If the 'N' word is so offensive to blacks, why do they use it FAR more than anyone else?
Shouldn't black people be putting pressure on other blacks to cease using the word, since it's considered offensive?

I agree. Its an ugly word that should not be used by anyone.

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Same could be said offensiveness is in the ears of the listener. It is not considered offensive to me and never will be. Feel free to use it as often as you like.

I just feel like we need to get the rappers to stop using that word and then maybe the rest of the world will stop the word. I also feel that instead of the "N" word, they could use homie, brother, or player. I've come to notice that Mexicans use that word towards each other too.

It hasn't always been considered offensive, by blacks or any other race.
The offensiveness has been imported and artificially attached to the word. And even today it isn't universally considered offensive. Many people of all colours find it a neutral word.
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A while ago, when "black agitators" were stirring up racial controversy, they wanted to be called "Negro" because they considered the term "Black" more offensive than "nigger."
My "nigger mammy" said to me, "These damn Negroes are goin' to get some of us niggers killed."
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Many educated Negroes demonize Mark Twain for using "the N word," and for that alone, and refuse to read any of hiw works. If they did read his magnum opus "Huckleberry Finn," they would see that it is a story of a boy who has inherited blind anti-black prejudice becoming enlightened and finally learning to see his black companion and friend as a human being regardless of his race or colour.
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As to Negroes using the N-word, they can say it but no one else can. I can call my mate a dumb bastard, or he can say that to me. But if anyone else said it to him, I'd punch his lights out.

Unfortunately it is used alot, I don't know why it is completely offensive

they should learn to accept that nigger is just a way to point some out. If I walk through a crowd with almost all blacks and somebody wants to point me out he is more then allowed to say that he´s talking bout that damn honkey. Spic´s should acceptbeing called spics. People from the antillen are called anti´s. I really don´t see the problem.

I agree. If it's a word that has such stigma and hatred attached to it, why would the very people that hate it continue to use it (or some variation of it).

I have often thought that anymore (for the most part) most people who are not black are terrified of the word. Those who continue to use it are those who use it as a term of comraderie like blacks do or people who are emulating their heroes and the music they like.

I think it's time for African Americans to own up to the word. IF they do not like it let it die, let's be done with it and get it out of our vocabulary, but as long as rappers and other influential people of color put it in music, knowing they have a responsibility to the very large white teenage majority buying the album then they need to stop using it or understand that if it is being used it is because people are emulating them...

I can't lie, it's a nasty word with the right/wrong implications and I'd rather see it dead, but I don't see rappers and actors etc. complaining too much when they go to the bank and cash their million dollar checks. Rappers won't put out albums where the N word is substituted for something else and no one wants an album full of edited bleeps, so should they be upset that the N word is making them millions and white people enjoy the music and just want to sing it? Seems kind of backwards to me, writing music a large demeographic isn't allwed to sing.

It's always seemed ludicrous to me that a word can be said by some and not by others..now that is racist. A word is either used by all or none....and at the end of the day..it's justa word..a sound made by our mouths.

True there will always be racist assholes but splitting cultures by language does nothing to bring us closer together.

You aren't referring to the word "Nancy" here are you?

Share your answer...

The word "nigger" is the slang pronunciation of the word "negro" and has no meaning other than that, so how could that be offensive black people.
To me, being called "black" would be much more offensive because we are all some shade of brown.
To be called "African-American" would mean that person is something less than a full American citizen. That really could be offensive.
I have no idea what a "honky" would be, unless perhaps it could be a Canadian goose.
So what do all of us Spics, Wops, Chinks, Japs, Gooks, Pollocks, and Beaners, find to be offensive?

I understand your logic, but I also understand people's logic who feel that is appropriate. When black people use it with each other, they most likely view it as fine because it's amongst themselves. They are on the same page.

The N-word-ers i know seem to find it more humourous than offensive.
Then they make sexual suggestion to me. So it does depend on setting and how you say it - you to intend it to be abuse then it is abusive, and might be even if you didnt.

Here, this will make it pretty clear why the "N" word is still risky. I'm "white." Let's pretend I said to some "black" guy that I don't know at all "Hey you N" - what do you suppose might happen?
Or what if he yelled at me "hey you cracker?"
Point made?
What is happening though, is that young blacks pepper their speech with the "N" word when referring to each other so much that it almost seems "ok" for everyone to use it. Witness this:
Twice, I've had to ask young black kids to stop cussing or walking in the middle of the street. Twice, they got all nasty , cussed more, and called ME "mah N." Both times I responded "I'm NOT your N" kid.
So YES , questioner, I absolutely agree that black ppl SHOULD put a lot of pressure on other blacks to stop using that word. Actually, the second time a kid called me "mah N" I chewed him out for saying that, and told him never to use such an ugly word to refer to anyone.