Big Brother racism 2!

at one time it did just mean black it may not to you , but thats how the word was used .
I think you will find just as much discrimination associated with the word black as ******

and getting back to channel four, my old mother used to say about two twins she knew who had played with scissors as small childen, one twin put the scissor in his brothers eye so the other twin did the same so they both went through life with one eye.

so I would advise anyone to vote the black girl off as soon as they can if I was channel four I would have kicked her off to .

its not fair but as I can see none of this is very fair , as no one thinks this girl was trying to be hurtful and may well have been used to using this word with her friends black and white as she said .

 

my mother's father was a nasty bigot to the core. i can still hear him, "niggers this" and "niggers that" and "all niggers should die." my mother married a "half-breed ind'in" and all that bullshit. and even my dad, being nothing but a half breed still had to find SOMEONE to be better than, so he hated 'niggers,' too! but being int he navy, he learned to keep his stupid mouth shut about it, and actuall being forced to live and work with people helped him a lot. my hatred for that disgusting word isn't just about the niceties of racial interaction, it's about personal shame for something i had no control over. it's about embarassment in front of my friends and their families. i don't give a SHIT if black people call each other that word. but it's not MY WORD. and it never will be.

 

well its not a word that I like much , but I think theres a difference if someone was trying to do a snoop dog or huggy bear impression and went "yo nigga whatever" and someone being insulting to someone and using the word .

how about words like kraut or limey or yank or chink are these bad words you will find old brits who still hate germans, but then some others who like them who still may use the word kraut .
So the word kraut could be used in a positive or negitive way , I could say "those bastard krauts" or I could say "those krauts make fine cars "
I think the same applys to lots of words its the context

 

what for being offended or for being black ?

 

I think the storm has passed now. The use of the N word is racist and is a very shocking word to use. It has roots in the slavery days. Guess some people can be very loose with their choice of words. Channel four acted swiftly like a hawk on top of a rocky outcrop. It swooped down gracefully and took the housemate out of the house.

 

This didn't happen though so sounds like just an excuse.

hardly the same history of slavery and apatheid now is there, why do you want to excuse this person ? this feels all a bit blonde and female actually, "ah poor little girl she couldn't of meant it", rubbish no-one has any grounds to assume that.

 

she also used the word ****** as I understand, but the main reason would be not to give one race a advantage over the incident like the to twins both end up blinded or in this case both twins end up having people kicked off

 

the word black was used in slavery days .

And in living memory Id say there is as much hatred towards germans as towards blacks my late mother loathed germans used to throw rocks at their prisoners of war .

There are lots of people walking about who killed lots of germans I would think far more people are walking around the uk that killed germans than say were involved in the slave trade

 

i'm very confused now honestly. when was calling someone "black" wrong? honestly i find calling a black person "coloured" offensive.

and well if we don't address the word "******" and it's uses then it will always be a overly mystified "bad" word that will only be used by people in terms of hatred. it will never make the word better... only keep it bad.

and well, if England is behind the States in terms of linguistic slang by about 5 years maybe that's why it is something that doesn't bother me. I honestly don't remember the last time I heard the word used in an offensive or derisive manner. I've heard the word hundreds of times over the past 6-8 years especially, but never in a manner that anyone took as being offensive or derisive.

I think in this sense that the UK is a bit backward really. To make a word appear to be so utterly offensive that you aren't ever supposed to breath it, think about, talk about it, etc just give the hatefullness that it once had more power. It does nothing to counter that hatred and awful repression.

And damn, everytime we get into one of these discussions it makes me think of Clerks 2 and the whole "porch monkey" debate they had there. *ugh*

 

my english grandmother hated italians and irish. married an american german bigot. *sigh* i'm not going to ride ANYONE too harshly about anything. but i'm sure as hell not going to raise my child to feel okay with using rude racial epithets even in a joking reference. both my bigotted grandparents were loving to their family and respectful in public. at least there's that, i guess. it's not like they were out stoning people or hanging them from trees. they'd help anyone in a pinch even if they were the wrong color. but still, it all seems so sordid and ugly and hurtful.

