Have you ever used the word "Nigger"?

No, I have literally never used that word.

I wasn’t there, and I despise “judgement-makers” who haven’t heard the whole (or both sides) of a story. But. The testimony that I’ve seen reference to would seem to indicate an appalling, unrepentant, pernicious, casual and overt racism that should not go unaddressed.

And claiming that you’re old and from the South as an excuse for racism is bullshit.

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I have, usually academically.

I had a discussion the other day with my children why they were not ever to use this word. I explained that our people were called “Mc’s” as a way to make us feel small and embarrassed. That it was important for us to never use that word as it is just a way to make other people feel like they are not as good as us, and it is shameful to make others feel small. I told them people who say “Nigger” are showing the world that they are small inside.

What are your ages?

In elementary school recess when addressing a pile of people jumping on someone.

40. But my father was older when he had me, and remembered having to join an Irish gang in order not to be beat up.

I’ve only used it to describe the detestable racist jokes some people tell. Like “Yeah, I don’t like visiting them because I don’t like to hear their dad’s ni**er jokes”.

I’m 50. I grew up in an all-white, fairly prosperous Northern suburb and some kids in my high school would use the word.

Never. And my parents (born in the 30’s) did not use it either. It might have been because
my father was always called a “spic” while attending university because of his own
skin colour and ethnicity. He was humiliated at university and graduated with top
honours. He left his detractors in the dust.

What!? She (Deen) admitted to using the word in the past and she lost her show on HGTV?

Yes. I have used the word. I’m almost 52. I grew up in a town without any black people. None. I didn’t go to school with any black people. During the last year of my grandparents’ lives, my parents hired a lady to live with my grandparents and take care of them. She was a black lady named Louise. She knew, because of where she was working, that we hadn’t been exposed to blacks. My grandparents lived behind us and when we got home from school, we changed clothes and went to their house to see what needed to be done to help. We were talking to Louse one afternoon after school and she asked my brother and me if we thought she was a nigger.

I wasn’t sure what she even meant. I didn’t know the word and hadn’t used the word. She got out a dictionary and made us look up the word. I remember we found niggardly. I’ll never forget her face and her words. She said some she wasn’t a nigger but we would encounter some niggers in our life but she wanted us to always remember her and the love she taught us and gave to my family.

She was friends with my parents long after my dad’s parents died. I’ll never forget her and I’ve never used the word in a hurtful way. My sister-in-law’s grandfather was black. She’s heard it all but is blessed to have Louise’s attitude.

Mc’s, @Imadethisupwithnoforethought?

I am Irish @bkcunningham. Micks (various spellings) or Paddy’s are derogatory terms for Irish people in America. We are mostly treated as white people now by WASPs, but I am well aware that Irish Catholics were only recently accepted as an acceptable demographic group in America. Remember I asked a question about “Paddy Wagons” and why nobody worries about the slur involved there.

I haven’t used it towards someone. I’m a 27 year old black male that grew up around white people, lol. That word makes me cringe.

I’m from the coalfields in Virginia. The area was a melting pot of Germans, Cherokee, Italians, Irish, Scotts, English, Poles…I’ve never heard the word Mick or Paddy in reference to an Irishman. Maybe I’ve heard Mick in a movie but didn’t give it much thought. I don’t remember a question about paddy wagons, but I don’t see all the questions here. Is it from the Mc prefix associated with Irish names?

Yup. Urban Dictionary claims that the term “Spick” is just Spanish plus “Mick”.

I have taught my children when they hear the word “Nigger” the speaker is talking about them.

I’ve used it twice, in the context of discussing the word itself. I’m in my 40s.

@Imadethisupwithnoforethought I don’t think Urban Dictionary’s etymology for “spic” is correct. I think it’s just shorthand for “hispanic”. And it’s spelled without a k, or used to be.

No, I am 70 years old and was raised in Colorado. I was taught from a very early age that word was not nice and should never be used. I saw it in a book and asked my Dad what it meant.

@glacial I am less concerned with absolute etymological truth than I am with teaching my children why they need to never use the word and how it must feel to hear the word to others who are not in the accepted group.

So what happened with Paula? I’m shocked.

@bkcunningham I just read what you wrote about Louise and her take on the word – I think Paula Deen would have understood what she meant… she seems to think it applies to certain black people, but not all. Everything I know about this story is from last night’s Daily Show, which included a number of quotes and clips showing Deen being quite cluelessly racist.

@Imadethisupwithnoforethought Oh I realize… it was just an aside, really. I didn’t even look it up to verify whether I was right.

I never used it towards someone. I’ll admit that I spat bars with that word in it, but it was Snoop Dogg’s lyrics and I was doing it for something. Me in my callow era. And I’m 17. Don’t rub it in.

When I was 8 or 9 my father bought this big coal black cattle horse. He was so spirited. His name: Nigger. My father changed it immediately. That was an amazing horse.

I’m so old. What is “spat bars?” Rapped? Sang?

So you think my parents’ sweet and kind friend Louise was racist, @glacial?

Unfair. She answered honestly that she said it in the 80’s in private to her husband after being present at a bank robbery at gunpoint buy a black man. I think it is ridiculous people are up in arms thirty years later.

Growing up I never heard the word nigger or said it. The only time I heard the word discussed was when studying literature in class. When I was in my 20’s my dad said when he was a little kid, so that would be 60 years ago now, some kids used to tease him and call him nigger lips and chink eyes. So, that was the one time I heard my father say nigger. I have said it the three or four times I have told that story in the last 25 years. It never occurs to me to use that word. By the way, I am super happy to have full lips from my father and his eyes actually are only slightly almondish. My sister got that more than I did and it is a very pretty trait.

I don’t think the word should be used at all anymore. I know some people argue black people can say it, but I think they shouldn’t.

Totally fair.

In her testimony for a law suit brought against her by a staff member at her restaurant, she admitted to making fun of Jews, hispanics, and everyone else in addition to.

the food network isn’t known for racist or derogatory comedy. It would be suicide for FN to keep her on.

People in the public eye are held to certain standards. I’m sure she was aware of that, but i appreciate that she was honest about it.

@bkcunningham Rapping. (I don’t rap or anything)

@syz et al: And claiming that you’re old and from the South as an excuse for racism is bullshit.

In my book, it certainly is. If you come from a culture that drops that word in a very common way, it would be natural for anyone to embrace it. It wouldn’t be right, and people evolve, and their viewpoints change, and you realize the power of that word, and you change.

