In the
English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
, the word ''nigger'' is an
ethnic slur
The following is a list of ethnic slurs or ethnophaulisms or ethnic epithets that are, or have been, used as insinuations or allegations about members of a given ethnicity or racial group or to refer to them in a derogatory, pejorative, or oth ...
used against
black people
Black is a racialized classification of people, usually a political and skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have dark skin; in certain countries, often in s ...
, especially
African Americans
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
. Starting in the late 1990s, references to ''nigger'' have been progressively replaced by the
euphemism
A euphemism () is an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that is deemed offensive or suggests something unpleasant. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the user wishes ...
, notably in cases where ''nigger'' is
mentioned but not directly used. The term ''nigger'' is also used casually and fraternally among African Americans, most commonly in the form of ''
nigga
''Nigga'' () is a colloquial and vulgar term used in African-American Vernacular English that began as a dialect form of the word ''nigger'', an ethnic slur against black people. The word is commonly associated with hip hop music and Afric ...
''.
The word originated in the 18th century as an adaptation of the Spanish word ''
negro
In the English language, ''negro'' is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Black African heritage. The word ''negro'' means the color black in both Spanish and in Portuguese, where English took it from. The term can be ...
'', a descendant of the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
adjective ''
niger
)
, official_languages =
, languages_type = National languages Over time it took on a derogatory connotation and became a racist
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
insult by the 20th century. Accordingly, it began to disappear from general popular culture. Its inclusion in classic works of literature has sparked controversy and ongoing debate.
Etymology and history
Early use
The variants ''neger'' and ''negar'' derive from various Romance
Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to:
Common meanings
* Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings
* Romance languages, ...
words for 'black', including the Spanish and Portuguese word (black) and the now-pejorative French . Etymologically, , , , and ''nigger'' ultimately derive from , the stem of the Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
('black').
In its original English-language usage, ''nigger'' (also spelled ''niger'') was a word for a dark-skinned individual. The earliest known published use of the term dates from 1574, in a work alluding to "the Nigers of Aethiop, bearing witnes". According to the Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
, the first derogatory usage of the term ''nigger'' was recorded two centuries later, in 1775.
In the colonial America
The colonial history of the United States covers the history of European colonization of North America from the early 17th century until the incorporation of the Thirteen Colonies into the United States after the Revolutionary War. In the ...
of 1619, John Rolfe
John Rolfe (1585 – March 1622) was one of the early English settlers of North America. He is credited with the first successful cultivation of tobacco as an export crop in the Colony of Virginia in 1611.
Biography
John Rolfe is believed ...
used ''negars'' in describing the African slaves shipped to the Virginia colony
The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colonial empire, English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey GilbertG ...
. Later American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
spellings, ''neger'' and ''neggar'', prevailed in New York under the Dutch and in metropolitan Philadelphia's Moravian and Pennsylvania Dutch
The Pennsylvania Dutch ( Pennsylvania Dutch: ), also known as Pennsylvania Germans, are a cultural group formed by German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. They emigrated primarily from German-spe ...
communities; the African Burial Ground
African Burial Ground National Monument is a monument at Duane Street and African Burial Ground Way (Elk Street) in the Civic Center section of Lower Manhattan, New York City. Its main building is the Ted Weiss Federal Building at 290 Broadway. ...
in New York City originally was known by the Dutch name (Cemetery of the Negro). An early occurrence of ''neger'' in American English dates from 1625 in Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...
. Lexicographer
Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries.
* Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries.
* Theoreti ...
Noah Webster
Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5– ...
suggested the ''neger'' spelling in place of ''negro'' in his 1806 dictionary.
18th and 19th century United States
During the late 18th and early 19th century, the word "nigger" also described an actual labor category, which African American laborers adopted for themselves as a social identity, and thus white people used the descriptor word as a distancing or derogatory epithet, as if "quoting black people" and their non-standard language. During the early 1800s to the late 1840s fur trade in the Western United States, the word was spelled "niggur", and is often recorded in the literature of the time. George Fredrick Ruxton
George Frederick Ruxton (24 July 1821 – 29 August 1848) was a British explorer and travel writer. He was a lieutenant in the British Army, received a medal for gallantry from Queen Isabella II of Spain, was a hunter and explorer and published p ...
used it in his "mountain man
A mountain man is an explorer who lives in the wilderness. Mountain men were most common in the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 through to the 1880s (with a peak population in the early 1840s). They were instrumental in opening up ...
