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Racism & Other Prejudices

Karkat Vantas said:
Responding to the OP--

Would you be okay with me saying nigger if I were black?
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This, I think, is a subject worth debating.

I think it's an argument between pejorative reclamation (which has been practiced by pretty much every minority ever) and the effects that the pejorative has on the minority. I also think there's a question of context. When two teenagers (black or otherwise) are using "nigga" in a friendly context between them, one can hardly say that they're harboring racial hatred for black people; but at the same time, they're using a word that's been used for hundreds of years to marginalize a racial minority.

So yeah, a good subject for debate.
 
I think reclaimed pejorative terms *can* be used by the people who are oppressed by them, and *can't* be used by the oppressors because it just continues the negative connotations, however, I *won't* be using pejorative terms used against the groups I am because I don't really want to encourage a "But you people use the term, so it must be O.K.!" derailing technique.
 
Eloi said:
I think reclaimed pejorative terms *can* be used by the people who are oppressed by them, and *can't* be used by the oppressors because it just continues the negative connotations, however, I *won't* be using pejorative terms used against the groups I am because I don't really want to encourage a "But you people use the term, so it must be O.K.!" derailing technique.
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no, i doubt it. the word: inherently meaningless. it becomes meaningful after people use it with a certain intention in mind. conclusion: the word doesn't continue negative connotations, people do.

in other words, get rid of racists, not vocabulary.

also, i don't really understand what you're saying in that last sentence.
 
I'm with Oprah Winfrey on this. She hates the word nigger and thinks it should never be used by anyone. Want to know why? So many black people were shot, hanged, stoned, and more while hearing this word shouted. "Nigger" could have been the last word they heard before they died. To just use that word repeatedly in a good or bad manner disgraces the lives of those people. It makes their entire lives seem pointless.
 
"Jew" could also have been the last word somebody heard before they died; does that make the word and any variations thereof inappropriate to use?
 
Karkat Vantas said:
No, because the word Jew couldn't be seen as derogatory in the way nigger could.
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?

it has just as much of a history as 'nigger' does, not to mention that with the intention one can 'make' ANY word derogatory.
 
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