I grew up in Oakland, and I have heard that word used in every way, from greeting (what’s up, my nigger?”) to hate speech to song (several wonderful songs use it in the lyrics, even the title).
The word is quite common in Tarantino and Spike Lee movies, and I am amazed how few admit to having ever said it.
For the record, I am 57.

@bkcunningham Actually, that was not what I was saying. I was saying that Deen’s comments were racist.

However, when you said, “She said some she wasn’t a nigger but we would encounter some niggers in our life”, I assumed that you were saying that you thought she was racist. And… don’t you? Why else would you tell this story?

Using the word 30 years ago does not make her racist. All it means is she used a derogatory word.

@Taciturnu What was she supposed to do lie? I’m sorry, but most people have told a joke or said out loud a stereotype that picks on blonds or lawyers or Jews or Priests or Hispanics or Asians or name a group.

I really feel like this is a case where we should be thinking let the first to cast a stone be free of sin. Do you think you should lose your job because years from now someone asks you under oath about something you said today?

She wasn’t a racist as far as I know. She was black herself. Not that I don’t think a black person could be racist, but she was trying to teach us a lesson. That was the point of my story. The lesson she tried to teach us. I need a copy editor for my writing. Horrible, but anyway, she was an old black woman whose father was a slave. I doubt very seriously she was a racist, @glacial. I was just a kid when I knew her. She died before I was grown but I don’t think for one second she was a racist.

I’ve said the word when talking about the word, but I would usually say ‘the n word’. I think it is a truly horrible word. I’ve never used the word myself as a way to refer to another person.

I am 21 – yes, I have used it. Not as an insult, but some of my friends and I use it around each other. One of my friends, who is Filipino, probably says it around 10 times a day. Don’t ask me—I don’t use it near that often. But I’m a linguist, so I don’t believe in “magic words”; any word has the potential to be offensive; it depends on how it’s used and whom it’s being used around. I don’t think Paula Deen admitting she has said it in the past warrants her being fired, though.

I’m amazed too, @filmfann.

This reminds me of one of my favorite Lenny Bruce routines. Here is a clip from the movie.

@bkcunningham I understand what you’re saying.

What I think is that it is not just our language that changes over time, that “nasty” words become less fashionable or acceptable, but ideas do, too. The way that she talked about some of her people was not shocking then, but it would be shocking for someone to say that now. It is not shocking or disappointing that you tell the story, but it would be as shocking and disappointing to hear you to express the sentiment behind that statement now, as it would be to hear you use the word itself. While it might not have been racism then, it would be perceived as that now.

@jleslie I did say I appreciated her honesty.

However, business is business. You could have a great spokesperson. Someone digs up enough dirt on anyone with status and the dirt happens to offend a great enough population? That impact will effect your brand.

The suit wasn’t just about racism, either.

Some of “her people.” Hmmm Shocking, @glacial. ~

@bkcunningham Serves me right for trying to write in context. ~

@filmfann, I don’t know. I’m not the smartest person in the world. But I think what Bruce was saying way back then in that bit is sort of the point of the “Q” in LGBTQ.

I’m glad you weren’t offended friend, @glacial. I know what you meant. Thank you.

@Taciturnu I just cannot understand the big uproar about something she said 30 years ago when she was raised with that word all around her. It doesn’t mean she thought all black people are criminals, or niggers for that matter. She was saying it about the one who scared the crap out of her. But, it does seem a bunch of people think she is awful for ever having said it, so possibly for business reasons it makes sense. I just have a hard time believing her market really would be very affected.

I am 67 years old & I have NEVER said this word! My Mother taught me to respect every individual no matter what their ethnicity was… and I have tried very hard to live up to her expectations.

I’ve said it thousands of times. I like early 90’s Gangsta Rap and I like to sing along to everything.

I’ve never used the word, though. Nice distinction@filmfann.—I don’t even like to see the word in writing.

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I’m older than Dean. I grew up in the ‘50s in a small Texas city where there were separate drinking fountains and bathrooms, back-of-the-bussing, and many other racist traditions including the use of the N-word, which was rampant. But not in my house. My parents, bless them, absolutely forbid my brother and me or any of our friends under our roof to use it or any other racist pejorative, ever, and they encouraged us to sit in the back of the bus, to drink out of any fountain we wanted, and to demonstrate respect for all races.

I despise the N-word (I don’t even like saying “N-word”), even for “comedic” purpose, and more than that, the bigotry lurking therein.

I’m 40. When I was 9–18 I lived in New Orleans and adopted it mostly in the context of elementary and middle school joke telling.

I remember coming back to visit during college (after having moved away) and being shocked to hear a friend of mine use it quite earnestly. “Well, some of them are” was his justification.

Similarly, I remember sometime in the late 1990s my great aunt, who lived in Memphis most of her life, say that she (or someone else—I don’t remember) “had been working harder than two n—”. That one got my attention as well, although that phrase’s intention seemed more inspired by a cultural context than a personal prejudice.

@JLeslie, the suit was about recent events. The employee stated that Dean and her brother created an environment with racism, sexual innuendo and assault.

There’s apparently a lot of stipulation that she wanted her brother to have all middle aged black men waiting on guests at her brothers wedding. That was 2010.

It would be easier For some damage control if it weren’t so recent. her market may not be greatly effected, but FNs overall audience might.This isn’t the first time sometimes remarks have negatively impacted their career. Where’s Mel Gibson? Lol

I heard it used by more people when I lived in Rhode Island than during any other time in my life.

Speaking of name calling, she’s Deen, folks, not Dean.

48 here – 49 in 9 days! Born in Texas and mostly raised in elite Connecticut, I heard the word somewhat frequently. I also heard “redneck”, “kraut”, “jap”, “spic”, “mick”, “half-breed”, “wop”, “guinea”, “chink” and “jew”. I qualified for at least 3 of those categories.

They literally meant nothing to me at the time, and I only learned that they were “bad” words as I got older.

Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you (unless you have multiple shows on the Food Network, as seen with Ms. Deen).

Thanks for the correction, @gailcalled. Deen. I never paid any mind to her before this and from now on I not going to, either.

Oh, sure.

“Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg, nigga what’s up!” :)

But seriously, I’d never call a black person a nigger – to their face or behind their back. I think it’s an ugly word. I’ve sang along to songs that include the word, though. Unfortunately, living in the South I hear this word a lot. It’s actually pretty commonplace down here still.

I’m 23.

@laurenkem: IF someone is Jewish, it’s okay to call him a Jew; it’s not okay to call him a Yid.

