That was my first guess. Its amazing how people think referencing the first letter a word starts with is somehow different from just saying or typing it.
It’s the main offensive word for black people. In general use it ends in an “a” sound, and can be positive neutral, or negative. In racist use it ends in the “hard R” and is always negative. Since you are not from the US, I would say you probably shouldn’t say it at all, just like I did not in this post.
Though frankly, I used to think the whole moral panic around the word was just more of the typical American puritanical bullshit, until I watched Django Unchained - that movie made me realise it’s not just an insult but its use was intimately linked with rampant dehumanising (successful, I should add) and that part is still alive and kicking. In my part of the world the equivalent would be something like calling a holocaust survivor oven fuel. You just… don’t. Don’t say it.
Fuck all forms of censorship otherwise though, definitely.
Speaking of wild etymology, a while ago I learnt that the word “bulldozer” originally meant “a dose of bull-whip”, and guess who was the target of said whipping…
Yeah, the short of it is that it used to be used clinically to describe developmental disorders but fell out of use around the mid-90s because, like so many other words, it was used maliciously to the point where it lost its original meaning and context.
If you were a 90s kid, retard and gay were as close as you could get to actually swearing without getting in trouble and basically carried the same cultural weight as outright slurs. The stigma around being gay was so bad that in the 2000s they made up a sexuality to describe men who were straight but liked to shower and dress in nice clothing so that they wouldn’t lose their jobs. And the stigma around mental needs little explanation, I think. It wasn’t that long ago that they were electrocuting people and cutting out parts of their brains for being sad or having a stutter.
i remember going on a school trip to san francisco in the 90s. one of my classmates kept saying “that’s so gay” about everything she didn’t like. we only let her go two shops (while gently pointing out the SF-specific merchandise) before i had to ask her “you know where we are, right?” in her credit, i never heard her speak that way after that incident so
I suspect OP is using it wrong. Usually “the hard R” refers to a really bad “no-no” word.
Though the phrase has probably become a slight meme due to Linus from LTT getting the phrase’s meaning wrong in the same way you guys have, but on a live broadcast.
Uh, Retard?
I’m not that familiar with the usa blacklist of words.
Yeah we don’t call it that here in the states. I’ve heard ‘the r word’ but never ‘hard r’. We reserve that terminology for the OTHER hard R.
Republican?
That was my first guess. Its amazing how people think referencing the first letter a word starts with is somehow different from just saying or typing it.
It’s the main offensive word for black people. In general use it ends in an “a” sound, and can be positive neutral, or negative. In racist use it ends in the “hard R” and is always negative. Since you are not from the US, I would say you probably shouldn’t say it at all, just like I did not in this post.
Aah ok. That was a lot of walking around hot porridge as they say here, so:
Nigga: can be friendly
removed: the real racist bad word.
You americans are bizarre (or should I say “the B word” 😁).
Edit: lool my post got sencored! Now nobody will ever know…
Did you just write r*moved?! With a hard R?!
Though frankly, I used to think the whole moral panic around the word was just more of the typical American puritanical bullshit, until I watched Django Unchained - that movie made me realise it’s not just an insult but its use was intimately linked with rampant dehumanising (successful, I should add) and that part is still alive and kicking. In my part of the world the equivalent would be something like calling a holocaust survivor oven fuel. You just… don’t. Don’t say it.
Fuck all forms of censorship otherwise though, definitely.
It’s definitely a wild etymology ride, and linguistics is one of my favorite subjects as a layman.
Congrats on your evolution!
I have a friend and his friends who call me by the word, in a friendly way. I don’t say it even though I have slave heritage (black grandmother).
And yes fuck censorship.
Speaking of wild etymology, a while ago I learnt that the word “bulldozer” originally meant “a dose of bull-whip”, and guess who was the target of said whipping…
Wow.
This following two are contested. The context is that strong male slaves were often called bucks.
I have tried to stop saying buck-wild and buck-naked.
These terms might be US only but they’ve very common where I live.
Message recieved loud and clear. 👍
Yeah, the short of it is that it used to be used clinically to describe developmental disorders but fell out of use around the mid-90s because, like so many other words, it was used maliciously to the point where it lost its original meaning and context.
If you were a 90s kid, retard and gay were as close as you could get to actually swearing without getting in trouble and basically carried the same cultural weight as outright slurs. The stigma around being gay was so bad that in the 2000s they made up a sexuality to describe men who were straight but liked to shower and dress in nice clothing so that they wouldn’t lose their jobs. And the stigma around mental needs little explanation, I think. It wasn’t that long ago that they were electrocuting people and cutting out parts of their brains for being sad or having a stutter.
i remember going on a school trip to san francisco in the 90s. one of my classmates kept saying “that’s so gay” about everything she didn’t like. we only let her go two shops (while gently pointing out the SF-specific merchandise) before i had to ask her “you know where we are, right?” in her credit, i never heard her speak that way after that incident so
Fun fact, electroconvulsive therapy is still available for depression! It’s one of the things I tried.
And it’s not mumbo jumbo but something that actually works!
I hope it did for you ❤️ !
I suspect OP is using it wrong. Usually “the hard R” refers to a really bad “no-no” word.
Though the phrase has probably become a slight meme due to Linus from LTT getting the phrase’s meaning wrong in the same way you guys have, but on a live broadcast.
Any “no-no” word?
You can actually write one down, we’re not in kindergarten 🤷🏼♀️.
I can, but I don’t want to because it’s disrespectful.
Also, I think you’d even get thrown out of middle school for saying this one.
It’s a Biiig difference saying a word and using it for treatibg someone with it.
Or so I think.
I do understand you want to curb usage of some words, but outright forbid them is not what I am used to where I live.
They are referring to Negro, but having the R like the river in Africa.
I will now explain this in the only way acceptable in society today,
THROUGH SONG! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSrTnWDTdwI