SENPAIatLARGE
Banned
This post is terrible on so many levels. I can't believe your pulling a "Actually its the blacks that are the real racists" in the thread.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Nigga and You: A Comprehensive Guide to the N-Word
- Thread starter SENPAIatLARGE
- Start date
- NSFW
- Status
This post is terrible on so many levels. I can't believe your pulling a "Actually its the blacks that are the real racists" in the thread.
LeroyPantwether
Member
What about the necessary characteristicss one must possess for black America to consider a given individual black? Is it still the paper bag test/facial features or does the black community let a mixed race person decide for themself how they want to identify ?In a modern context, the one drop rule is basically the paper bag test with an additional checklist of typical black facial features that you have to check off for white America to consider you black.
SouSouRocket
Member
Oh god that still makes me cringe. I seem to remember some outcry at the time it came out but I was fairly young and social media wasn't a thing yet.
lightskintwin
Banned
New Yoricans have been saying it for decades as their culture intersected a lot with African Americans in New York. Fat Joe and Big Pun been saying it. There's a reason it was a New Yorican that created Hamilton using hip hop/R&B and made sure there was African Americans in most of the lead roles.
In a modern context, the one drop rule is basically the paper bag test with an additional checklist of typical black facial features that you have to check off for white America to consider you black if you're biracial.
And for black america ... how does that work ?
CrankyKong
Member
What about negro?
spazchicken
Member
I'll never understand someone getting upset with someone else saying "nigga" in a non-hostile context. Why would a black person be upset because a hispanic calls his white friend "nigga" (or vise versa) when referring to him in a positive or otherwise non-racial manner?
He's not talking about you. He's not talking about me. Not one black person on his mind. What's to be mad and protective about?
lightskintwin
Banned
Black America are used to being in or having family members from interracial pairings and them being considered Black; we've been used to it since Slavery and the children that came from the raping of Black women from their White Masters became part of the Black family. White America defined them all as Black. Jim Crow didn't care if one of your parents was white, this restroom wasn't for you.
Yeah, I was pretty young at the time the song came out but I remember that being my general line of thinking and the rationale behind it. Same with Fat Joe and Pun, as you said. Still, it always gave me pause.
Ban Puncher
Member
Bounceounce
Member
What?This post is terrible on so many levels. I can't believe your pulling a "Actually its the blacks that are the real racists" in the thread.
What am I saying about are blacks to real racists?
That's something I regularly argue against when people try to claim (I've had it claimed about myself) and don't consider to be a valid point, so if it did come off that way that's a mistake.
I'm talking about a single experience I saw where I felt the response to someone saying nigga, which was really the equivalent of a person here quoting a post that just so happened to have nigga in it, and said people turning a hypocritical mob on the poster despite all of the things they regularly said and did to the contrary, which was bonkers to me because I couldn't understand how simply typing nigga could set someone off that much.
Which fit in line with the rest of my post not really grasping what the big deal is.
this might be one of the most appropriate times to quote, "find Ja Rule so I can make sense of this!"
if it made it on the track I figure he was cool with it
I think what always made me pause is that I grew up with a lot of non-Black minorities who felt it was all good for them to say nigga because they weren't white. I definitely get it if you're coming from somewhere where there's a crossover of cultures and communities, like New York, but that was definitely not the case where I live. There's barely and Black people here in the first place
...ok
But how far does that go ?
father, grandfather or great-grandfather ?
or the "paperbag" test nules it ?
I am curious because I live in a latin country, have stupidly pale skin and my grandfather had the blackest skin. And other grandmother was native american but...
And I live in a country where self identification beats all, but if going just by the skin the red line of that test would have to go one or two lines below =P
So basicaly here i am the whitest of them all, but sometimes I think that if I went to the usa I would be a mexican or ...black ?
It is kinda surreal to think that.
And no, I will never say the n word regardless. It just feels wrong for me to say
benjipwns
Banned
That's not in English, doesn't count.Sony says it's cool.
PatThePassive
Member
When in High school the English teacher would stop students who tried to skip the word or replace nigger or negro in texts.
I recall having to read negro out loud to the class I believe it was something by Frederick Douglass.
I remember he said censoring the word would be a disservice to the oppressed who it was written about or by.