(Or a Kike)

@gailcalled , See? What the hell do I know? They were always just words to me. The world taught me the rest and by that, I mean that the world taught me that certain words were ‘bad” and should never be said.

I use it from time to time, often to refer to ignorant people who are whiter than Wonder bread, though occasionally to refer to slave status…again, ignoring skin tone. For instance, when I was a very junior enlisted guy in Navy and performing all sorts of tasks that were beyond menial and just meant to demean, I often remarked, “It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white; we’re all Uncle Sam’s Niggers!” as a wordplay on USN. Of course, gender didn’t matter in the Navy either; we were all bitches.

Political correctness has never been my strong suit, but I find that a lot of us crackers go a bit overboard; it seems us white folk are more uptight about the word “nigger” than our melanin-enhanced counterparts who that word actually refers to.

Singing along with hip hop songs. My kids say it to each other-“oh please, nigga’ and ‘later, nigs” I don’t think they would say it around black people or in public. There is no political correctness here. I don’t know what to think about it.

I’ve used the word. My SO ate my leftover Chinese take-out and I said to him ”did you eat my take-out without asking? Nigga please!”

Nixon was president when I was born.

My father used it. The only time I think I ever used it was as a child and the only name I knew for a nut in our Christmas nut bowl was “nigger toe.” It still made me uncomfortable. I haven’t even seen that nut in years. What’s it’s real name?

Yes, I’ve used the word. I still use the word to describe the two “men” who tried to get me into their car at a gas station one night when I was a teenager. Long story short, thank God I used my head and had a fast car.

That being said, I’ve used it less times in my entire life than I hear it used in a single, three minute rap song. And people being pissed at Paula Deen over it, thirty years after the fact, is just plain bullshit.

When I first heard the word, we used it in counting off Eeny, meeny miney moe, catch a nigger by the toe. When we learned that was a bad thing to say, we changed it to Indian.(??!) That’s the only time I recall using the term. So I’ve been old enough to know better since I was six.
My parents were horrified around that time to hear that the great singer, Marian Anderson, was not allowed to stay overnight in our town when she gave a concert at the local college. Things have changed, thank goodness.

I have a can of “Nigger Hair” tobacco from 1917 (34 years before I was born). It is a unique piece of history. But perhaps a better question is who has NEVER use the word “nigger”? Such as select people who don’t speak English, people who have never been able to speak or write, certain severely mentally retarded people etc.

I learned that word at a very early age. At age five I said the word several times in a mostly black folks church and my Mother got me out of there very fast. I had no idea what I was saying. But later concluded that it was something bad,

I don’t really know much about the story and have never heard of this person before. So, I can’t say much about that aspect of the question.

As for using the term… I use it academically and while singing along to some rap songs. I’ve never used it in a negative or insulting manner (but I certainly grew up around it being used that way).

First, I think it worth drawing our collective attention to the use-mention distinction. We use words when we utter them for the purpose of reference or description. We mention words when we utter them to discuss the words themselves.

To use the Wikipedia examples:

”Copper contains six letters, and is not a metal.”
“Copper is a metal, and contains no letters.”

The former sentence mentions the word “copper,” while the latter sentence uses the word “copper.” Those who are talking about “using the word academically,” then, probably mean to say that they have mentioned the word (that is, uttered it without using it). To use the word would be to treat it as a legitimate name or descriptor.

With all that said: I have never used the word, but I have mentioned it.

When I was in my early 20’s I worked in NYC with a couple black guys from Harlem. All day long it was nigga this and nigga that. It was so prevalent in their speech that I even started saying it – which they thought was hilarious at first – but after a few days it lost its novelty and was considered normal. Each morning we would greet each other with “Yo, what up nigga?” which usually elicited a reply along the lines of “Just chillin, my nigga”. When one of them was late for work we’d crack jokes at his expense, saying he was “on that CPT” (Colored People’s Time), or that he had “Niggeritus”.This went on for years. I really miss those guys.

I’ve never said the -er version other than ‘academically’. I’m 39 and half anglo/half latino.

I grew up around a very racist grandfather (and spent a lot of time with him), a transplanted Missourian, smack in the middle of a DC suburb. He was truly a fish out of water. Anyway, I probably heard the word from his lips just about every day when I was a child, but didn’t really know what it meant til I was a little older. He about blew a gasket when I started dating a black guy. Later on, he used the term “Jew-boy” in front of my Jewish husband. Ugh.

So, I’ve never used the word about or to a black person, but for a little while we neighborhood kids used the terms nigger-lipping and nigger-knocking (definition #7) quite casually. I was in my teens when I realized how horrible that was. I’ve never gotten over the realization, and how bad it made me feel to know I’d done that.

I’m 45.

As for Deen, I think it depends on context and how long ago it was. From what I’ve read, it seems she has used the term pretty recently, and not in any academic way (and she can’t claim childlike ignorance).

@Taciturnu I didn’t know about the wedding. I’m still not sure it makes her racist, but I will say this; last time I was in NC (about 6 months ago) I went to a very nice private golf club for a big buffet breakfast. All the waiters were black and afterwards I told my husband, “this state always gives me an odd feeling. It has an in your face old south thing about it, like the black waiters and other little things.” So, it’s funny you bring that up. But, when I lived in Raleigh, NC I heard much less racist talk than say when I lived in the Memphis area. Other out of staters in Memphis would comment about the division between black people and white people there, but it wasn’t evident by looking at the serving staff or even who cut your lawn, or other jobs that might be stereotyped to specific races.

I’m still not ok with firing her. I don’t like maintaining the old south look of racism with black wait staff and well to-do white people being served. At the same time she basically discriminated against white, Hispanics, Asians, and other nonblack people when hiring.
Ironically.

I might say she needed a wake up call, and so do other people like her when it comes to what they say and do regarding the topic, but she doesn’t need to be fired until her ratings actually drop in my opinion. Have they? I doubt they would very much.

@augustlan Do you remember any of our classmates using the word? I don’t remember anyone saying it.

@JLeslie No. By the time I was maybe 10 years old, I never heard it from anyone but my grandfather. Now I hear it occasionally from random people in WV.

@augustlan But, you heard it when you were very little? I moved to MD from NY when I was 9, I never heard it growing up in NY. I never knew the word existed until my teens I think. I perceived it as some old word you never hear anymore. Kind of like using gay for happy, even though we do use the word gay now to mean homosexual. I didn’t realize how deragotory the word was until later.

