Racial vilification (Re: warp & woof,

[Terrance]

> 
> ----------
> >From: Thomas Eckhardt <uzs7lz at uni-bonn.de>
> >
> 
> > Correct me if I'm wrong, but the colour of skin of the person who uses the
> word
> > "nigger" for a black man or woman seems to be of some importance here, no?

jbor is correct, I agree with him. 

But let me explain what I am getting at: 

Suppose a group of friends in Statan Island, all white,  use
the word to refer to one another in the sense of "dude." I
will not use the N-word, but "Dude" instead. 

First friend: "Well this dude over here, he thinks we are
going to play a game."

Second friend: Yo dude we are not going to play a game. 

Third friend: "Dudes, why not?"

This is common conversation. All of the friends are white,
but they use the word. The word can mean lots of different
things. In this example and in the examples that follow the
word means dudes or friends or chums or guys or fellows.  


More common would be a group of friends, in Queens, some
White, some Black, some Hispanic, some Asian. All use the
word to refer to other members of the group and to the group
collectively. 

One member of the group approaches, he says, "Yo dudes,
whaz-up!" 

Other group members explain what is up, by saying for
example,  "this dude over here, he's backed up and sorry."
(meaning he's not getting any sex and he's upset about this
fact)

Down to the handball courts in  China town, Manhattan, there
are hundreds of young men playing hand ball. They hit a
small rubber ball, sometimes called a "pinky" or "spalldean"
or "rock" (a basketball is also called a rock, not to be
confused with "brick" which is a negative term that refers
to a lousy shot, if you shoot the basketball and miss
everything or it bounces hard off the the backboard the shot
is called a "brick," the player that does this frequently is
said to be tossin up "bricks." Hundreds of Asain-American
young men  playing handball, there are no African-Americans
present. The young men are using the word. 

Dude, that was a "tight." (meaning a good play of the ball) 

Over to Brooklyn, to East Lots, "the Projects." Hundreds of
African-American young men are playing "ball" (meaning
B-ball or basketball). 

"Dude, you tossin bricks again."

"Which one of you dudes got game?" (meaning winners or who
will play the winners of the ongoing game). 

"Game," also refers to skill, as in, "the dude got game."

 

Even more common to my experience is a group of Puerto
Ricans or a group of Dominicans in Harlem. All use the word
frequently and w/o incident. They use the word w/o
consideration of what others may think of their use of the
word or what the word means to others. 

In other word, these groups use the word on the street, in
public places, in classrooms, on the bus, at home, all the
time. And as I said, when I was growing up, before hip-hop,
we used the word to refer to ourselves, to each other, to
the group. 

Also, as I said, when the issue of racial slurs, the history
of the word, the danger of using the word, is brought to the
attention of the group, they reject this. 


As I said, the word is one of the most used words in
conversation among the young, of all colors, in NYC, and I
presume in most major cities in the U.S.

The word is surpassed by only one word, "fuckin." This word
is never used for sex, "messing with." 

So "My fuckin book, my fuckin sister."  

Also, bitch is used by males and females of all colors to
refer to women. "How my shit (meaning my physical body)
lookin dude, lot a bitches (other females, competition for
male attention) out there."  

Books: 

What books do students read in NYC High Schools? 

Do these books have the word in them? Yes. 

*PUSH* by Sapphire is very popular. 

Donald Goins (all are popular) *Black Gangster* is the most
popular.

Eric Jerome Dickey is very popular. *Milk In My Coffee*
(btw, it is not prudent not often possible, in the U.S. at
least,  to assume or know that a person is black or not
black based on skin color). 

I would guess this is the case in Germany as well, it is in
Holland if I remember correctly. I watched Barcelona beat
AIK the other day. 
Again, I recommend Philip Roth's *Human Stain*

There are African-Americans with white skin, besides people
born with an uncommon skin condition, white a Bill Clinton, 
and people with black skin  that are not African-American,
and no, you can not identify a person as African-American by
hair or facial features.  In my experience, a lot of
African-Americans have, as we say, "white in them," have
relatives, grandparents or parents that are white or
Native-American or Dominican or Puerto Rican or Indian or
whatever. Many whites also have people of color in the
family. Of course, whites usually bury this, as was the case
in my own family. Blacks, on the other hand, usually don't
bury this family history, but it doesn't matter, they are
treated as blacks and discriminated against. Again see
Twain's *Puddin Head Wilson* and another popular book in NYC
High Schools, *Having Our Say*

http://www.hallmemoirs.com/historical/302.shtml

I'll shut up now. It's not simple, it's complicated. I try
to convince young people not use the word, not to say fuckin
and bitches, but it's not simple, it's not black and white.
African-Americans, minorities, whites, don't know their own
history. When they learn about jbor has posted do they stop
using the word? Some try, some even try to get others to
stop using it, but I'm not sure if this is going to work.
What do you think?