this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2023
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I'm curious, is there another word that have the same taboo status as the n-word? I've never heard of another word that can only be uttered if you have the right shade of skin. What a stupid world we live in, seriously.
I'm not speaking from any position of authority here, but I think it has more to do with being in the right culture, not the right skin color like some people imply.
There are urban white kids who grew up in the projects who use the same language as their black peers, and I think generally no one cares. However, when someone outside that culture uses that language, it's not something they use for normal speech and there's probably some other motivation behind it. It's just like in a lot of people's speech they say "bro" but it doesn't mean brother. To people outside the culture it means black person, but they use it like others use "bro". It doesn't really mean anything.
Reiterating, I have very little experience with this. It's just my observations. I've known black people who it'd be weird for them to use this language and seen white people who it's just a normal part of their speech.
You'd likely know where they grew up by the manner of their speaking. The white kids from the projects are going to sound "urban" and the black affluent people are going to sound stereotypically "white". I wouldn't be offended (I'm white) but I would be surprised if the black people I know who do not use that language started using the n-word suddenly. It's not a part of their normal language, so what caused them to suddenly start using it? Probably nothing good I would assume.
It also depends on the time and place. Those white kids from the projects would probably need to code switch when going to a job interview or something, for example, just like their black peers do. That language is context-dependents on whether it's acceptable. It's more than just being black.
That makes a bit more sense if that's a culture thing, but how do you define someone who belong in that culture? Is a black person born from a very wealthy European family still allowed to say it, even though he might have nothing to do with the culture? It just seems weird to me how you clearly define this, I mean even clearly defining what a black person is, is pretty much impossible.
The point is it isn't clearly defined. It's situational. Not all black people will or should say it, and some white people feel comfortable saying it and use it in situations where it doesn't offend anyone. There is no "correct" race, skin tone, culture, etc where it's always OK. There's just situations where it's OK for some people. I'm sure if you know it's OK then you know it's OK, and that's the only time it's OK. If you're wondering if it's appropriate, it probably isn't.
Maybe some well off black people wouldn't use the word, but it certainly would not be acceptable for any white person to use it in any context. Even if they grew up in "the hood" it would, at the very least, be frowned upon for them to say it. In many places it would earn them an immediate beat down.
It's called "reappropriation", and there are words in other groups, such as the LGBT community, which are only considered "acceptable" when used by members of the in-group.
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/pc-and-reclaimed-words/
That's fair, my only issue is clearly determining what makes someone a member of the group. I guess for LGBT it's more clearly defined, but it becomes a lot harder to determine if you're from X ethnicity or if you belong to Y culture (or I guess the hard part is to make people accept you in their club..)
Faggot used to be a school yard insult but it's being fast tracked to "The N Word for Gays"
Is there a better lemmy server that dont censor words like snowflakes? It makes it hard to have genuine dialogues
I’m not seeing any censoring in this thread. I’m based out of lemm.ee and using wefwef web client to read.
Are you seeing certain words censored out?
Try programming.dev. I don't see any censoring.
I have been trying to get on Lemmy NSFW because what I am on Lemm.ee wants to hide the porn from me.
But I can say what I am on right now doesn't sense your words, I can say retard and faggot like it was the early 2000s all over again
I think you just got censored
Not in my view. All the words are there. What exactly are you seeing?
Retard and removed. Unless you wrote removed
My guess is that the N word has pretty much no historical use outside of referring to darker skinned people in as derogatory of a way as possible. The F word for gays is about the only other one, unless you've got a British pal who smokes, but just about every other slur is either so obscure that it's only heard rarely, or has other legitimate uses, so you have to apply context to figure out what the situation is. N word was almost always bad, until they decided to blunt the blade, so to speak, by adopting it as a part of their own vernacular.
There are exceptions, Puertoricans can say it all they want, just look at fat Joe.
Voldemort
There's not another word with as lengthy a history rooted in dehumanization of the other, so the unique status shouldn't be surprising.
Y * * lo, r * d, and m* * * to skinned are also taboo, but you don't see people with those skin colors using the terms and keeping it popular.
I have no clue what words are those supposed to be so yeah, you're right.
One was a football team
You censored the word "red?" I thought it was "retarded" lol
M is probably "mulatto" but what's "y?"
Think Asian... and a color.
Yeah but I can use the word yellow all day without issue. Those words don’t share the cultural properties of the n word
Ahh ok the pattern follows too