I don't know why "nigger" has become an epithet. It is a bastardization of "Nigerian", which is where a large part of the slave trade came from. It lasted until the 1950s or so. Most of the trade went to the Middle East and Asia. People were simply calling the blacks by their country name. It wasn't an epithet anymore than "Mexican" is.
I don't know why "nigger" has become an epithet. It is a bastardization of "Nigerian", which is where a large part of the slave trade came from. It lasted until the 1950s or so. Most of the trade went to the Middle East and Asia. People were simply calling the blacks by their country name. It wasn't an epithet anymore than "Mexican" is.
"Epithet" my friend. Although it would probably be an epitaph for Kamala if she spoke the word in some of the diverse precincts in my urban Texas area.
Thanks for the correction. And Texas isn't the only place it is taken as an insult. But I don't buy this "we can say it and you can't" nonsense from blacks or anyone else.
As an English woman, I have to say we call Indians and Pakistanis wogs. Western Oriental Gentlemen. тАШWogтАЩ is very much verboten here in rioting U.K., however. DoesnтАЩt nigger come from the romantic languages word for black? IтАЩve never heard the idea that it comes from Nigerian - I think most people who owned or knew of slaves would have no idea and would care even less which particular African county the blacks came from. Was that country even called Nigeria in slaving days? I really donтАЩt know.
I want to know why it's OK to call them black in English but not black in Spanish. I have honestly never understood that. As a POC myself (which designation I detest), I find some of this racial stuff just mind boggling.
But I am kinda different. I actually believe that white is a color!
My father was in the army for the whole of WW2 and was in India, the Middle East, South Africa and Italy. He called brown people wogs, as did all the adult men I knew as a child (IтАЩm 62). I think the word isnтАЩt used much now, itтАЩs very offensive I suppose - at least as offensive as nigger, I would imagine. Italians were called wops; my father loved the Italian prisoners of war, and learnt Italian from them. He wasnтАЩt at all racist and tried to help the very poor Pakistani men who worked in the slaughter houses in our hometown by giving them our grown-out-of clothes for their children. I will always remember him talking about one of these men, тАШpoor Ali,тАЩ with great compassion. This was in the late 1960s; AliтАЩs descendants still wear Pakistani dress and still live in self-imposed segregation; since around 2000 the women have started to wear Arab-Muslim dress, head to toe black, even face covering, rather than the colourful saris they wore back in the 60s.
Yea, it is a bit frustrating how normal short names for groups, which are usually not inherently offensive, drift into being considered offensive over time for seemingly no other reason than someone used it in a negative context once.
Derives from negro, from тАЬnegroidтАЭ the old timey Latin term used for African looking races, as I understand it. Western Europeans use Latin sources words all the time for things, along with Greek.
Sure; negro. Doesn't explain "nigger". I'll stick with my original reasoning. Also, I'm not sure how influential europe was to 18th century america. Steam shortened travel to under 20 days one way in the early 1800s, but that is still a long voyage.
The various Englishes did diverge a lot since the 1500тАЩs, but many standard practices remains, such as the educated and elite classes learning and using Latin and to a lesser extent Greek. Latin was the language of science until the 20th century.
If you say тАЬnegroтАЭ out loud with an exaggerated southern US accent (like you might see in an early 20th century western) you start to hear why the pronunciation shift works. Compare to how Nigeria is pronounced, with the French g as in garage. That hard g stop is in negro but not Niger.
JUST MAYBE it's become an epithet because of the historical bitterly abusive experiences suffered by many millions of Southern black folks.
You know: being screamed at as a nigger while their churches were burned down, their menfolk strung up by raving racist KKK swine, their families being denied normal human treatment... etc.
I don't know why "nigger" has become an epithet. It is a bastardization of "Nigerian", which is where a large part of the slave trade came from. It lasted until the 1950s or so. Most of the trade went to the Middle East and Asia. People were simply calling the blacks by their country name. It wasn't an epithet anymore than "Mexican" is.
"Epithet" my friend. Although it would probably be an epitaph for Kamala if she spoke the word in some of the diverse precincts in my urban Texas area.