I shouldn't need to point out that was the one time I said it
Where does that fall into this system?
I recall having to read negro out loud to the class I believe it was something by Frederick Douglass.
I remember he said censoring the word would be a disservice to the oppressed who it was written about or by.
I shouldn't need to point out that was the one time I said it
Where does that fall into this system?
lightskintwin
Banned
If you can pass for white, and you want to identify as white then you can, but if you can't, America will define who you are.
A Documentary came out last year called Little White Lie where a girl was raised White her entire life in a small liberal city but in reality her mother cheated with a black man and she lied to her husband and child, and they raised her normally in their ignorance, but the way people responded to the girl she knew something wasn't right and that she wasn't White.
Look what happens when it's time to enroll to college and she applies to Georgetown. She leaves the race/ethnicity blank because she isn't certain who she is now but also has to include her picture with her application. Georgetown looks at the picture and marks her down as African American. LOL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkMAWvzhEuo
Closest thing I have to a general rule for others is this:
"If you can't empathize with someone who would be labeled a nigger, then you have no business calling anyone nigga."
Not the most bulletproof rule, but it works for the contexts I find myself in, and has been useful in a post-Trayvon Martin landscape on social media.
Speaking of social media and the internet, you gotta be aware of your audience. You might be okay saying it with your friends, but saying it on the internet to a bunch of strangers is a very different thing. I get pretty liberal with my use of 'nigga', even on GAF sometimes, but I have to remember to keep context in mind. I have to be aware of where I use it and who I use it around, because not everyone will feel the same way about it that I do.
On a completely unrelated note, I have been trying to say "chinder chagger ninja dagger" correctly for several days. I have succeeded only twice. It is surprisingly difficult.
"If you can't empathize with someone who would be labeled a nigger, then you have no business calling anyone nigga."
Not the most bulletproof rule, but it works for the contexts I find myself in, and has been useful in a post-Trayvon Martin landscape on social media.
Speaking of social media and the internet, you gotta be aware of your audience. You might be okay saying it with your friends, but saying it on the internet to a bunch of strangers is a very different thing. I get pretty liberal with my use of 'nigga', even on GAF sometimes, but I have to remember to keep context in mind. I have to be aware of where I use it and who I use it around, because not everyone will feel the same way about it that I do.
On a completely unrelated note, I have been trying to say "chinder chagger ninja dagger" correctly for several days. I have succeeded only twice. It is surprisingly difficult.
NCR Redslayer
NeoGAF's Vegeta
This post is terrible on so many levels. I can't believe your pulling a "Actually its the blacks that are the real racists" in the thread.
Im Mexican and I wouldn't even dare to use Nigga(Christ all mighty) But this is not a time for see differently the faults or priviledge in our lives. We live in a world where A brother cant even wear a hoodie let alone be caught sleeping in one. My mother would break her back by even the thought of me coming home late at night cuz im not "White" enough for our Mr. rogers neighborhood Polcie department. We may not have started singing Kumbayah in Africa but we live in a world of institutionalize racism and a country built on oppresion. Nows not that the point to be pointing "hey what do you mean, us people?" Us? There is nothing more different than you and anyone else. We are actually more related to one another than mother fucking fruit flies. If theres one thing I want to agree on is that its at LEAST 50%black people keeping ourselves down, by rap music or whomever you want to blame it on, 50% society not letting us rise from the shackles of ghettos. Dave Chappelle didn't quit his show for this.
NotTheGuyYouKill
Member
This question might have been answered, but if I am neither white nor black, do I still have to use the D.O.N.T. system?
I am Indo-Canadian.
I am Indo-Canadian.
Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew
Banned
Great thread!
hodayathink
Member
About 10 years ago, I took my younger sister and her white best friend to a Kanye concert (this was a little after Late Registration dropped). Watching her try to sing the songs was one of the funniest things I experienced during my college years.
Bounceounce
Member
Really?
Wait did you just say you're Mexican, they say we're (black and mexicans) more similar than not to the point where you inserted yourself into another group and then tried to act like as though you're being faced with exactly the same societal pressures?.
"If theres one thing I want to agree on is that its at LEAST 50%black people keeping ourselves down, by rap music or whomever you want to blame it on, 50% society not letting us rise from the shackles of ghettos. Dave Chappelle didn't quit his show for this."
