Ydubbs81 RND wrote:
What blacks in real life? People you know or grew up with? Try going to a town you dont know and call a black dude the N word and see if he laughs with you.
I, personally dont get offended by the N word because it is just a word. But i will never condone a white guy to use the N word because of the history of it. And I posted about this because you are obviously oblivious to this.
I doubt you would come to a neighborhood like the one i grew up in and say that word....even jokingly. And if you wouldnt do it in public around strangers that would take your head off....then you would know that it isnt cool.
The swastika is a symbol that predates **** germany and originates in India, in fact much of indian culture and lore was perverted and was used as the basis for the justification for the Holocaust, in fact Aryans are sub-asian continent race not a pure white race(fun fact right).
Point is despite the overwhelming a/w a utterly disgusting period of history does that mean its usage by the originating culture should be hidden or unused for out of deference to the another group that view it as something else right? How about other people not within the culture could they not be using that symbol because they observe the traditions and principles of the originating culture tho they are not natively a member of that culture?
The N word predates racism and its a/w as a derogatory form of slang to describe black people. There are scholarly works on the word and it has had multiple meanings throughout history. Anyway people a/w words and symbols based on exposure and contemporary culture at the time, they only have as much power as we allow them to have. It is when political correctness seeks to stifle those words and symbols because of the most pervasive or unacceptable uses that we begin to fail as a society because we inherently are shutting down a discourse to avoid a topic that is otherwise uncomfortable or hurtful for people to have.
I have no such issue because i don't let words hold power over me, i can speak about these things freely and expect that others on a forum can discuss them freely with me too.
It is why free speech was protected first among all else, because when the public space is censored we lose our ability to advance ideas in a common way.
The internet forum is the expansion of the greek concept for which we in the US and many around the world base our governents and our ideology upon.
The fact that generations see the N word ending in ga as a word they simply here by their favorite artists, musicians, actors, comedians etc and see it as nothing more and dont link the notion of race, prejudice, or bigotry because thats not how they view the word means that contemporary attitudes are changing among youth and its usage is not a derogatory slang in their minds but one that often denotes my close friend as its often the usage in contemporary culture, you can thank 80-90's rap hip/hop music for moving us to that point.