Yikes. I sure hope no-one ever catches me rapping along with Kanye or Kid Cudi in the car, cause I got n-words flying out all over the place.
It’s easier to get caught when you’re streaming it in front of a couple hundred thousand people.
I understand that definition well. I prefer the “purest”, more abrangent definition because I think that, while it may not be the best from a pragmatical standpoint, it is the best definition when you think about where we want to go, what our goal should be. I think that goal is very often lost in the noise, and I think it causes us great harm in the end.
You guys want to really blow your minds? Take a dive down the rabbit hole of whether or not it’s okay to use “nigga” or “nigger” and in what context.
I stopped listening to the sort of rap that uses the n-word after I painted my house while listening to it and found myself starting to use it in internal dialogue while singing along. Even though I would never intentionally use it out loud, too much risk of it just slipping out…
I totally missed it. I’ll try not to do that again.
Here’s a factoid from my homeland. “Black” in Brazilian Portuguese is “preto”, while the n-word equivalent is “negro”.
Well. In Brazil, calling someone “preto” is deemed offensive, especially if said when talking about someone. Calling someone “negro” - or referring to someone using that word in conversation - isn’t offensive at all, on the contrary; it’s actually a respectful way of referring to one’s race. So keep that in mind if you ever come to Brazil. ;)
Don’t get me started on the variations. For instance, “neguinho” (which would be ordinarily used to refer to a vertically challenged black person) is used in slang to refer to any person of any race. And it gets really nuanced from there. ;)
Oh sure, you’re a very astute and culturally observant person. I certainly don’t mean to imply you have no insight or understanding of the complicated nature of the word! Quite the opposite really.
And, certainly, sometimes the outsider perspective is very useful. If for no other reason than to hone an argument better. To examine that cultural baggage that seems so invisible to us, living it our entire lives. It’s one thing I’ve done more as I’ve gotten older, is intentionally seek out and learn about different cultures and places. And to not judge them for differences. Like, for example, my trip to India. There are so many things that I, as a middle class white dude from America, could go around and complaining about or judging, were I inclined to do such things. Like, for example, the fact that, in India, silverware is practically absent from meals in about 90% of situations (at least in southern India this was the case). And it would be easy to judge this through my own cultural filter.
But it wouldn’t be right. I know people, family a lot of them, who would go on such a trip and be nothing but your stereotypical asshole American tourist, constantly complaining about the dirt, the condition of the rooms, the lack of silverware, the fact you need to take off your shoes to enter a temple (and those temples are so dirty, and there is mud puddles everywhere, and how can people live like this), or the crowded trains, or the pushy street vendors. But it is so much more rewarding to step outside your cultural bounds, and broaden your experiences. My time there was fantastic because I was willing to do that. And it helped me understand parts of my own culture better as well, by seeing things from a completely foreign cultural, particularly business, climate. And from a work perspective there were certainly things that I think could be improved by a little more ‘Americanism’, where an outsider can see things that could improve.
I seem to have lost the thread a bit… anyhow India was lovely, the people were fantastic, and the food was superb. I’ve certainly picked up a few new tricks and recipes since I got back. Ironically, in some cases, as I cook less rice now than I did before my trip. Since that was something you’d eat at every… single… meal… there.
Much more lentils now though.
Consider this a problem of degrees:
In America, the harms dealt to and issues faced by blacks (and, in similar ways, women, LGBTQs, Hispanics, people with mental illnesses, etc.) are significantly greater than those faced by white, straight, Christian men. Or, more to the point, they more or less face all the issues the white straight Christian men do, plus all sorts of other ones.
If, in the genuine and well-meaning pursuit of making things easier on and less harmful toward the most damaged groups, the least disadvantaged groups are sometimes inconvenienced or bothered. Certainly, tumbling from a place of power might take some by surprise, but even in the process of bringing everyone up, there are likely going to be some stumbling blocks and pain points.
Cutting a word that has massive associations of negativity and hatred and pain swirling around it from the white man’s vocabulary yes, does restrict 0.001% of said vocabulary from us. It also makes the country a far more welcoming place to our black brothers and sisters. Probably more than 0.001% more welcoming.
Sorry, I have an appointment in a few minutes, so this message is getting curtailed. You deserve a better and more complete answer. My apologies.
For what it’s worth, I’ve been watching Ninja for a while now, since long before he suddenly skyrocketed to his current success… and “racist” is not a word that would ever occur to me to use. He is generally such an easy going, easy to get along with guy. He’s super friendly to everyone, even if he gets a bit rambunctious from time to time.
I don’t believe for one minute that he meant anything by it other than throwing in a word that is commonly used in rap in general. He probably didn’t mention it in his apology because it probably didn’t even occur to him.
Seems easy enough, are you black? You can say it. You’re not? Ya can’t.
I agree with everything you said, Armando. As I said, I’m aware of the cultural context around the word and everything. I’m just saying we should strive for more, to understand that such compromises, while necessary, are not ideal, and they should not be the end goal. The momentary one, perhaps, but we must be careful to not lose the more broad vision of what racism is, because it is pernicious. Our end goal should be that no one will be ever facing discrimination or prejudice solely because of the color of their skin; that the prohibition of a word by a certain group, while a (necessary) evil, should one day be dealt with and left behind because, while it might be the much lesser of all evils, it should still be seen as one.
Not saying Ninja is guilty of this but as your streaming popularity increases just drop the N-word, speak in a fake Chinese language, cheat on your wife, say “kill all the Jews”, pose in front of a suicide victim…then take a 1 week break from social media and return with a tear-filled apology video and watch your viewer counts and donations skyrocket.
It’s a dramatic cycle of downfall and redemption that contemporary geek culture craves with all the necessary edginess. It’s a modern take on Aristotelian catharsis in a nihilistic online culture.
I won’t say he’s racist, as in actually believes blacks or Jews or whatever are inferior to whites, but he does unapologetically dip into a goofball “engrish” accent when he mocks Asians. That’s not great.
Also, it’s kind of depressing that he’s basically gotten very little flack for that, but one n-word during a sing-a-long rap gets sites abuzz.
That’s what happens when racism is mostly seen as a “power” thing - colored by cultural expectations - instead of the more broad definition.
But do you think adopting your all-encompassing definition of racism helps to get to that end goal?
For example, any intervention to combat systemic discrimination - a police force making a conscious effort to hire more black cops to redress an imbalance where all other methods, like extra training, have failed; earmarking extra school funds for underperforming minority kids, where being a minority is the only differentiating factor; the Black Lives Matter protests - can then be categorised as “racist” and dismissed as unacceptable. It’s a definition that seems to benefit the status quo.
HA, I was just thinking of that clip since I started rewatching Scrubs last week.
As someone who has dealt with otherwise perfectly normal Americans feeling very comfortable imitating British people and putting on the fake accent at the drop of a hat, often just in front of me, I sympathize.
Happily I think we can all agree, British people are the real victims here :)
That’s just “not great”? I’d say that’s pretty f’ing racist.
I found out a while ago that Busing kids was super effective. Did not realize that at the time.