" lexicon, without pejorative connotation
A connotation is a commonly understood cultural or emotional association that any given word or phrase carries, in addition to its explicit or literal meaning, which is its denotation.
A connotation is frequently described as either positive o ...
. "Niggur" was evidently similar to the modern use of "dude
''Dude'' is American slang for an individual, typically male. From the 1870s to the 1960s, dude primarily meant a male person who dressed in an extremely fashionable manner (a dandy) or a conspicuous citified person who was visiting a rural ...
" or "guy". This passage from Ruxton's ''Life in the Far West'' illustrates the word in spoken form—the speaker here referring to himself: "Travler, marm, this niggur's no travler; I ar' a trapper, marm, a mountain-man, wagh!" It was not used as a term exclusively for blacks among mountain men during this period, as Indians, Mexicans, and Frenchmen and Anglos alike could be a "niggur". "The noun slipped back and forth from derogatory to endearing."
By 1859 the term was clearly used to offend, in an attack on abolitionist John Brown.
The term "colored
''Colored'' (or ''coloured'') is a racial descriptor historically used in the United States during the Jim Crow, Jim Crow Era to refer to an African Americans, African American. In many places, it may be considered a Pejorative, slur, though it ...
" or "negro" became a respectful alternative. In 1851, the Boston Vigilance Committee
The Boston Vigilance Committee (1841–1861) was an abolitionist organization formed in Boston, Massachusetts, to protect escaped slaves from being kidnapped and returned to slavery in the South. The Committee aided hundreds of escapees, most o ...
, an abolitionist organization, posted warnings to the ''Colored People of Boston and vicinity''. Writing in 1904, journalist Clifton Johnson documented the "opprobrious" character of the word ''nigger'', emphasizing that it was chosen in the South precisely because it was more offensive than "colored" or "negro". By the turn of the century, "colored" had become sufficiently mainstream that it was chosen as the racial self-identifier for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...
(NAACP). In 2008 Carla Sims, its communications director, said "the term 'colored' is not derogatory, he NAACP
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
chose the word 'colored' because it was the most positive description commonly used n 1909, when the association was founded
N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''.
History
...
It's outdated and antiquated but not offensive."
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
, in the autobiographic book '' Life on the Mississippi'' (1883), used the term within quotes, indicating reported speech
In linguistics, indirect speech (also reported speech or indirect discourse) is a grammatical mechanism for reporting the content of another utterance without directly quoting it. For example, the English sentence ''Jill said she was coming'' i ...
, but used the term "negro" when writing in his own narrative persona. Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in t ...
published a novella in Britain with the title '' The Nigger of the "Narcissus"'' (1897); in the United States, it was released as ''The Children of the Sea: A Tale of the Forecastle''; the original had been called "the ugliest conceivable title" in a British review and American reviewers understood the change as reflecting American "refinement" and "prudery."
20th century United States
A style guide to British English
British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...
usage, H. W. Fowler
Henry Watson Fowler (10 March 1858 – 26 December 1933) was an English schoolmaster, lexicographer and commentator on the usage of the English language. He is notable for both ''A Dictionary of Modern English Usage'' and his work on the ''Con ...
's ''A Dictionary of Modern English Usage
''A Dictionary of Modern English Usage'' (1926), by Henry Watson Fowler (1858–1933), is a style guide to British English usage, pronunciation, and writing. Covering topics such as plurals and literary technique, distinctions among like words ...
'', states in the first edition (1926) that applying the word ''nigger'' to "others than full or partial negroes" is "felt as an insult by the person described, & betrays in the speaker, if not deliberate insolence, at least a very arrogant inhumanity"; but the second edition (1965) states "N. has been described as 'the term that carries with it all the obloquy and contempt and rejection which whites have inflicted on blacks'". The quoted formula goes back to the writings of the American journalist Harold R. Isaacs, who used it in several writings between 1963 and 1975. Black characters in Nella Larsen
Nellallitea "Nella" Larsen (born Nellie Walker; April 13, 1891 – March 30, 1964) was an American novelist. Working as a nurse and a librarian, she published two novels, ''Quicksand'' (1928) and '' Passing'' (1929), and a few short stories. Tho ...
's 1929 novel ''Passing'' view its use as offensive; one says "I'm really not such an idiot that I don't realize that if a man calls me a nigger, it's his fault the first time, but mine if he has the opportunity to do it again."