I don’t think I’ve ever used it, I may have done as a kid when pushing the boundaries with words but, to be honest, I hardly ever heard the word as a kid (or now for that matter) other in rap songs so it’s likely that the word was never really on my radar. I am 27 years old and went to a mixed race secondary school, I can’t remember any racism at school. People were made fun of for pretty much everything, music taste, disabilities, talents, even hair colour but, from what I recall, never skin colour. You were much more likely to be called a derogatory name if you had red hair than if you were black.

No and I never plan to.

@JLeslie Yes, I heard it when I was little and living in a fairly white area of Rockville, MD. Not a lot (aside from my grandfather), but I definitely heard it now and then.

I just remembered that I also heard it on at least one horrible occasion while I was a teenager in the city where you and I went to high school. My boyfriend at the time was black, and we were at the county fair. Minding our own business walking down the main drag, holding hands and carrying a red, heart-shaped Mylar balloon. A little group of yahoos from a nearby-ish rural town yelled out that I was a ‘nigger lover’. They followed us around the fair and harassed us for a while (nigger this and nigger lover that, etc.), which we ignored until they finally got tired of it and moved on.

Later that night, my boyfriend ran into those guys again at 7–11, where they proceeded to beat the shit out of him. He showed up at my door with a swollen face and bleeding lip, out of breath from running from them. Such a huge shock to me. It was the first time I’d ever encountered such violent hatred over something so crazy. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the first time the boyfriend had. He wouldn’t report it to the police.

I only read about half of the comments above, so far.

My grandfather was from Louisiana, and he used the word sometimes, to describe characters on TV like George Jefferson. My grandmother did not use any racial slurs at all. My mom and I did not use the word at home, my mom was not prejudiced and in fact, went out with a black man for about 15 years when I was young. I think her going out with him was, in part, some type of revenge on my grandfather.

When I was little, the neighbor (my grandmother’s good friend) got very upset because I made friends with an Italian girl across the street, and the neighbor called them “Guineas.” I never heard that word and we didn’t use words like that at home.

Polish jokes, Jewish jokes, black jokes, Italian jokes – all were common when I was a teen – that’s just the way it was. I told Jewish jokes to my Jewish friend’s parents and they loved them. Jewish jokes are probably still popular, Polish jokes, not.

When I was a teen and in my early 20’s, people would occasionally use the word nigger. I didn’t because I wasn’t raised that way. Black people would often, and still do often, call each other nigger, as in “What’s up, nigger?” They also use it in rap music (just listen to it and you’ll see).

As far as Paula Deen goes, I heard and I saw on the Food Network’s Facebook page that thousands of people are writing that they think it’s terrible that FN is not renewing Paula’s contract. They’re not actually firing her, they’re just not renewing her contract. I commend her for answering the question honestly, when she was asked in the deposition, and from the era Paula lived in, down South, yes, it was probably a word used often in white households and heard often all over, and not shameful at the time (you figure when Paula grew up and lived there it was the 1940’s-1970’s).

Yes, Food Network is “covering itself” by not renewing her contract, but there are a lot of pissed off people out there.

@augustlan OMG!

In 9th grade several people at MVJH talked about our high school having some racial problems. Also, some parents made sure their kids went to Seneca somehow, because supposedly it was a better school. I never really noticed any racial conflict in our school, except one time some white kid bumped into some black kid or vice versa and there was a little anger, but nothing really happened, and someone said it was because they were different races, but I really don’t think it was. Anyone, one incident at most that I know of in 3 years.

I’m 42. I don’t use the N word, unless I’m rapping along with DMX or Ice T or whatever.
I’m really disappointed about Paula Deen losing her show. I love her and her tendency to add a pound of butter to everything.

Only time i’ve ever uttered the word is when recalling lines from Blazing Saddles, having a laugh with mates. That’s really the only way to deal with that word, quoting it as a piss take of those who use it otherwise.
Also, @Leanne1986 is correct, if you’re a ginger kid here in england town, you’re going to get mercilessly mocked at school…“ginger ninja!”
My name is Alan & i’m 10½ yrs old :)

[removed by me]

Ni No.

@dxs Seems to be developing quite a habit for posting that crap, frequently right after a post of mine. Either say what’s on your mind or quit being a pussy…it’s that simple.

Sure, I’ve said “nigger”. I’ve said a lot of words. I don’t remember every instance in which I’ve said those words, but I’m sure it happened at some point.

There’s a cat in an HP Lovecraft story named “Nigger-man”.

I really don’t care about Paula Deen.

@ucme I posted it, thought it was funny, then thought it was irrelevant. I have a habit of typing before I think.

@Judi Those are Brazil nuts. My mother also used that term when I was growing up, until I made her stop.

@dxs Yeah, but the connotation being, given the nature of the question, that you find something amiss in the post immediately above yours.
Sometimes, it’s wise to think before you type…not often, but once in a while.

@ucme Is it because red hair is associated with the Irish? An English friend of mine wears red on St. Patty’s day here in the states.

Another question: I didn’t realize nigger was used in other parts of the world. I always think of it as an American expression.

@JLeslie St. Paddy’s Day, please. :P

@ucme It had nothing to do with your post or anyone else’s.

@Judi @glacial is correct. Brazil nuts.
I remember the expression “nigger lipping”, but not “nigger knocking”.
I apologize for misspelling Paula Deen’s name.
I remember a conversation with my Great Grandmother, who lived in Memphis and was in her 90’s during the 80’s. I told her I lived in Oakland, and she just smiled and leaned close, and said something like “There’s lots of niggers there. Don’t trust niggers.” At that point I smiled back, and thought to myself that it is good that old people die, because some old points of view simply will not change with the times.

@JLeslie I dunno, just something that’s been around for as long as I can remember.
@dxs So entirely pointless then, whatever floats ya boat.

A lot of people in the city I grew up in were Italians and everyone (not only Italians) in the area is familiar with the term “Moolies” which is a shortened version of (not sure if I’m spelling it correctly) “mulenyams” which means “eggplant” in Italian. So many people around where I grew up called black people “moolies.”

Wendy Williams, the very popular and hilarious former radio host (now has her own TV show) used to refer to black people as “negroidians.” I googled it, although I knew what it meant, and it refers to a ghetto term for black people.

I should have added to my original post that I am 47. When I was
coming of age” it was the 1980’s and early 90’s.

My father is (or was) racist and so yes, I heard this word a lot as a child and probably used it too, during the early 1970s. But I grew up. I have never used it as an adult.

@jca Italian for eggplant is “melanzana”, plural “melanzane”.

