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 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.
Learning is fun! And sometimes makes you lose faith in humanity!
Message recieved loud and clear. 👍