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Not but it has racist connotations, you really want to go out of your way to educate everyone on the etymology of a word because of an antiwoke crusade? It is

Not but it has racist connotations, you really want to go out of your way to educate everyone on the etymology of a word because of an antiwoke crusade? It is the same reason that polite people don't continue to use the word, "niggardly".

antiRadical 4y ago
> it has racist connotations Come on, everybody knows this is not true.
chimineycricket 4y ago
What are the connotations? People don't say niggardly because the pronunciation of the word is literally there. Are you saying people shouldn't say the word "blacklight" because it refers to black? Black is part of blacklight, and on its own does not mean anything racist, unlike the first part of "niggardly". >you really want to go out of your way to educate everyone on the etymology of a word because of an antiwoke crusade What's wrong with people voicing their opinion in a debate fashion?
car_analogy 4y ago
Please don't use "crusade" as a negative. The crusades were difficult fights for liberation of various European countries against Muslim colonialism, which had already stolen much of their land and enslaved their people [1,2]. Using them as a negative synonym is very offensive and problematic. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_the_Muslim_world#European_slaves https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_the_Musl... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janissary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janissary
- al_mandi 4y ago
  Of course the word crusade has a negative connotation. The trails of blood and destruction they left are well known and documented. As per your links, the enslavement that happened were due to war, so the same as what the Europeans did.
  - car_analogy 4y ago
    > The trails of blood and destruction they left are well known and documented. You're saying Europe should not have retaliated for all the land and people that were stolen? They were at war, under attack for centuries, but if they counter-attack, well that's the worst thing ever, still remembered almost a thousand years later, while the Muslim attacks they were responding to go largely unmentioned. It's bizarre.
    - al_mandi 4y ago
      What provoked the Muslim attacks, and how did the Muslims treat the local population compared to the chaos and destruction left by the Crusades? Islam has rules of engagement, which prohibits the atrocities committed by the Crusades and the Mongols
rcoveson 4y ago
The word "black" is a thousand times more important to speech than the two syllables that make the word "niggardly" problematic. White and black, light and darkness, yang and yin, on and off, one and zero. I'll bet that most people that have ever lived understand those parallels. Human melanin concentrations in skin don't enter into it. Attempting to control usage of a word as fundamental and common as "black" is an absurd overreach. It's nothing like "niggardly", which was barely in use anyway and brings to mind the same slur in the minds of just about any American alive today.
- bb88 4y ago
  Well, it does have it's own wikipedia page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_the_word_niggardly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_the_word_n...
rajman187 4y ago
The etymology of niggard, “nigon,” is entirely unrelated to the racial slur which derived from “negro/nègre” in Latin languages meaning black. It’s just an extreme case due to the racial slur being contained in the spelling of the word.

antiRadical 4y ago

> it has racist connotations Come on, everybody knows this is not true.

chimineycricket 4y ago

What are the connotations? People don't say niggardly because the pronunciation of the word is literally there. Are you saying people shouldn't say the word "blacklight" because it refers to black? Black is part of blacklight, and on its own does not mean anything racist, unlike the first part of "niggardly". >you really want to go out of your way to educate everyone on the etymology of a word because of an antiwoke crusade What's wrong with people voicing their opinion in a debate fashion?

car_analogy 4y ago

Please don't use "crusade" as a negative. The crusades were difficult fights for liberation of various European countries against Muslim colonialism, which had already stolen much of their land and enslaved their people [1,2]. Using them as a negative synonym is very offensive and problematic. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_the_Muslim_world#European_slaves https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_the_Musl... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janissary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janissary

al_mandi 4y ago
Of course the word crusade has a negative connotation. The trails of blood and destruction they left are well known and documented. As per your links, the enslavement that happened were due to war, so the same as what the Europeans did.
- car_analogy 4y ago
  > The trails of blood and destruction they left are well known and documented. You're saying Europe should not have retaliated for all the land and people that were stolen? They were at war, under attack for centuries, but if they counter-attack, well that's the worst thing ever, still remembered almost a thousand years later, while the Muslim attacks they were responding to go largely unmentioned. It's bizarre.
  - al_mandi 4y ago
    What provoked the Muslim attacks, and how did the Muslims treat the local population compared to the chaos and destruction left by the Crusades? Islam has rules of engagement, which prohibits the atrocities committed by the Crusades and the Mongols

rcoveson 4y ago

The word "black" is a thousand times more important to speech than the two syllables that make the word "niggardly" problematic. White and black, light and darkness, yang and yin, on and off, one and zero. I'll bet that most people that have ever lived understand those parallels. Human melanin concentrations in skin don't enter into it. Attempting to control usage of a word as fundamental and common as "black" is an absurd overreach. It's nothing like "niggardly", which was barely in use anyway and brings to mind the same slur in the minds of just about any American alive today.

bb88 4y ago
Well, it does have it's own wikipedia page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_the_word_niggardly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_the_word_n...

rajman187 4y ago

The etymology of niggard, “nigon,” is entirely unrelated to the racial slur which derived from “negro/nègre” in Latin languages meaning black. It’s just an extreme case due to the racial slur being contained in the spelling of the word.