This is the text equivalent of a stranger walking up to a group of friends and saying "so what are we doing today?".
Big Baybee
Member
She really thought she was white? She looks so obviously black to me that it's hard to comprehend lol. I need to watch this. My godmother could really pass. My mom told me that when I was about 4 or 5 I asked her why my nana was white haha
Bounceounce
Member
Doesn't seem very complicated to me.
It must be weird to have an entire word banned from your vocabulary, especially when it's in all of the media you consume, and also because one person might say you can use it while another says you can't.
lightskintwin
Banned
Yeah, that's what most people responded because she looks like a lot of African American women, which is why she instantly connected with all the Black students in Georgetown. There are plenty of Black biracial people that can pass much better like Mariah Carey and even in her case she considers herself Black.
https://youtu.be/q3EBDD1VjBc?t=70
Looks like a sweet Docu, will watch! Thanks!
Yeah, but then those same people keep using that word more than every black person around them, and continue to do so even years after.
I never really paid attention to it, but now that i look at this issue for real, it seems super weird for me. I mean, it should lose it's appeal after while right?
or is this where the media does it's magic?
killertofu
Member
What if you're a Kanye concert and he's playing All Day? What if you're at a Kanye concert and he's playing Don't Like? Cause I broke the rules if so
davepoobond
you can't put a price on sparks
I feel like replacing a word in a rap song with "brother" or "homie" does little -- people still know what you're actually saying.
I just leave the word out completely or don't sing to that song. It's what they do for radio versions anyway
I just leave the word out completely or don't sing to that song. It's what they do for radio versions anyway
I've seen this a lot with one of my black friends. Occasionally some white chick will just come up to him and start dropping N bombs left and right. It's really strange.
lightskintwin
Banned
The women I'm talking about are all women of color, they're just not Black, I don't know or have any white girlfriends who drop N bombs left and right.
lightskintwin
Banned
My position on singing along with a song and using the n-word has always been that I'm quoting the singer - what I'm singing is not my own words. I'm just singing along because I like the song, not necessarily because I particularly like what he or she is saying. My position is also that quoting the n-word is not a problem, because it's a quote. I would never use the word when formulating my own sentence, but this is not my sentence. If that makes sense? Am I way off base here?
It might be a Midwest thing. I suspect these girls don't really have much contact with black people except for dating. Theres one chick that really stood out in my mind. She just went all in. I couldn't really explain how she was acting without just straight up quoting her, and even then I don't think it would do it justice. But it was definitely unironic, she obviously meant no offense by it, and was very obviously trying to hook up.
killertofu
Member
I was waiting in a merch line outside a Kanye concert and these two pretty posh white guys were blaring some trap music out their car while waiting for the light to change. There were also two black guys right next to us so I yelled out "hey are you trying to get these guys to give you a thumbs up for approval or something?" They got really embarrassed and we all had a good laugh.
I'm Filipino
opticalmace
Member
Maybe I'm missing something but that kind of seems like a dick move.
Barrow Roll
Member
This thread makes me think of this great Boondocks scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAtv9IW0mo0&ab_channel=tazz19786
But yeah, good OP.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAtv9IW0mo0&ab_channel=tazz19786
But yeah, good OP.
killertofu
Member
It was late and I had been standing in line forever and they looked annoying
hate on it ¯\_(ツ
_/¯
Chuckie
Member
Maybe it was secondhand embarrassment for your 'joke'
Andrew Korenchkin
Member
Lol.
Good on ya. I love rap and I'm white but people banging rap out of their car embarrass all rap fans.
Glass Rebel
Member
Setting standards based on race has always been a huge unifying factor in the past huh. I can't stand the first word and the second just seems crude but acceptable. At the end of the day though does this shit really matter?
Also before it's argued yes I'm white and no I don't care to use the word ever. Not because I'm white or because blacks use it but because it is terrible.
Also before it's argued yes I'm white and no I don't care to use the word ever. Not because I'm white or because blacks use it but because it is terrible.
killertofu
Member
Maybe but it was a good ice breaker. We just ended up talking for the rest of the wait.
Dancing Queen
Banned
Gotcha, nigga.
I'm black, I'm good.
- Status
Similar threads
- Poll