Thanks for the correction. And Texas isn't the only place it is taken as an insult. But I don't buy this "we can say it and you can't" nonsense from blacks or anyone else.
Using their race to determine what words someone can use is, by its very nature, racist.
It also stems in English more from black than the country; the Brits seemed to use the same word for Indians as well, not just Nigerians or Africans.
As an English woman, I have to say we call Indians and Pakistanis wogs. Western Oriental Gentlemen. тАШWogтАЩ is very much verboten here in rioting U.K., however. DoesnтАЩt nigger come from the romantic languages word for black? IтАЩve never heard the idea that it comes from Nigerian - I think most people who owned or knew of slaves would have no idea and would care even less which particular African county the blacks came from. Was that country even called Nigeria in slaving days? I really donтАЩt know.
I want to know why it's OK to call them black in English but not black in Spanish. I have honestly never understood that. As a POC myself (which designation I detest), I find some of this racial stuff just mind boggling.
But I am kinda different. I actually believe that white is a color!
Sorry, I meant in the 19th century, not current day, but neglected to say so. Never heard wog thoughтАж I had mostly come across тАЬPakiтАЭ.
My father was in the army for the whole of WW2 and was in India, the Middle East, South Africa and Italy. He called brown people wogs, as did all the adult men I knew as a child (IтАЩm 62). I think the word isnтАЩt used much now, itтАЩs very offensive I suppose - at least as offensive as nigger, I would imagine. Italians were called wops; my father loved the Italian prisoners of war, and learnt Italian from them. He wasnтАЩt at all racist and tried to help the very poor Pakistani men who worked in the slaughter houses in our hometown by giving them our grown-out-of clothes for their children. I will always remember him talking about one of these men, тАШpoor Ali,тАЩ with great compassion. This was in the late 1960s; AliтАЩs descendants still wear Pakistani dress and still live in self-imposed segregation; since around 2000 the women have started to wear Arab-Muslim dress, head to toe black, even face covering, rather than the colourful saris they wore back in the 60s.
Yea, it is a bit frustrating how normal short names for groups, which are usually not inherently offensive, drift into being considered offensive over time for seemingly no other reason than someone used it in a negative context once.
Originally derives from the Latin word for black. Has a deep, and DARK history.
Why would English speakers use a Spanish word when they could just say, "black"?
Derives from negro, from тАЬnegroidтАЭ the old timey Latin term used for African looking races, as I understand it. Western Europeans use Latin sources words all the time for things, along with Greek.
Sure; negro. Doesn't explain "nigger". I'll stick with my original reasoning. Also, I'm not sure how influential europe was to 18th century america. Steam shortened travel to under 20 days one way in the early 1800s, but that is still a long voyage.
The various Englishes did diverge a lot since the 1500тАЩs, but many standard practices remains, such as the educated and elite classes learning and using Latin and to a lesser extent Greek. Latin was the language of science until the 20th century.
If you say тАЬnegroтАЭ out loud with an exaggerated southern US accent (like you might see in an early 20th century western) you start to hear why the pronunciation shift works. Compare to how Nigeria is pronounced, with the French g as in garage. That hard g stop is in negro but not Niger.
Good point.
in Holland, when I was a kid and not living in the US yet, we used to call negros Neger
It was not derogatory it was just a description of skin color.
My grandma lived in East Texas. Very pronounced Texas accent. She would always say "nigras", which was really more a form of "negroes."
JUST MAYBE it's become an epithet because of the historical bitterly abusive experiences suffered by many millions of Southern black folks.
You know: being screamed at as a nigger while their churches were burned down, their menfolk strung up by raving racist KKK swine, their families being denied normal human treatment... etc.
As opposed to what black murderers and rapists scream to their white viticims, down the centuries.
Or you're unaware of that blacks from Africa kidnapped and enslaved far more whites, than vice-versa?
How about letting it drop instead, or it never ends.
The southern democrats created the kkk after the war of secession. I think "nigger" was in common use before that time.