The word @jca is referring to is Mulignan

@filmfann got it right. See his link.

Many people here are not addressing the second part of the Q which is “is it fair” that she is punished for something she said 30 years ago (in a different era and in a part of the country where the word, especially then, in the 50’s and 60’s and 70’s was not necessarily a terrible word like it is now.

@jca and others: I am not sure why people are saying that this is about something that happened 30 years ago. There are plenty of racist comments surfacing that are much more recent. Perhaps the older incident is the one that broke the story? But that is not all that happened.

All down to perception of course, but there are far worse racially motivated words, not that any sound right mind you
My name is Al & my shoe size is 9.

@glacial: The only one I read about was the thing from 30 years ago. Do you have link or details about the more recent ones?

@jca Well, I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this, because we all have access to Google, but the following is from the deposition filed June 17 of this year, and describes an event that occurred in 2007:

”[Former employee Lisa] Jackson said she was put in charge of arrangements for Bubba’s wedding, which Deen apparently said she wanted to have a “true Southern plantation-style theme.” What, pray tell, does that mean? “Well what I would really like is a bunch of little n——rs to wear long-sleeve white shirts, black shorts, and black bow-ties, you know in the Shirley Temple days, they used to tap dance around,” Deen reportedly elaborated. Alas, the wedding Deen envisioned never came to be. “We can’t do that because the media would be on me about that,” she reportedly told Jackson. In her testimony, Deen said that she actually was referencing the “beautiful white jackets with a black bow-tie” she saw the wait staff of “middle-aged black men” wearing at a restaurant she visited “in Tennessee or North Carolina or somewhere.””

…

When asked in the deposition if she had used the word to describe the waiters, Deen said, “No, because that’s not what these men were. They were professional black men doing a fabulous job.” (This is what I was referencing when I responded to @bkcunningham, whose friend had made a similar remark.)

This was found here: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/19/paula-deen-uses-the-n-word-7-shocking-details-from-her-deposition.html

Full text of deposition:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/148832518/Paula-Deen-Deposition-Testimony

@sunny2: We used to say for counting off also “Eeny meeny miny mo, catch a tiger by the toe,“but I remember the discussions about the earlier version. (In the late 1940’s).

@gailcalled Hence also the original title of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None(novel). It took a few tries to find a non-racist title for that book.

Must add _(novel) for the link that I was trying to write. I wish it were possible to properly link URLs with underscores here.

Never in context.

Only if discussing the word itself. Explaining its racist usage to my daughter, for example.

41 from Boston, MA

@glacial: Here’s one link that discusses the issues.

@gailcalled Yes, that is actually what my link becomes when the _(novel) is removed (as you’ll see if you click on it). However, there is a page devoted to the book, which shows the original jackets, and that is the one that I wanted to link.

Here’s a version of the jacket. Not very clear, but I get the point.

It’s for sale $4,499.99 USD.
:
I have been readiing Christie since I was a teen-ager and never knew about the jacket until now.

@gailcalled Indeed, few people do; being a bookseller for so long gave me access to many of its dirty secrets. :/

I’m surprised no one has mentioned Louis CK yet

But yeah, I’ve mentioned it like @SavoirFaire. For an example: I don’t think we should censor the word “nigger” in modern copies of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn because we would be defacing a literary work. I would never use “nigger” to describe anyone, not even in a “satirical” manner.

And really? Who cares about the correct spelling of her last name?

And my favorite Pryor album is “That Nigger’s Crazy”

Sure. I’m 59; it was common when we were growing up to count out for teams using “Eeny, meenie, minie, moe. Catch a nigger by the toe. Out goes Y – O – U.”

Since then the word has been replaced with tiger, in most of the cases that I’ve seen it. Jesus Christ, it’s a fucking WORD. People need to get over the thin skin bullshit.

Anybody remember several years ago when a politician got in hot water for using the word ‘niggardly’? (His use of the word was correct.)

After reading Auggie’s post I remembered a few things.

When I was about 10 my best friend Scotty (a 13 year old black kid that lived upstairs from me) asked me if I wanted to prank some of our neighbors by knocking on their door and then running away immediately. He informed me this was known as Nigger Knocking. (I said “yes” to the proposition).
I recall asking him why the activity had such a horrible name, and he of course didn’t know its origins, but also couldn’t have cared less. That’s just what it was called, and that was that. This would have been around 1983, when saying the word would definitely make others uncomfortable, but it generally wasn’t viewed on par with admitting you just raped a toddler or something else equally unforgivable, like it is now.

As far as the Food Network lady (who the fuck watches the Food Network anyway?), meh. Fuck her. I’m sure she’s crying all the way to the bank right now. No sympathy. She should have known better, being someone in the public eye. Idiot.

@Michael_Huntington Louis CK was the first person I thought of when I read this, but I didn’t mention him.

“That’s just white people getting away with saying nigger.”

I couldn’t agree with him more. I hate hearing “the N word” more than I hate hearing “nigger.” It’s a word, just say it! Reminds me when I was a kid and I used to call sex “the S.” We’re adults now, people.

I clearly remember the first and only time I used it as a slur. I was in 3rd grade, mid-60’s or so. A kid by name of Clarence sat in front of me in school. He was my friend, but he made me mad. Don’t remember why, but I whispered “Nigger!” at him. He turned around, wide eyed in shock and hurt. Stopped me cold in my tracks. After school I asked my Mom what it meant. She said it’s a bad word referring to black people and we should never say it. Too late. I regret it to this day. I remember making a point of being extra nice to him for a few days after that, but I never actually said I was sorry and I regret that.
************!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’M SORRY CLARENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!****************

I dated a black guy for several years, and he used the term often. He was from the Deep South….Selma Alabama, to be exact (yes, he remembers the march from Selma to Montgomery. He was about 8 and he said he almost got run down by a mounted police man. It was an unforgettable mess!) Anyway, he said he wanted to play pro basket ball but he was “a little nigger,” not big enough to play pro. I always had mixed feelings about his use of that word…...

I had the S with the n-word!

@Dutchess_III I’ve only ever had the S with a c-word.

…cracker, that is. :)

To those living in the south that still hear the word fairly regularly:

Are you saying that white people say it casually only in front of other white people, or are they casually saying in in front of black people as well? And if they do say it casually in front of black people, how do they usually respond?

You have the the S with crackers?? That is VERY weird and I don’t see how it’s possible! ;)

@FutureMemory I hear it most when there are only white people present. Other than black people saying it on their own, I don’t often hear anyone saying that word around black people.

