Could we drop Bowman's usage into a formal English statement and have it mean the same thing as the old n-word? — frank
It's worth pointing out that mention is not racist, but insisting on mention because it's not racist misses some nuance here. — Baden
I agree it's a matter of etiquette, and I agree it's not always right to insist on being able to mention it. But it might be important to insist on it sometimes. I insist on being able to do it here, for example. — jamalrob
There's an old name for them that nobody uses anymore because it had the n-word in it. As far as I know, there isn't a new word, though. The last time I heard someone try to speak about them, they just pointed and said "those." — frank
The argument you presented is a ridiculous solution to the white quest to use it anyway. That quest needs no solution. It's just a handful of white people being laughable. If they aren't actually trying to get a laugh, they're just stupid. — frank
Exactly. I think that it's a mark of intelligence and maturity if one is able to distance oneself from all of the hooha, and just have an honest, open and direct discussion about it. If we want to discuss the word "nigger", let's just discuss the word "nigger". — S
I'm more comfortable not using it, so I don't. Some people don't say Fuck for the same reason. I say Fuck, but not the N word. — Hanover
You mentioned that you were mixed race earlier. — S
There'd be little gained if I overcame my limitations and was finally able to speak the N word with greater comfort. It offers me one less area to get myself into trouble at least. — Hanover
The term was once widely used for all sorts of things, including nautical bollards[3][4] and consumer products including soap, chewing tobacco, stove polish, canned oysters and shrimp, golf tees, and toy cap pistols, among others. It was often used for geographic features such as hills and rocks and geological objects such as geodes.[5][6] The term appears in several US patents for mechanical devices prior to about 1950.[7][8] Languages other than English have used similar terms to describe chocolate-coated marshmallow treats. — wikipedia
I'm just not buying despite Baden's assurance I'm overlooking a logical basis for disparate treatment. — Hanover
Everyone pretty much is. You're probably Anglo and Saxon or maybe Scotch and Irish. — Hanover
Words without context are just noise.My question is whether the N-word specifically has become a word that is per se insulting, regardless of context, where its mere utterance is a sin. — Hanover
As long as you don't read or respond to any of the actual argument by linguists that there is a case for considering usage as fundamentally different (and therefore a logical basis for disparate treatment of such usage) you're on solid ground here. :up: — Baden
But that article doesn't mention the spherical rocks. They're pretty rare. Maybe that's why. — frank
,..they called them as they did because they reminded some redneck of how black men's heads looked and so he and Bubba coined the term and they laughed their cracker ass heads off. Apparently the name got passed down through the generations like their crossed eyes and webbed toes and it fell upon your ears and you got to share it with us. — Hanover
It's the same word. — frank
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