Mesaĝoj: 22
Lingvo: English
ceigered (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-18 14:19:23
johmue:The original version had the line "sovaĝaj nigruloj sen Di'" (savage goodless black people) which has been replaced by "nigruloj sen teknologi'" (black people without technology).I don't know if that's necessarily better - the first at least insinuates that it's "savage black people without god" (as opposed to other black people), where as the next one just has "black" (savage or not). It's a bit of a no-win scenario!
I think "tribals without god/technology" would have been a better bet, but since it seems to be based off of a preexistent song, I'm guessing the original lyrics had some allusion to some pre-war christian mindset about "civilising" the various black tribes of Africa (as opposed to the more arabic northerners who didn't seem to be quite as imposed upon)
erinja (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-18 14:21:24
ceigered:Is it really? We Australians only ever hear it from the US, and consider it a stereotype of modern US slang (particularly RnB/Rap influenced). I've heard the term "white" used as derogatorily anyway.It's a really delicate topic but in my view, black people in the US are culturally "allowed" to say it, and anyone who is not black doesn't say it.
It doesn't matter how many black friends you have, how much you like rap music, any of those things; if you're not black, you don't say the n-word.
There have been several books written about the word, including this one; you can read some of the user reviews to see some people's experiences with the word.
I was once at an Esperanto event where we did a sort of "cultural exchange", people from each country filled out a sort of survey about their countries. One of the questions was "What is the worst word in your country's language?", or maybe most offensive, I forget.
The other American and I briefly discussed putting in f__, but then we settled on the n-word. We have no problem saying f__, but neither one of us even wanted to be the one to write the n-word.
Donniedillon (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-18 14:46:25
erinja (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-18 15:16:43
We read Huckleberry Finn in my high school English class. There were portions that we read aloud in class; the teacher told us that we could read it as-is, or if we felt uncomfortable, use "n-word" when the word came up. I can't remember what most of the kids did.
razlem (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-18 18:20:08
But anyway, I don't want to start a flame war (as topics of this nature tend to become). Erinja answered my question, and I consider the thread closed.
UUano (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-19 02:51:56
p.s. thanks erinja
sudanglo (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-19 13:50:12
Race may or may not exist as a scientific concept, but I do believe that certain propensities to medical conditions are related to ethnic origin.
Kalantir (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-19 20:15:48
erinja:if you're not black, you don't say the n-word.And even then, using the n-word isn't really acceptable behavior. Somehow it's evolved in such a way that it is acceptable for people in certain social circles(gangsters and such) to use the word so long as it ends in -a instead of -er. It's really kind of strange how that works. But as soon as they use that -er ending, it becomes a racial slur again regardless of who you are.
erinja (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-19 23:38:30
Kalantir:And even then, using the n-word isn't really acceptable behavior. Somehow it's evolved in such a way that it is acceptable for people in certain social circles(gangsters and such) to use the word so long as it ends in -a instead of -er.Yeah, very true. It's never a polite thing to say, whoever says it.
Sometimes I think that people outside the US think they understand Americans just because they watch so much of our TV. There are things that are understood when you live here, that aren't obvious in our movies and music, things that go unspoken. And our difficult history of race relations is a big part of that.
In an Italian class some years ago, we learned a verb "linciare" (to lynch) and the example sentence that the teacher (native Italian) gave us was "My boss will lynch me if I'm late."
The whole class sat there agape. "You can't say that! That's horrible!" A sentence that would be fine in Italy was completely unacceptable in the US, perhaps akin to saying "My boss will throw me in a gas chamber if I'm late". The teacher, though she had lived in the US for many years, didn't understand why Americans wouldn't use that word lightly.
darkweasel (Montri la profilon) 2011-oktobro-20 06:51:22
I think that only now I understand why in this video (don’t watch if you take offense on the "n-word") the contestants were so hesitant.