Southern white people have an uncanny ability to be sweet and polite to your face and tear you apart once you walk away.

The wife of one of my husband’s friends hates niggers, spicks, Jews, wops you name it. You can imagine how she feels about Obama. Her casual and clueless insulting is really disgusting. Last time I saw her, we were watching some basketball and she snarled, “I remember when only WHITE boys played basket ball. Now they have niggers everywhere.”
I said, “Well, turns out that, on average, black people are better athletes than white.”
She did NOT like that at all!
Oh. But she does go to church every Sunday and talks about her “Christian Walk.”

@FutureMemory Around here, if a white person is saying it, there are no black people present. The ones who say it seem to have no shame about saying it in front of other white people – it’s like they automatically assume that all white people say it/feel the same way, which always surprises me. I doubt very many of them would ever say it to or in front of a black person.

I’ve also heard it from a black woman, but she was quoting. She’d just moved to WV from the New England area, so we got to talking about culture shock. She told me that a white woman in her first WV neighborhood had gotten angry with her over a parking issue and they got in a minor argument in the parking lot. The woman ended up screaming at her and called her a “fucking nigger”. She said it was the first time she’d ever heard anyone actually call someone that in her life. It shocked the shit out of her. She moved.

Edited by me

@Dutchess_III Just like this.

@Dutchess_III I am shocked and saddened that such a terrible thing happened to you! Was your neighbor arrested, and did they put down the dog? Once something like that happens, animals often feel the right to do this, and they are forced to destroy the animal.
I am sure years of therapy did come afterwards, and it is awful that you still have sleep issues because of it. Be strong, and try to remember not all mankind has this evil streak.

I lived in the south the last 7 years and never heard the n word. I did hear them call Memphis Memfrica. It felt the same to me as if they were saying the n word.

Stop waiting on a nigga to verify wether you the shit or not. Bitch if you the shit, You the Motherfucking Shit! -Katt Williams

Semi-related: the past few days my mom has been going through many old photographs and letters from her relatives, and she found a letter from her grandmother written in 1928 that says, at the end of the letter: “How are my little black nigger kittens?”

It’s strange how that word was used back then; the sentence would’ve made sense without “nigger” in it, but for some reason she felt the need to include it.

Seems Bill Maher questioned firing Paula just like me. Here is some video, he talks about her show towards the end.

@harangutan White people, go out and get you some nigga friends. Just don’t ever call them your nigga friends. :)

I just saw @JLeslie‘s video link to Bill Maher’s show. I’m in a rush but glad I stuck it out to the end because Maher addresses the fact (what I was talking about above) that if you grew up in pre-civil rights American South you may very well have used that word with no negative connotation to it. Also he mentions twice (in beginning of video and toward end 3 min later) that rappers use it (also a point made above) and so do other black people, toward each other, and for some reason that’s ok.

He also made another point, a very interesting and valid point, that someone is accusing her of using it recently which very well may have been a shakedown.

@jca First, there was general agreement on the panel that there’s no way to use it without a negative connotation. Second, what Maher said about growing up pre-civil rights is this:

“There’s no excuse for it. But I’m just wondering, if you’re 66 years old, and you were raised in Georgia, and you were a child before the civil rights movement, do you get a bit of a pass? Or do you say no? You’ve had 40 years to get used to [it]? Yeah, I agree.”

He just doesn’t think she should lose her show over it. I like Maher a lot, but I disagree with him on some topics (most notably his resistance to vaccination, his love of PETA, and of alternative medicine), and I disagree with him on this.

IMHO it’s going to be hard if not impossible to find a celebrity who is going to say publicly that the “n” word, even 40 years ago, even in another era, is ok, no matter what they personally feel. So what I’m saying is who knows if he agrees or not. He doesn’t want to lose his show!

I just familiarized myself with the Paula Deen controversy. I don’t get it. She told her lawyer, in confidence, that she’s used the word “nigger” in the past and she gets fired for it? That’s incredibly stupid and I don’t understand why people are so pissed at her about it. She didn’t use it publicly or on her show – who gives a shit?

I don’t say the word out loud any more, not ever. And I give anyone who does use it in my presence a real stink-eye, because I will not abide prejudging an entire race of people even based on the example of “every one that you have met”, even if that is so. But you can bet that I say the word to myself several times a year; there are times one does wish that a word could kill. Here are some typical examples:

I live in a suburban town near Hartford, CT that has a high population of blacks, and in fact my own neighborhood is majority black-owned. I have great neighbors, for the most part. However, there are times when folks drive up to the stop sign across the street from my driveway (I live at a T-intersection, on one of the main roads), and – at least some of the times when they actually have to stop to allow traffic to pass – they simply open a car window and throw their trash on the road. This happens almost daily, though I don’t get to observe it every time it happens; I just pick up the trash. When I see it happen, I simply and very deliberately apply “fucking nigger” or “fucking white trash” as applicable. Unfortunately, because of the neighborhood demographics, it’s usually the former.

Same town. I’m driving on a major boulevard: 4 lanes, tree-planted median, but it’s not at all a high-speed road. Even so, I see four or five kids strolling across a quarter-mile ahead, jaywalking. I’m okay with that, since I do it myself when traffic permits – and I’m not going to be at risk or stop traffic. But these kids are strolling on a diagonal, and as if it’s their own driveway. Okay, still I slow well below the speed limit to permit them time to cross safely ahead of me. I do like to live and let live, after all. They slow more – deliberately, and now in my lane. The only thing for me to do is check my rear-view and side-view to make sure that I can change lanes (from my now near-stop), and pass around them while they stand in the middle of my lane, more or less challenging me. I’ll start to apply “fucking passive-aggressive homeboys” from now on. It makes the same difference, no?

I was talking to my mom today and she told me about this article in the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/us/in-the-south-many-are-willing-to-forgive-deens-racial-misstep.html?src=me&ref=general&_r=0.

My mom said they visited some friends yesterday and the husband was a graduate of Columbia University and had the Columbia U yearbook from the 1930’s. In the book were a bunch of songs, and one of the songs was called “Nigger.” My mom said, “What are employers going to do? Fire everyone who graduated from Columbia University because they used the word “nigger?” Good point. Of course, I’m sure they don’t have that song in the current yearbook, but you see my point? It did not used to have the stigma that it does now.

Paula Deen grew up in an era and in a place where I’m sure mostly everyone used the word – there was no stigma against it.

