Re: the N word


bozak wrote:
<yaliebird2@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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bozak wrote:
"purrffecttbliss" <purrrfffectttblisss@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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On 7 Jul 2006 05:37:54 -0700, "boumtje" <boumtje@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:


not sure how to deal with something...

as i've mentioned before, i work in an english language school where
most of the students are refugees from africa but there are also kids
from the middle east, asia, south america and eastern europe

most days i play basketball at recess with the students...it's usually
4 on 4 and about 5 of the 7 kids playing are from africa...now, the
african kids are usually into hiphop and when we're playing they use
the N word liberally...i'm not really comfortable with it, but i just
ignore it

lately though, some of the non-black kids have started using it as
well...no-one seems to have a problem with it...i don't think any of
them understand the power of the word...it's just something that
rappers call themselves and each other...the black kids aren't bothered
at all when a chinese kid calls them "***"

so my question is this...should i try to discourage them from using the
word? it's not a problem in this situation, but what if that chinese
kid uses it later with people he doesn't know? he doesn't understand
that he could get his arse kicked if he said it to the wrong person

and if i do try to explain that he shouldn't use the word, how exactly
do i go about it? how do i explain to someone who's just learning
english and western culture that he's not allowed to use the word when
it seems like everyone else around him is allowed to use it?


What if the boys were also calling all the girls "bitches" because
they hear it in songs? If it didn't seem to pose any real problems
among the students, would you still allow it?

if the girls use it as a term of endearment and dont mind,
why should he???

Yes, "bitch" is the ultimate term of endearment! LOL

you must be whiter than the whitest person alive...

in the hood many black women use the term bitch just like black
men use the term ***...

lesson over...


Yes and that is very sad. Thanks for pointing that out.


LOL!!! duh... (of course mocha doesnt, being prissy and all has
its benefits) :-)


if it isnt used as a term of endearment, it shouldnt be allowed...

I was watching Lil Kim's "Countdown to Lockdown" and noticed that one
of Kim's black A&R people repeatedly called her asian PR person
"Eggroll". What if the african kids picked that up and started
calling all the asian kids "eggroll"? Would you allow it?

the african kids didnt mind asian kids calling them ***,
so whats the big deal...

The big deal is precisely that these little African kids don't mind
other people denigrating them. That's really sad. They should be taught
that they don't have to be anyone's doormat.

lol... how fucking ignorant is this??? can you fucking read??? where in
boumtje's post did you see him say that the other people who were using
it as well were doing so to degrade them...


The word means what it means, and it does denigrate them regardless of
the speaker's intentions.


this is in a nutshell is the problem, people like you want to make it a problem
when there is no problem...

the world needs one huge fucking course of semantics...


Damn straight.


oh i know, you want to give language power over you when
you shouldnt...

Language has power whether you like it or not. Whether you realize it
or not.

i realize that human have the power to change it as well... apparently you thing
everything remains the same no matter what...

Just as it has the power to change us.


great almighty whitey gives the word *** power over blacks and it will
always be that way... lol... yeah, you spent a lot of time in the hood, i can tell...


Whitey gave it power and it continues to have power primarily because
of its use in the hood. What popularized it's use in the hood. Why
marketing people, of course....a.k.a. Whitey.




What if the kids were calling each other "faggots" and "pussies"?
Would you allow it?

i dont know where you live, but where i grew up, ***, ***, ***,
and all other kinds of words were used in a non confrontational way...

Nonconfrontational perhaps, but this speaks volumes about the mindsets
of the speakers. Very sad.

some of the speakers that i know ended up going to yale, harvard, usc, ucla,
etc... a few of them are millionaires... yep pretty sad... but i guess calling each
other *** must really be holding them back... shoot, im guessing some of my
patna's we now be billionaires had they stopped saying wuz up *** when they
answer the phone when they see me calling...

So what. Some percentage of just about any demographic finds success. I
suggest you look up the word "ideology".




you seem to not realize that the way something is spoken counts for
more than the actual words spoke...

True enough. When little kids just casually refer to themselves as
***, pussys, etc., it reveals that they no longer see anything of
value in themselves.

lol... you gotta be shitting me??? so words are the all out determining factor
of how people feel about themselves???

Who said "all out determining factor"? They're one factor among many,
but an important one.


if thats the case, tell this *** here about himself... (this should be good)


Rappers curse a lot in their records. Would you allow the kids to use
that type of language toward each other in front of you or toward you,
for that matter?

as if they wont be doing it behind his back...

Derogatory terms of any kind really have no place in a school setting.
It's not causing any problems right now, but like you seem to be
saying, the world is a lot bigger than that little playground and
those kids have to go out into it someday. Don't send them out
ignorant.

well, there is ignorance going on here... not quite sure it is with
the kids...

It's not ignorance. It's a matter of class, race, etc.

everybody is a *** in their atmosphere, so how is it a matter of class...
you are the problem, not them... you want the word to mean something more
than it means to them... thats your problem, not theirs...

The word means what it means. I just want them to mean more to
themselves.




I wouldn't make a huge fuss of it. I'd just handle it in the same
manner that you handle cuss words. People say it a lot and they'll
hear it a lot.....but that doesn't mean that you have to repeat
everything you hear. Leave the "street language" in the streets.

hard to do in todays society... very hard...

If you think that's hard, just try out some of the alternatives...

when i was growing up people didnt become bloods and crips in my
neighborhood because of language... they became that because of their
real problems in life like not having fathers, living in a society that made
it harder for us because of our skin color and other ridiculous ***...
language had very little to do with our fucked up situation...

Oh yeah, and of course language is somehow insulated from the workings
of all of the rest of the world. Duh.



unless you think whites in america growing up have it easier because
they dont call each other honky, patty, or cracker, ooooops, they actually
do... i live in flawrida and i wish i had a fucking dollar for every time some
white person called another white person a cracker...

.