[Scribbler1]

Quote by: SoccerfreakAB2 That is different, obviously. I am provoking anger from them because I am not only directly making fun of their mothers, a touchy subject, but I am also asking for a fight. And you didn't even go against my argument, which the parallel would be if all the bartenders went around to everyone else and called their mothers whores. But they don't, do they? Motorcycle gangs don't rap about how their mothers are whores and they don't tell each other their mothers are whores, do they? No, they have no involvement in the "hurtful" speech of calling someone's mother a whore. Yet nigger and nigga are used in songs by many, in school by many, on the streets, wherever.

The simple answer is they don't mean it the same way. The longer answer is that although you are withing your rights to say something, if it is generally known that if a black guy calls a white guy a honky and a white guy calls a black guy a nigger they are NOT exchanging pleasantries. If you are white you WILL be perceived as deliberately provoking anger. Poles don't like to be called polack either but they say it about themselves with ease. Chinese people aren't fond of "chink" either and you won't make any friends using it toward them. So again, why the defense of words which only have one meaning? Suffice it to say if you call a black person a nigger you know they won't like it, so what do you get out of the act?

Not only that, but you're completely ignoring context. I have no reason to insult the mothers of the those motorcycle gangs, yet calling your friend a nigger (even derogatively, since I've called my friend's mother a whore once), singing a song with the word in it, or using it in common speech should be tolerated. It's a WORD!! And you can stop saying words "hurt," just say they lower self-esteem, because that's so much more realistic. And whose self-esteem should the word "nigger" lower? The black kid who uses it with his friends everday, the kids who sings their eminem songs with the word in it? Other people who choose not to use the word? It's speculation and thus deserves toleration.

NOW you have put in context. You didn't do that before. You have separated the use of it towards a friend or anyone else. What if your friend says he doesn't like it? Yes, it's a word, but this particular word has a special connotation and it's not acceptable to some people. It might mean nothing to you but if it means something bad to whoever you aim it at you wouldn't kill yourself to have a little respect.

I said I like Lenny Bruce's take on it. He understood the power of that word and his was an attempt to diminish it's power. All you are doing is insisting on your right to say it just because blacks call each other the same thing. They don't take it the same way. You don't really need to know anything else.