Racial vilification (Re: warp & woof,

[Ivan Z. Cestero]

yeah barcelona!!!! (though they are playing some sorry-ass league ball right now....11 pts back of madrid....the fuck?!?!?!)

hey has anyone mentiond the rather important fact that  'nigger' and 'nigga' are ostensibly two different words?
whether or not a white (or non-black) dude could get away w/saying the word 'nigga' is, as has been said, arguable, or context-dependant; i use it sometimes w/my white and black friends (and, it's true: i do NOT have many black friends. and i ask: how many do i need to have to 'be able to use the word'?), but rarely. mostly in joking ways. my black friends don't care. maybe because i'm half puertorican and that more justifies it--but that makes no sense. i'm still from jersey suburbia for chrissakes. 
regardless: the pt is that NO non-balck dude could get away w/using the word 'nigger' anywhere. even in the prescence of other non-blacks, in this mostly politically correct atmosphere, everyone around you will give you mad shit for it. and rightfully so. you do it w/a brother around, he will either get very angry, very uncomfy, or leave, or all of these. i mean, there's not even any REASON to use the word. you gys ever seen the seinfeld episode w/the dentist that converts to judaism, jerry believes, just so he can include jews in the sphere of jokes he's 'allowed' to use??
'nigga' is among other things a term of affection among friends. my brotha my nigga, nomesane? my dad grew up using hte term that way. 
but i'm still uncomfy using the term outside fo my circle of like 8 friends. and terrance is right, it prob just shouldn't be used, as far as i'm concerned. one of the biggest problems is the hypocrisy of entitlement: who's got the 'right' to use the term and who doesn't--what, blacks can use it whenever and whites just can't? the idea of entitlement is far from set in stone--especially since 'nigga' is the 'dude' of the rap world, as has been pted out, whities across the country who buy these albums and spend $80 on brand spanking new ghettoized baggy jeans (!!?!?) think they can throw the term around....
oh and i highly highly doubt that the term nigger will ever become neutral, as in the case of 'christian'...unless the continuing africanamerican struggle for equality falls flat on its collective face.

if you guys want a GREAT book that deals w/this whole basic topic but also other racial/culturall stuff in contemporary pomo multi-everything america, and in a brilliant amazing funny and unforgettable way, check out paul beatty's 'white boy shuffle'. we read it in our freshman seminar, and it's still one of my fave books ever. not that long, and really just unique. check this book out. the author is this black dude who's won poetry slams and definitely has an agenda (all authors do, so fine) but the sweet thing is that he's very much aware that the current climate of racial tension is the fault of 'us', and 'them', and the media, etc etc...

cashmoney

i