By the late 1960s, the social change brought about by the civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
had legitimized the racial identity
A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 1500s, when it was used to refer to groups of variou ...
word ''Black'' as mainstream American English usage to denote black-skinned Americans of African ancestry. President Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...
had used this word of his slaves in his ''Notes on the State of Virginia
''Notes on the State of Virginia'' (1785) is a book written by the American statesman, philosopher, and planter Thomas Jefferson. He completed the first version in 1781 and updated and enlarged the book in 1782 and 1783. It originated in Jeffers ...
'' (1785), but "Black" had not been widely used until the later 20th century. (See Black Pride
Black Pride in the United States is a movement which encourages black people to celebrate African-American culture and embrace their African heritage. In the United States, it was a direct response to white racism especially during the Civi ...
, and, in the context of worldwide anti-colonialism initiatives, ''Négritude
''Négritude'' (from French "Nègre" and "-itude" to denote a condition that can be translated as "Blackness") is a framework of critique and literary theory, developed mainly by francophone intellectuals, writers, and politicians of the African ...
''.)
In the 1980s, the term "African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
" was advanced analogously to the terms "German American
German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...
" and "Irish American
, image = Irish ancestry in the USA 2018; Where Irish eyes are Smiling.png
, image_caption = Irish Americans, % of population by state
, caption = Notable Irish Americans
, population =
36,115,472 (10.9%) alone ...
", and was adopted by major media outlets. Moreover, as a compound word
In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme (less precisely, a word or sign) that consists of more than one stem. Compounding, composition or nominal composition is the process of word formation that creates compound lexemes. Compounding occurs when ...
, ''African American'' resembles the vogue word
Vogue may refer to:
Business
* ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine
** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine
** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine
** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine
** ''Vogue China'', ...
''Afro-American'', an early-1970s popular usage. Some Black Americans continue to use the word ''nigger'', often spelled as ''nigga
''Nigga'' () is a colloquial and vulgar term used in African-American Vernacular English that began as a dialect form of the word ''nigger'', an ethnic slur against black people. The word is commonly associated with hip hop music and Afric ...
'' and ''niggah'', without irony, either to neutralize the word's impact or as a sign of solidarity.
Usage
Surveys from 2006 showed that the American public widely perceived usage of the term to be wrong or unacceptable, but that nearly half of whites and two-thirds of blacks knew someone personally who referred to blacks by the term. Nearly one-third of whites and two-thirds of blacks said they had personally used the term within the last five years.
In names of people, places and things
Political use
"Niggers in the White House
Niggers in the White House is a poem that was published in newspapers around the United States between 1901 and 1903. The poem was written in reaction to an October 1901 White House dinner hosted by Republican President Theodore Roosevelt, who ...
" was written in reaction to an October 1901 White House dinner hosted by Republican President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
, who had invited Booker T. Washington
Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...
—an African-American presidential adviser—as a guest. The poem reappeared in 1929 after First Lady
First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical
A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state fo ...
Lou Hoover
Lou Hoover ( née Henry; March 29, 1874 – January 7, 1944) was an American philanthropist, geologist, and First Lady of the United States from 1929 to 1933 as the wife of President Herbert Hoover. She was active in numerous community organizat ...
, wife of President Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...
, invited Jessie De Priest
Jessie De Priest (née Williams; September 3, 1870 – March 31, 1961) was a former music teacher married to Oscar Stanton De Priest, the first African American to be elected to the United States Congress in the 20th century. Jessie De Priest was ...
, the wife of African-American congressman Oscar De Priest
Oscar Stanton De Priest (March 9, 1871 – May 12, 1951) was an American politician and civil rights advocate from Chicago. A member of the Illinois Republican Party, he was the first African American to be elected to Congress in the 20th centu ...
, to a tea for congressmen's wives at the White House. The identity of the author—who used the byline "unchained poet"—remains unknown.
In explaining his refusal to be conscripted to fight the Vietnam War (1955–75), professional boxer Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, a ...
said, "No Vietcong
,
, war = the Vietnam War
, image = FNL Flag.svg
, caption = The flag of the Viet Cong, adopted in 1960, is a variation on the flag of North Vietnam. Sometimes the lower stripe was green.
, active ...
ever called me nigger." Later, his modified answer was the title of a documentary, ''No Vietnamese Ever Called Me Nigger'' (1968), about the front-line lot of the U.S. Army Black soldier in combat in Vietnam. An Ali biographer reports that, when interviewed by Robert Lipsyte
Robert Michael Lipsyte (born January 16, 1938) is an American sports journalist and author and former Ombudsman for ESPN. He is a member of the Board of Contributors for ''USA Todays Forum Page, part of the newspaper's Opinion section. He re ...
in 1966, the boxer actually said, "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong."
