being outside it), which was anti-Irish racism by the Brits at it's finest.

wankeler 6y ago
Still in current usage and almost entirely disconnected from historical context. And while we are being so critical of evil Brits I’m sure the phrase has never been uttered by native Dubliners giving their own view of the largely rural regions of their own country? Edit: BTW are you actually suggesting the Irish of the time were a race apart from other indigenous people of the British Isles?
- stavros 6y ago
  > Edit: BTW are you actually suggesting the Irish of the time were a race apart from other indigenous people of the British Isles? Where did you get that from?
  - wankeler 6y ago
    Well if the Brits are making racist comments about the Irish it rather suggests they are a different race or prone to putting themselves down. Ah, hold on a moment …
  - extra88 6y ago
    randompwd described "beyond the pale" as a racist slur and an example of anti-Irish racism. Sounds like they're calling Irish people a race to me. Or they're confused and think "racist" is synonymous with "bigot." It's not, it's bigotry against people of a certain race (or not of a certain race). I've seen a couple of instances of people using "racist" when race wasn't a factor; they meant "bigot" or "prejudiced" and I assumed they didn't have a broad vocabulary that included those more accurate words.

hirundo 6y ago

I wish the problem was isolated to just a few words that I could learn and avoid. But not so much. I couple of years ago I went to a small hardware store to buy a shovel. I couldn't find what I needed so asked the clerk, who looked at me strangely and got prickly and hostile, like I was weirdo asking for something weird. They didn't have what I wanted and I left. About a week later it dawned on me. The clerk was a black man, the only one in the village. I had asked for spade, the kind of shovel with a pointy end for breaking ground. Apparently he had taken it as a slur, and that I had been playing some kind of game with him. Sorry about that. I suppose I should have asked for a shovel with a pointy end.

dekhn 6y ago
I've heard people say this ("spade is a bad word") but I think it's entirely regional.