The Etymology Psychic Predicts

[harp]

There's an all-day tutorial on the Circulatory system tomorrow, so I won't be able to make the ontdcreepy FFA. This saddens me.

Today seems like a good day to lose friends and alienate people.
You might not like this entry. Click back as soon as you can, for I promise you that it's not going to get any better as it goes along.



My aunt married a black man, and so I have cousins who are half black. I visit with one of them, Marlene, very often, and she clues me in on what's going on in the real world. During out last discussion,

Harp: I think white people get more offended at the N word than black people do.
M: For real! [laughs]
Harp: I told one of my friends about how Caro used to use the word "Sand nigger" and she got really uncomfortable. They get really squirmy...
M: I know! I say it and they're like [affecting a white valley girl voice] Ummmm, I don't appreciate you using that worrrrrd. [Laughs] Nigga, I don't appreciate you not usin' that word!

The effect that word has is really amazing. It's part accusation ("if you don't react to this in a certain way, you're a skinhead nazi racist pro-slavery puppy kicker!"), part guilt trigger, part Awkward Bomb, part rage catalyst (for white people). Understandable. But what next?

Words like "gay" and "faggot" have changed meanings over the years. Perhaps the word "nigger" is undergoing a similar change. Consider the following: white people react with annoyance and rage to it, some people have said "this is our word; they can't use it, it's been partially de-fanged in several areas of the internet, and it's practically a pronoun in some subcultures.

I think that in the far distant future, like 1,000 years from now, that word is going to evolve to become a slur against white people.

I might just get the ball rolling on this one. Just start acting like it's a slur against white people.
"Hey, buddy! The proper term is Caucasian. >C"

"That Rick Santourum guy with his homophobia and racism, is the quintessential nigger. Look at him go! Pandering to the nigger crowds in nigger central America with their pasty white nigger faces and their gaggle of inbred, five-toothed, gun toting, bible thumping, white bread nigger ilk. He feeds right into their ignorant nigger views, which is why they like him. I doubt any of those niggers have so much as a single African American person in their towns."

I wouldn't use the word "nigger", but it would be ok if I did because most of my friends are nig- errrrr, I mean white persons.

Comments

[ozen.livejournal.com]

I actually really like using "nigga" or "nigger" in the friendly way. In my head (sealed off from history and sociology) it's mostly a light, comedic word.

I just don't use it unless I'm 100% positive that the people I'm around won't feel hurt or pissed (if black) or angrily self-righteous (if white).

Which means, functionally, I almost never use it.

Though I'd like to. It rolls off the tongue and has this neato bounce to it and matches up so, so well with "fag" and "faggot". I mean, just say "Niggafaggot" five times fast and tell me that those syllables aren't fun to say. It's like doing somersaults with your mouth... somersaults while naked (offensive to some, funny to others, oddly arousing to a few).

I can only wish it would become a whitey slur. Then I'd get to use it anywhere except a job interview! And my friends would be all like, "Hey niggafag, where you going?" and I'd be like, "I'm gettin' a sandwich, nigga!"

But then it would be yet another example of white people appropriating the cool parts of some oppressed nonwhite demographic/culture.

Eh. In the meantime I've still got faggot, fairy, twink, tranny, shemale, cocksucker, and all that fun stuff.