Blog 7: N word and use

Asim seems to make a good historical case about why other (derogatory) words like honky, queer and gay, when used against the respective target groups do not carry the same weight as the N word does, in that they are not based on "centuries of instinct, habit and thought."

Here's some more about the meaning of the N-word: nigger derives from neger (from Scottish and northern England dialect), which comes from the French nègre and Spanish negro. In Spanish and Portugese negro means black. In fact, the French, Spanish and Portugese come from the Latin "nigrum", which means black. In Northern American culture, negro is considered more or less offensive, but in a Southern American culture it's different, like in Brazil, where even Brazilian government websites use the term negro to identify blacks -- despite this country also having a history of slavery.

This also explains why negro doesn't have the same offensive tinge is because nigger is its own variant and evolved with a distinct meaning. But, nigger was also applied to darker-skinned people of India, Australia and Polynesia by English settlers.

Asim says he doesn't care about private usage of the N word, where he states: "My concern is with the public square, where I believe the N word and other profane expressions have no rightful place." But on the other hand, he states that the N word "rightly belongs to the realms of art, scholarship, journalism, and history, none of which can be effectively pursued without critically engaging the word". So in this context he argues that it is fine to use. All of those are in the public square. From that I can only conclude that he is for exceptions. I think he specifically means social conversations within the "public square", or recipients of a larger audience without that context. I agree with this.