 

this also makes me wonder if any of you have ever met real black people that were actually descendents of people who were slaves and asked them what they think?

i mean honestly.

this whole convo seems absolutely insane to me. i hate prejudice and racism, i've experienced it myself though i'm white because i was married to a black man for 6+ years, i've had more black friends or mixed race friends in my life than white ones; and honestly i've never heard so much controversy over this word EVER in the nearly 30 years i've been alive until I stepped foot in England.

Y'all are a bit high strung I think at times. I honestly don't know much about the race wars, etc that happened here in England; but I know a lot about what happened in the States, and it wasn't pretty. If people can take hatred and turn it into something that indicates a form of brotherly love, respect, and comraderie than do it and move on. Don't sit and argue over whether or not is is good or bad... how can it ever be bad to take something hateful and turn it into something that shows respect and love?

I don't think any of you are grasping that concept yet. We aren't talking about hatred we are talking about how to remove hatred and give something that might have once had negative contexts behind it and give it a new context. It can be changed and it has been changed. To get your pants in a twist just cos someone uttered a word despite the context is a bit over the top really, no matter what the word.

 

it's still pretty negatively charged and ugly over here. flippant usage of it when people don't really know where you stand is not done. even so, my upbringing makes i nigh on impossible not to cringe every time i hear it.

 

I'm not at all sure that's true - did you see the furore when that guy from Seinfeld used the word "******" in his stand-up routine last year? From the context I think he was using it in the sense of "******" not "nigga" (an incredibly important difference - two distinct homonyms with separate meanings, can't stress that enough) though he was using the epithet purely for its shock value rather than with sincerity. That caused a national media scandal in the States. The assumption seems to be that black people can reclaim the word but white people can't - a racist notion in itself. I'm not sure, but I think the word is still far more sensitive in the States than it ever was here because of the institutional racism which persisted far longer in the USA than it did in Europe. Having said that "nigga" does appear to be a new one on many Brits, who I suppose have been insulated from the black culture in which the word is often so commonplace as to be almost invisible.

 

brb

 

Being from the States I know exactly what you are talking about.
It wasn't until I was 7 that my grandmother (mom's mom) learned that black people didn't like being called ******. She honestly thought that in those days it was perfectly acceptable as that is just what white people in North Carolina called black people.
By the same token though, my other grandmother (dad's mom) used to always talk how horrible it was that there were "coloured people" living nearby, etc. I remember (before I had any black friends) why they were so different to us? I never thought anything different, etc. I used to argue with my dad when he would make even slightly racist remarks, etc; so I know where you are coming from at least to a degree.

By the same token though, when I met my ex-husband the first thing his mother said to him was "why'd you have to marry a white girl?" So, it's not just a matter of white people that are racist, there is also plenty of reverse racism as well. I've met many black people in my life that have been quite forthcoming with the fact that they either hated white people or entirely avoided white people all together.

In fact, one of the brothers I became quite close to - until he wound up in jail and we lost touch - had NEVER had a white friend in his entire life till he met me and got talking to me, not because he didn't have the opportunity but because of his gang he wasn't permitted to even think of having a relationship with any white person. Since he was trying to get out of that lifestyle, it didn't matter at that point so he figured he and I could be friends.

There was one place in particular I worked where 90% of the people in the warehouse (which is where my office was) were hispanic/black/ or of some ethnicity, and the first day I worked there I heard the dreaded "n-word" used about a dozen times. I was shocked the first few times, but then realized that to them it wasn't a big thing. It was a greeting, and again a sign of respect. And yes, the few white guys that worked there, that had a certain report with the black guys would all get into it to and greet each other that way or use the term when just casually talking to each other.
And well, I don't see what is wrong with that at all. Again if you take the hatred out of something, then why should people have a problem?

I feel like that if you're white you aren't supposed to have an opinion on this topic, and I think that is rubbish. And well, I wouldn't recommend teaching kids any slang or swear words. Kids should learn how to talk properly before they start sayin "fo shizzle my nizzle" (defined "for sure my nigga").

 

listen, my girlfriends and i call each other bitch, whore, slut, whatever, all the time. but if any man or woman outside of my circle of friends does it, mutherfuckers gonna be snatched bald, crated, and shipped to bolivia.

 

Oversimplification, "hood culture" may of adopted the term but that certainly is not "black culture" that is a far bigger subject.

It is probably rascist to suggest the same.

Black people don't just come from america, people.

