*eyeroll*

[conuly]

So, this person asked a language question. And in it, s/he quoted a sentence using the word "niggah". It's a sentence that you're pretty much only going to hear from a black person, making the word not racist. Edit: Well, that's weird. Who agrees with Kibbles and Fugacious down in the comments? (Whether or not it's offensive in and of itself is an argument for another eon, but let's just get to the point here)

This prompts a self-righteous "I'm from South Africa originally!!!!" girl (I'm calling troll, by the way) to flip out that the OP is obviously "racist" because her point could've been made without the oh-so-offensive Big Scawwy Word!

So far, so good. I mean, she somehow is missing the point that this is a word used by black people in an inoffensive manner (even when people point that out to her) and that the entire sentence can only be quoting a black person speaking to another black person, again in an inoffensive, non-racist manner, but fine. Whatever. She's just too full of trollish indignation to care. That's cool.

And then the girl asks "What are you, retarded?" (and, predictably, refuses to acknowledge her own offensiveness)

I'm not sure if I want to laugh or cry. The inanity of the entire post is enough to drive me battier than usual.

Comments

[conuly]

That's... weird. I've never heard that. I've mostly only heard that from black people, or, occasionally, white people deliberately affecting a black accent, usually for humor (which I *do* find mildly offensive).

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

No, it's used as a greeting of sorts, not for humor.

Everyone I know who does it is in their 20s? Early 20s? Round that age. Maybe some teens but I dont think so. (Only because I dont know many.)

[brownkitty.livejournal.com]

I've heard it but only in certain sub-cultures. Mostly either young black males, or young males of any ethnic description in a young-black-male social setting. It seems to be almost exclusively lower socioeconomic slang of the "friendly insult" variety.

It's one of those turns of phrase that would give me a knee-jerk reaction of "The speaker is probably poor, deliberately rude, and possibly below average intelligence. Also possibly a threat."

I don't know whether that is racist or not, but that's the usual context and reactions I have to that word or dialectical variants.

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

It is two, minus the 'friendly insult' bit. Just friendly. Young males of any ethnic group, in a mixed social setting.

And as for the second list:

Its:
Some are poor, not being deliberately rude (Since at this point it is just a common phrase) and some are rather intelligent as well. Rarely a threat (tough guys I suppose but not an outright threat).

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

It is, in fact, somewhat common.