Good point. I think I can get behind that notion pretty easily.
6 Likes
love. Itâs called love.
6 Likes
Whatâs love got to do, got to do with it?
10 Likes
or six beloved classmates, for that matter.
Lost cause, I suspect?
1 Like
What I mean by that is that itâs the fact that the word is âforbiddenâ that makes it fun to those ladies, not that itâs a racist word (at least when used by a white person). The fact that itâs âforbiddenâ because itâs racist doesnât appear to those involved. Itâs a bit like Siouxsie and Sid wearing swastikas in the 70âs. Luckily, the first of those two got a little more mature and realized that there was a layer beyond the mere shock value that she didnât want to endorse.
1 Like
This comment shows itâs a teachable moment.
1 Like
Of course, a specific mixture of circumstances is necessary for that to happen, and that mixture is likely to include racism.
After all, teenagers donât murder people simply because transgression is fun, so something must have given them the impression that using the n-word in that way was in the âforbidden but not truly evilâ category.
Iâll try to be an optimist here and say that this is a transitional phenomenon and thus actually a sign of things getting better:
Back when there was even more racism than there is now, teenagers wouldnât have thought the non-targeted use of the n-word to be sufficiently provocative and would therefore have chosen one of the countless offensive-but-not-racist alternatives suggested in this thread.
In a slightly better world, teenagers would pick something else because theyâd realize that this is going too far. And in an ideal word, the last instance of real racism would lie far enough in the past that the word moves from the âhighly offensiveâ to the âpointlessâ stage.
Looking into American culture from the outside, this dual status of the n-word does seem peculiar. I canât think of a term in my own culture where the difference between in-group acceptability and out-group acceptability is comparably large. So while I think that anyone with exposure to American culture should have gotten the message by now, it is in no way the natural order of things.
Do you have siblings? Or cousins? Or friends? Do you guys say things to each other that if someone else said to your sibling/cousin/friend would be entirely unacceptable? Itâs like that. Itâs not that hard, especially if you grow up in this country. Additionally, art and real life are not the same thing. Who says something imparts meaning to that word.
Again, above I linked to a book about the history of the word. Perhaps read it and it should help to illustrate why these seemingly disparities exist in our culture.
5 Likes
I guess that wherever you find human beings, a few Morans are bound to pop up. 
2 Likes
Speaking of it as forbidden, rather than actionable, is part of the fun.
Actionable but not truly evil just doesnât have the same ring to it. Itâs realy just poop smearing, when seen in the context of an American High School.
But change your name, you big dork and try to fit in a little better with an avatar of a cat or vomit or cat vomit or something. Come on, person, and step up your game!!!
1 Like
You win, buddy. You win.
4 Likes
I second that second hand emotion.
9 Likes
I mentioned earlier that I didnât think that the threat of imminent violence, or whatever, was the only action to be taken into consideration here but I believe there is some nuance to the idea that they had some intention to threat within that idea of them just being racist assholes.
I agree that the immediate surroundings, the people and the place do have some bearing on the level of threat this action can be interpreted to have. And whilst you didnât comment directly on the publicity aspect, the fact that they had a picture taken and then posted it to social media, I think has some direct influence on the intent to cause (at lease some kind of) harm.
If they had just organised into this formation and laughed to themselves as racists are wont to do, in the privacy of some room where no other students were, if they hadnât documented the act, potentially with the intention of sharing it with (only their racist) friends, if they hadnât gone on to post it to the internet in an attempt to disseminate the picture as a (however subliminal) socially gratifying action, perhaps we could limit our thoughts on the matter to the direct harm that was caused by the mostly private action. But they did do all of those things. This was not intended to be a purely private action by any of the participants as soon as they organised themselves into formation, smiling for the camera. In this day and age, with the prevalence of social media and the very likely outcome of it not being only disseminated to their racist friends, does anyone really believe they can have control over a photograph after they have sent it out there?
This was, for all intents and purposes, more of a public act than a private one. And thatâs even without determining if they did it in the same room as the other students or if they intended for the picture to be disseminated throughout only their racist, social sphere in an attempt to earn âkarmaâ or brownie points or whatever the metric for social aggrandisement is.
Was it a threat? Perhaps not in the most direct sense. But potentially in everything but the most direct sense. And maybe even also in the most direct sense. They may all have intended for it to have this kind of threatening aspect, which seems to me to be to be imbued into the foundations of most racism.
But again, I donât think we should be limiting the nuance we apply in thinking about this to whether it was a direct, imminent, intended threat to other specific students within the exact time and place as it was done.
And thatâs why I asked your opinion on the topic. Because I value it and thought it could be brought to bear on the issue as a whole.
Also, nobody seems to have mentioned something that is REALLY important here. There is a
#BIG
difference between the word nigger and the word nigga.
Nigger is the classical racial epithet. Nigga is the modern colloquialism that has a different context and meaning. They mean different things!!!
Niggas are homeys, friends or if not friends than compatriots, fellows, peers. Niggers are, succinctly, ignorant black people, worthless and to be derided. Thatâs the meaning.
Now, many people mix these words up and yes they are similar and itâs damn fuckin hard to understand which one is which if you are not into hiphop culture or white or something disconnected from their usage. I donât use either word. I have no need for them, and I do not think that way about people. However, the MEANING of those words is important to know.
These girls chose the worse of two evils, and I say fuck them and their stupid parents who raised them that way. There is no place for that crap in the world. They could have spelled NASTY or SHT or FCK or something, but nooooooooooooooooooo they had to pick NI**ER. I mean, come on! THAT is the word you pick??? Dumbasses.
By telling you about what kind of absolutely stupid shit I did as a teenager?
Your replies honestly don´t make any sense to me at this point.
Do you know how snapchat works? I get the impression that you havenât used it.
It is used to share photos with a limited circle of people (explicitly friends) and they are not supposed to be preserved (and if they are, the system is supposed to tell you if someone copied them out). This isnât ânormalâ social media. So, clearly, their intent was to share it within their little circle of racist friends. I doubt it was meant to go wider than that (or they wouldnât have used snapchat).
What kind of white craziness is this? I live in a black community and I really doubt that theyâd see a distinction if I called some âmy nigga.â White people, barring special exceptions, had better not use either word, really. (All in my opinion, of course.)
5 Likes
This. This. THIS.
3 Likes
