BustdownGal wrote:
One thing that hasn't been given in this thread is a clear answer to the question "why can only black people use the n-word and 'get away with it'?"
2 reasons:
1. The same reason any in-group can use insults for bonding, but people not in the in-group cannot. Just like within a family people can insult each other or tease each other and 'get away with it' because of the context. But if someone outside the family teases or insults a member of the family, it's like "whoa, who the fuck are you to say that about my mother?" To bring it out to a broader context, people of all ethnicities and races do the same thing. Italians, Iranians, Jewish people, Muslims, indigenous persons, students at a particular school, all have their own versions of teasing insults that they say within their group but that it's not cool for people not in the group to say. No one has ever asked "why is it ok for me to call my brother a dumbass but a stranger can't call him a dumbass?" Because people GET that. My brother and I have a context. We have a relationship. We love each other. We have bonded with each other in such a way that playful barbs aren't going to break us up. A stranger yelling "hey dumbass" from across the street is not the same. That person wants to either start a fight or mug us. Which leads to answer 2:
2. Words change meaning with context. Remember in grade 7 when you learned about "denotation" and "connotation"? Well insults don't have "fairness standards." The context of the n-word is different than the context for the words "dinner", "monitor" or "soda". Words have different emotional weights at different times, and we all know this so we shouldn't pretend that there's no weight with words that insult those who are or who have been oppressed for a long time. "Political correctness" is the pouty, whiny concept invented and supported by those who want to continue to hold the privilege to say whatever the fuck they want without taking other people's feelings into consideration. All people want is for other people to not use the same stupid phrases that schoolyard bullies used, and people feel put upon. Hey, it used to be called "politeness" before the concept of P.C. was invented.
Finally, for those who say "It's not fair that black people can say N and I can't," I say you need to do some self-examination on why the fuck you want to say it so badly. What, you want it to be ok for you to say simply so you can sing along with Li'l Wayne in your car and not feel guilty? Poor baby.
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