To think the n word needs to be completely banned

[LardLizard]

Rodrigo removed from the B.B. house

I think the meaning of the word has a different meaning in these current times

I personally hate the term and thinknit should be totally banned

But can see why it’s confussing for younger people with it in so many pop songs

Cherrygardenst
I really like his music too. I still think he promotes a horrible image of masculinity and his attitude to women is appalling.

But hey it doesn't matter as I've just been informed toxic masculinity isn't a thing. It's totes ok to be a raging misogynist.

I do think that schools need to at the begging of every school year have a sit down with each class and explain to them that this word is the lowest of the low and just because singers and famous people say it does not mean they can.

They need to educate them on exactly what the word means and was used for!

@BarnabyBungle I have no issue with it being discussed or written for educational purposes.However I do choose not to write it myself. I hate the word so it may be silly for you but it’s not to me.

Aye, and I bet you choose your audience first, eh, Well ‘ard?

Of course!! I wouldn't write a song with it in for example.....

It's mainly reserved for when I'm at my weekly BNP meeting.

[/sarcasm]

....but why can't we even write the word when discussing it or using it in historical context

This is a public chat forum, potentially read by millions all over the world. It's not a lecture, a lesson or a research paper. So using it when there's no actual necessity to is only going to have the effect of upsetting some people. So why do it?

There are clearly times when the word will be used for educational purposes, but here and now does not come under that banner.

It's common courtesy to be careful when it's used and why, don't you think?

Treating it like “Voldemort” in Harry Potter is ridiculous and infantile.

Careful now, that's next on MNHQ's ban list......

@Ivalueloyaltyaboveallelse

So in essence we agree. There’s no reason why the ‘n’ word can’t be spoken or written down if it’s in a context other than racist abuse, but we don’t necessarily feel comfortable doing so.

*all I'm saying is why is it a word (or any word) that some people can say and others can't
*
Because it's a word that was used by one group of people against another with devastating consequences. It's a word that did more than just make a particular sound coming out of a mouth - it demonstrated pure hatred & a belief that one group of people were less human than the other. It was the word used when one group of people elected not to sit next to the other group on a bus, or drink from the same water fountains, go to the same schools or use the same toilets.

It's a word that has the effect of hurting one group of people far, far more than they could ever hurt the other group in the same way...so the very fact of it highlights inequality.

Think on that. Assuming you're white (as I am) how would you genuinely feel to be called "white trash"? Miffed? Indignant? A bit cross? I personally wouldn't feel any more than that & would probably dismiss it as a stupid insult. That's because there is not one single word that could be directed at a white person as loaded with history & hatred as the N word is. Racism can, of course, be directed at anyone, but the personal wounds it can cause are significantly greater for some people than for others - for very obvious reasons.

So, just don't use it. By actively refusing to use that word, hopefully you are performing a courtesy that takes no skin off your nose but indicates your acknowledgement of racism & willingness to be part of eradicating it. That's why you shouldn't use it, never mind why anyone else does.

Black people who use it towards each other are using it because of it's historical implications, not in spite of them. You can't get rid of a word - if it exists, then it exists. But you can change the meaning, or at least the context in which it's used. You can use it ironically and by doing so alter the effect without losing the historical significance.

To just take the view that it's only a word and anyone can use it you'll simply be legitimately putting it back in the mouths of the group of people who used it so horrifically in the past. And why would anyone want to do that?

Keep clicking on this thread expecting it to have been zapped.

I'm bisexual. I sometimes use the word queer. People who are LGBT either like this word or hate it as they used to hear it as a term of abuse. I know someone who finds it deeply offensive.

If straight people started calling me queer or a gay guy, poof, then I would be about it. There are lots of words that can be used by certain groups but that are problematic if used by others.

This argument really is so simple: white people cant use it because there's a history of the white race using it to abuse black people. Black people CAN use it because they're reclaiming it.

The end.

I don't know why this thread has got so heated

it's not a difficult proposition that some words/jokes can only be used/told by the groups that have been historically oppressed

Does anyone actually disagree with that? I've waded through the thread once and I'm not sure anyone is in disagreement. Possibly I've missed something. Or possibly it was deleted.

Does anyone actually disagree with that?

I find a lot of misogynistic jokes by men to be funny, so yeah if you are counting the oppression of females.

“Let me put it to you in its simplest form,” he said. “I’ve been on this earth for 30 years, and there’s been so many things a Caucasian person said I couldn’t do. Get good credit. Buy a house in an urban city. So many things—’you can’t do that’—whether it’s from afar or close up. So if I say this is my word, let me have this one word, please let me have that word.” Kendrick Lamarr

And in the wake of that whole white fan saying it on stage incident I've read other POC saying that not being able to use the word Is pretty much a learning experience for white fans of rap music; a tiny restriction that might give them some insight, just a minuscule taste of what it's like to have one thing denied to them among the many things they can do and say that they take for granted but which are often denied to black people when they're just going about while black.

There is no good reason I've ever heard for white people to be able to say it or write it (outside a novel, movie script or an academic philological treatise) and, so far on this thread, I haven't read any good reasons either.

Not all black rappers feel the same as KL.

@Ansumpasty
You’ve never heard the word in the UK ever, I wonder why that is🤔
I’ve heard it plenty first time by a teacher when I was around 6

@LardLizard
Really? a friends son where did this happen find it hard to believe.

@Pengggwn
You don’t need to use the word you seem to enjoy the power it gives you, how do you think black students feel when you say it?
So glad you don’t teach my beautiful black children.

SpringSnow
Lockies post was really simple.
Why would you not want equity?
Why would you prefer privilege?
Unfortunately your one of those that fears not being allowed to retain unfair advantages as without it you might have to work as hard as the less privileged.

@SlartiAardvark
You need a history lesson.
Most black Americans and Jamaicans are descendants of African slaves.
Rap music originated in the USA. Should I go on or do you get the picture.
I’m not advocating using the N word but your post made no sense.

@RoseWhiteTips
Of course Sophia99’s inarticulate poor me ranting was totally to your liking.

Unless of course you think normalizing violence, gun crime, homophobia and misogyny is perfectly fine, in which case there's very little point discussing further. @MaisyPops - You sound like a bit of a bookburner TBH, trying to control what the general public see or here, for their own good.

Kendrick Lamar used centuries of hideous oppression as an excuse to deliberately single out and and humiliate a fan and feel self-righteous about it.
It was a larger-than-life example of the kind of behaviour I used to see at university, and it makes me very wary of people who'd never go so far as to read up on the history of racism and colonialism, who get their talking points from reality tv, and who make themselves feel like selfless activists by petty policing of other people's vocabulary.

Lockies post was really simple.
Why would you not want equity?
Why would you prefer privilege?
Unfortunately your one of those that fears not being allowed to retain unfair advantages as without it you might have to work as hard as the less privileged. a lot of assumptions in that post @ghanagirl

@SpringSnow
A lot of assumptions and trying to justify racist behaviour on whole damn thread.
It’s somehow more offensive to call out racism than actually be racist.
Unfortunately it’s always been this but the orange guy across the pond has emboldened those who want to shut down the continued fight against racism Which despite the denial by many still exists.

@GunpowderGelatine agree totally.

I don't understand why any white person would have an issue with black people using it amongst themselves.

And to be honest, that woman at the concert should have known better to be honest. She should have just not sang the parts with the word in it. I don't know why she thought that saying it up in front of hundreds of people would go down well? I enjoy Kendrick Lamar and similar music and I just don't sing those parts.