I didn’t read it yet but apparently, many people support her. That combined with the FB page where thousands are writing in support, I can’t help but think that Food Network jumped the gun on this, as she was and still is very popular, made them tons of money and has the ability to continue making them tons of money, and she has many supporters.

To me it’s not about whether you like Paula Deen, don’t like Paula Deen, or don’t care about Paula Deen (as one poster wrote above). It’s an issue and it’s an issue that concerns our culture as a whole.

I don’t know, @jca… my parents and their siblings were all born in Central Massachusetts in the 1920s, and I very clearly recall my mother telling me about her younger brother being chased home from school (I’m not sure it if was high school or earlier) and beaten up for calling a classmate a nigger, so that would have occurred no later than around 1937 or so. In that case there was certainly a stigma attached, and well known enough that my mother wasn’t surprised, and her brother certainly unsurprised.

As I noted in a post on another thread recently, these types of racial and ethnic slur names have always carried a stigma. It may be one thing to say “she had to use that term or risk sticking out like a nail that needed pounding down” (a Japanese expression that I learned not so long ago), but I think that the term has always been a pejorative one.

I think there was a time when it was used more loosely as a term of description (skin color- slave) with no insult intended (although being a slave would be insulting enough) but could be used viciously too. I’m thinking of the Civil War era.

@filmfann Wrong question? And did you mean to address someone else? It sounds like you were you responding to my viscous dog question. Also, I’ve never had a problem with a dog that left me traumatized. As far as the neighbor’s dogs attacking us, I just went out and bought a couple of baseball bats to keep under the couch on the deck.

@CWOTUS: I’m not saying everyone in New England used the word, I’m saying during this era of that yearbook I mentioned, the word was probably “naughty” and humorous (like a novelty song) but not so terrible like it is now. Now, that you could be fired from your job for using it, is not the way it was in the 1930’s (or South pre-civil rights era like I mentioned).

I think you mistake my meaning, @jca. The word is no worse now than it has ever been. What has changed is the society that no longer permits its casual application. As you note, corporate and other business interests that now have to be more concerned about their image and their appeal to minorities and to people who watch out for the interests of minorities and also to troublemakers who just like to make trouble, as if they really care for the people involved, have to be concerned whenever “bad words” or “unpopular ideas” come out of the mouths or pens or keyboards of their spokespeople.

If we wanted to research the use of the word in the context that you mentioned, I’m certain that various apologists could explain it away. I believe that it was used with full and deliberate knowledge that it was a put-down (in the same way that “babe” and other such words have been used until fairly recently to describe various women), but it may have been “dressed up” to appear lighthearted, playful and humorous.

The word has always been “terrible”, in short. It’s only more generally recognized and acknowledged as such today. That’s the difference.

Now I understand, @CWOTUS. Good points!

“Gay” used to be a simple word meaning ‘happy.’ I knew a girl named Gay once when I was a kid. But she started using her middle name after the 70’s hit.

Words change. I asked a black friend of mine what she thought of black people useing the word ‘nigger.’ She said she won’t use it, but relations of hers do. They say they’re trying to reclaim the word and turn it into a non-insult. I think it isn’t working. It’s being kept in the mainstream, mostly by other blacks (“HNIC” from “Lean on Me” comes to mind.) Wouldn’t it be better to just let it fade away until it’s so archaic and obsolete a person would feel like a fool using it?

I was surprised to see in an etymological dictionary that the word originated in Scotland and the North of England. I hardly ever heard the word spoken apart from ‘Eeny meeny miny moe’

nigger (n.) Look up nigger at Dictionary.com1786, earlier neger (1568, Scottish and northern England dialect), from French nègre, from Spanish negro (see Negro). From the earliest usage it was “the term that carries with it all the obloquy and contempt and rejection which whites have inflicted on blacks” [cited in Gowers, 1965, probably Harold R. Isaacs]. But as black inferiority was at one time a near universal assumption in English-speaking lands, the word in some cases could be used without deliberate insult. More sympathetic writers late 18c. and early 19c. seem to have used black (n.) and, after the American Civil War, colored person.

@jca ”IMHO it’s going to be hard if not impossible to find a celebrity who is going to say publicly that the “n” word, even 40 years ago, even in another era, is ok, no matter what they personally feel. So what I’m saying is who knows if he agrees or not. He doesn’t want to lose his show!”

You haven’t watched much Bill Maher, have you? His last show was titled Politically Incorrect, and for good reason. He says whatever the hell he wants. :D

George Wallace comes to mind.

@flutherother I was thinking the same thing about the usage of the word. I wondered whether many people from the UK/Europe have heard it used as much as US people. I can’t ever remember hearing this word used by people I knew except in the rhyme you mentioned. I’m pretty sure it was used on that TV show Love Thy Neighbour too.

@glacial: yes, he does say whatever comes to mind, but obviously now, if he doesn’t think Paula Deen should have been fired (not sure if he does or doesn’t but just in case he does) he’s not going to admit it, unless he wants backlash and possible firing himself.

@jca I understood your joke, but I’m not kidding when I say that’s not how he rolls. Maher isn’t going to hold back an opinion for fear of getting fired. He has all the money he needs, a booming stand-up career, and everything that he does and has is based on the fact that he doesn’t do exactly what you’re saying he would: shy away from saying what he thinks for fear of backlash or losing his job. He simply Does. Not. Care. About. That.

In any case, Maher has discussed the word several times on both shows (along with every other topic under the sun), with an array of panel guests. There’s no way he could hide his view on this topic or much else for the sake of one scandalous event.

For the record, his stance is that Deen should not be fired. That is in the video that @JLeslie linked.

I had lunch a few days ago with my friends from NC and this topic came up. When we got around to talking about her comment on the black waiters and I mentioned to my friends that last time I ate breakfast with them at the club it stood out to me how white the members are and that the waiters are all black men her comment was, “that’s an old southern tradition, and those men make great money, those jobs are sought by them.” She definitely would not see anything wrong with it, and I guess Paula maybe gets some credit for realizing the media and public at large probably would. My friend is in her 60’s, grew up in NC on a farm and went on to be a VP in a very very large multinational telecom company, she has lived several times outside of the country. So, she has world experience, and has lived and worked and appreciated many different cultures.

Just a reminder, I am uncomfortable with it. I would never think to only employ a particular race or ethnicity as waiters, except for casting in a movie.

But if they want to be employed as a waiter, why would that make anyone uncomfortable?