 

calling someone black was wrong before the mid to late 1960s look back at books written at the time and you get people being called negro or coloured .

I actually remember the late 1960s quite well although I was a small kid get some pop magazines from the early 1960s and its the negro this or the coloured that

"Black Power" happened in the 1960s and you had more conservative black people saying dont use the word black

talk to older people they should remember all this

 

yeah i saw that, whole fiasco. not sure how to comment on it actually. honestly though, there's a national radio DJ named Howard Stern ... he's a Jewish guy and for at least a decade now he has talked to people on the radio be it phone calls or interviews and will start off saying "what's up my nigga?" and no one has a problem with it ... or if they do, the few people that have a problem with it don't outweigh even more people that do have a problem with it.

again i defer to the modern day comic greats, in my opinion, such as Dave Chappelle, and Chris Rock. Dave Chappelle has a sketch show and one of the sketches has white family called the ****** family, he's the black milkman and comes in saying things like "you're such a fine bunch of Niggers". Now I'm not saying one should go an say things like that; but I think it shows how over the top people can get.
Chris Rock on the other hand has a whole routine about the difference between a black man and a ******, and how a ****** (in a derisive form) doesn't have to be a black person either. If memory serves he also goes into the difference between a NiggA and a ****** as well and how there is a great deal of difference between the two.

i do feel SO OVERLY insulated from black culture over here. There isn't even a proper "black" radio station that plays rap/hip-hop/and r&b ... at least not in my area of the country. i find it quite sad in fact, because i think there should be more knowledge about all cultures in general. i mean, even on telly there's a Welsh channel, but where's the black and hispanic channels? (not that there seems to be a lot of hispanics) but I mean in the States if you have cable you are going to get BET (Black Entertainment Television) and Telemundo (the spanish speaking network) as well.


But anyway ... once again, I speak my mind on this topic and will be labelled by some as a bigot, racist, etc; but I know in my heart what I am and the life I have led. I totally disagree with the use of any word if it is meant to hurt or harm someone else. I don't care if the word is ****** or if it is purple ... if it's used to hurt someone or invoke hatred than it is wrong. Doesn't make the word itself wrong but it is the usage that is always at issue.

 

bingo! ... that is preciscly what i meant and i was going to say something about that too, but well didn't get round to it.

say you go to a rap concert (only as an obvious example) ... you go and the guy up on stage shouts out "all the niggas say 'ho'" and all the guys in the crowd (be then white, black, asian, indian, etc) will shout back "ho". then he says "all the bitches and hos say 'ho'" then all the women shout back.

no one is going to storm the stage and try to bitch slap the guy and there's not going to be a mass exodus of people being offended.

now, if someone comes up to you (a woman) on the street and says "yo bitch!" then yeah, that person is obviously trying to be offensive. if it's your mate and they see you and say "hey, ho, whatcha been up to?" you'll chuckle and probably say something equally as brash to her and both of you will still be friends.

same goes for saying "nigga" in my opinion. if you walked down the street and just see some random dark-skinned individual and shout out at them "******" obviously you are trying to be offensive.

if however, you know the person or feel close to them and you see them on the street and say "yo nigga, sup?" no one will feel any harm in it (except maybe some scared white people nearby).

and THAT is what actually seemed to happen on BB (which is actually what this thread was about). You are crammed in a house with 12 people and quickly feel like you have bonds with people. Charley (the black chick) has been a drama queen since day 1 so honestly, i'm not sure if she was as 'offended' as she later said, especially due to her original reaction. But nevertheless, the dumb blonde in question Emily said something like "shake that ass, nigga" ... now, if she'd been with one of her close black (or hell even white) girlfriends in Bristol saying that no one would have a problem. But she said that to someone she had just met and thus there was the bit of doubt as to what her intentions were in saying it. I'm not in her mind (thankfully - cos honestly she was a bit of a bitch too) and can not speak of her intentions. However I can say that what she said, in friendly context that I mentioned would never have been an issue to anyone involved. In my opinion if the huge race thing hadn't happened earlier in the year with Celebrity Big Bro and the producers had given them time to talk about and sort it out it would have been done and dusted and everyone would have realized it wasn't a big deal.

But well, since they HAD to take the action they did it becomes this huge kerfuffle that no one can get over and it brings out just the best in everyone i think. *sarcasm intended*