@Dutchess_III Well, in the case of the wedding, Paula wanted to set a scene reminiscent of an era when black people were not treated as equals. I’m not sure if she was referring to the slave days or segregation. Either way, a lot of people take offense to it. I do believe her that she thought the men looked great in their suits and that she is not trying to keep black people in their place or anything like that. I think part of the problem is in other parts of the country that doesn’t exist. “All” white midwest and parts of New England don’t have that very clear cut history between the races and look on the southern history as an embarrassment in our nation. I’m not saying there was and isn’t discrimination in other parts of the country, but it is most blatant in the south regarding black people and keeping the picture of it in our heads is frowned upon. It’s the same as when we have fluther rguments about the confederate flag. People argue it is just fine to fly that flag high, and others find it in bad taste, wanting for the “old” south, even a little scary. I’m in the scary boat.

GA

Yes, when trying to explain that the term ‘grammar nazi’ is as offensive to Germans as the word ‘nigger’ is to Americans.

@mattbrowne Hear, hear.

@glacial – I couldn’t get the message across otherwise…

I just thought of something today. Some kids were playing “Enney Meeny Mineo Mo. Catch a Tiger By His toes….” and I flashed back to the early 60’s when my friends and I had the same chant, but it was “Catch a nigger by his toes….” We didn’t think twice about it. We didn’t giggle because it was bad, it just was what it was. At some point someone instructed us to change, so we did. No thoughts, no worries.

I also remember when Crayola came out with “Skin color.” It was later relabeled “Peach” and the whole “Skin Color” thing was dropped.

@Dutchess_III I think that crayon was called “Flesh”.

@filmfann When I was growing up, it was called “skin colour” or just “skin”.

“Some colors have been renamed rather than replaced, often due to cultural sensitivity issues. For example, “Flesh” was changed to “Peach” in 1962, since not all people have the same hued complexion, and “Indian Red” was changed to “Chestnut” in 1999 out of concern from teachers that their students wrongtly thought it was supposed to be the color of Native American’s skin. The name actually referred to a red pigment from India.[26] Chestnut had a color vote and some other names included “Mars Red”, “Old Penny”, “Crab Claw Red”, and “Baseball Mitt”. “Prussian Blue” was renamed “Midnight Blue”, since Prussia had long since ceased to exist and the name had fallen into disuse.”

Source

I don’t know what to tell you, @filmfann. Not everyone used Crayola crayons.

Getting back to the question, as far as Paula Deen goes, she was just dropped by Walmart and so, now, I believe, that makes Food Network, Walmart, some buffet place that did casinos, Smithfield Ham, and I think what remains is the pharmaceutical company (which there was controversy about when she was not admitting to being diabetic while continuing to make her fattening food, and then admitting it when she announced big promo deal), plus her books, plus QVC. She also has a cruise which they say is doing very well, and she’s got the restaurants (plus of course the merchandise that is sold in the restaurants). They also said today on the Today Show that her cookbook which is not coming out until Autumn 2013 is #1 on Amazon (I guess that means #1 among cookbooks? or #1 among not yet printed books?).

I just read on Huff Post that the diabetes drug maker suspended their involvement with her.

I wonder, however, if, since all these companies had contracts with her, if they have to pay her anyway (except FN, which just does not renew and so then once their present contract expires, then they pay no longer). If they’re all paying anyway, then she’s ok financially for now.

I only saw parts of her interview on the Today show and I thought Matt sucked when he interviewed her and I usually like how he handles things. I saw the clip while I was watching Morning Joe, and they were worse. On Morning Joe they discussed where Paula says the one time she said nigger was when she was held up, and the guest on the show, who happens to be a black guy, if it matters, it really doesn’t, kind of laughs and says more or less, “yeah right that’s the time to use the word, when there is a gun to your head.” Basically saying Paula called the black man a nigger to his face. The guest on Morning Joe continued in that vein saying that just doesn’t ring true, like Paula is just a lying sack of nothing. Annnddd, on Morning Joe everyone around the table kind of goes along with him. No one seems to know she said it to her husband, and no one points out the reason she is in all this trouble is because she told the truth to begin with.

They also criticized her for using the biblical reference let the first to cast a stone be free of sin, as dragging religion into it. I’m sorry, but I basically have said the same thing and I am an atheist referencing a biblical verse does not mean you are dragging religion into it for some sort of extra forgiveness. I also try to live by the golden rule, while not directly from the bible, it is drawn from Leviticus. So?

Lastly, I heard on the The View today a lawyer say that the law suit where this all started was a suit about sexual harrassment and the plaintiff in the case has stated she never witnessed Paula Deen doing or saying anything racist.

I just think this is all blown way out of proportion.

I predict that after a lot of heartache she will rise like a phoenix just like Martha Stewart did.

^^^ Fatter and richer, also like Martha.

I saw people are lining up at her restaurant. Black and white and every other color under the rainbow. I actually wanted to go to her restaurant late last week. I was in Savannah, driving through, staying at an airport hotel, and I was hoping to arrive early enough to go to the synagogue there (off topic, but very interesting, the 3rd oldest congregation in the country started by mostly Sephardic Jews who fled London for religious freedom back in the 1700’s, I just learned about it reading up on attractions in Savannah) and hoping to get at least dessert at Paula Deen’s restaurant. However, when we arrived my husband was exhausted so we rested for a bit and then it began to pour down rain so we never went into town. I think it was the very day all this hit the fan, but I didn’t become aware if it until after we were already our ot Savannah.

@gailcalled: Except Martha came out of jail thinner….

^^^ (True, but only briefly.)

Yes, I have used the word, when I spoke quietly, respectfully, of a man whose name was clearly printed in a family history book created by my aunt. He was a family slave. They named him “Nigger Williams,” I strongly believe—the last name is slightly in question. The books were destroyed by family member(s), and his photo and name disappeared from the Internet. ~~Qav

Yes.

@mattbrowne and others: please educate me!

I don’t understand why/how using the term, “grammar Nazi,” would bother someone of German descent. Seriously. To me, that would be like trying to claim that Germans are Nazis. I know the historic definition, but . . . ?

Please be gentle with me. I am a sickly old lady, and if you’re mean, I may cry. Hee-hee! I just seriously want to know. It seems, to me, that people are way too sensitive and “poor little ol’ me” today, always looking for a reason to get attention and to gain pity.

It has nothing to do with offending Germans. Some people get upset when they hear someone who seems to be comparing the Holocaust to someone using bad grammar.

Thank you @Dutchess_III. I should have thought of that.

Never used the word in my life, far as labeling Black people goes.
I have used the word in an ironic sense, however.