On February 28, 2007, the New York City Council
The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five Borough (New York City), boroughs.
The council serves as a check against the Mayor of New York City, mayor in a may ...
symbolically banned the use of the word ''nigger''; however, there is no penalty for using it. This formal resolution also requests excluding from Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
consideration every song whose lyrics contain the word; however, Ron Roecker, vice president of communication for the Recording Academy, doubted it will have any effect on actual nominations.
The word can be invoked politically for effect. When Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick
Kwame Malik Kilpatrick (born June 8, 1970) is an American former politician who served as the 72nd mayor of Detroit from 2002 to 2008. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously represented the 9th district in the Michigan House of Represen ...
came under intense scrutiny for his conduct in 2008, he deviated from an address to the city council, saying, "In the past 30 days, I've been called a nigger more than any time in my entire life." Opponents accused him of "playing the race card
Playing the race card is an idiomatic phrase that refers to the exploitation by someone of either racist or anti-racist attitudes in the audience in order to gain an advantage. It constitutes an accusation of bad faith directed at the person or ...
" to save his political life.
Cultural use
The implicit racism of the word ''nigger'' has generally rendered its use taboo
A taboo or tabu is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, sacred, or allowed only for certain persons.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...
. Magazines and newspapers typically do not use this word but instead print censored versions such as "n*gg*r", "n**ger", "n——" or "the N-word"; see below
Below may refer to:
*Earth
*Ground (disambiguation)
*Soil
*Floor
*Bottom (disambiguation)
Bottom may refer to:
Anatomy and sex
* Bottom (BDSM), the partner in a BDSM who takes the passive, receiving, or obedient role, to that of the top or ...
.
The use of ''nigger'' in older literature has become controversial because of the word's modern meaning as a racist insult. One of the most enduring controversies has been the word's use in Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
's novel ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' or as it is known in more recent editions, ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'', is a novel by American author Mark Twain, which was first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 and in the United St ...
'' (1885). ''Huckleberry Finn'' was the fifth most challenged book during the 1990s, according to the American Library Association
The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members a ...
. The novel is written from the point of view, and largely in the language, of an uneducated white boy, who is drifting down the Mississippi River on a raft with an adult escaped slave, Jim. The word "nigger" is used (mostly about Jim) over 200 times. Twain's advocates note that the novel is composed in then-contemporary vernacular usage, not racist stereotype, because Jim, the black man, is a sympathetic character.
In 2011, a new edition published by NewSouth Books
NewSouth Books is an independent publishing house founded in 2000 in Montgomery, Alabama, by editor H. Randall Williams and publisher Suzanne La Rosa. Williams was the founder of Black Belt Press, working there from 1986 to 1999, and La Rosa wor ...
replaced the word "nigger" with "slave" and also removed the word "injun". The change was spearheaded by Twain scholar Alan Gribben
Alan Gribben is a professor emeritus of English at Auburn University at Montgomery in Alabama and a Mark Twain scholar. He was distinguished research professor from 1998 to 2001 and the Dr. Guinevera A. Nance Alumni Professor from 2006 to 2009. H ...
in the hope of "countering the 'pre-emptive censorship that results from the book's being removed from school curricula over language concerns. The changes sparked outrage from critics Elon James
Elon commonly refers to Elon Musk.
Elon may also refer to:
People
* Elon (name), a given name and surname
Places in the United States
* Elon, Iowa, an unincorporated community
* Elon, North Carolina, a town
* Elon, Virginia, an unincorporated c ...
, Alexandra Petri
Alexandra Attkisson Petri (, born March 15, 1988) is an American humorist and newspaper columnist. In 2010, she became the youngest person to have a column in ''The Washington Post''. Petri runs the ComPost blog on the paper's website, on which ...
and Chris Meadows
Chris is a short form of various names including Christopher, Christian, Christina, Christine, and Christos. Chris is also used as a name in its own right, however it is not as common.
People with the given name
*Chris Abani (born 1966), Nige ...
.
In his 1999 memoir ''All Souls'', Irish-American Michael Patrick MacDonald
Michael Patrick MacDonald (born March 9, 1966) is an Irish-American activist against crime and violence and author of his memoir, ''All Souls: A Family Story From Southie''. He helped to start Boston's gun-buyback program, and founded the South B ...
describes how many white residents of the Old Colony Housing Project
The Old Colony Housing Project is a 16.7-acre public housing project located in South Boston, Massachusetts. First built in 1940 as a cluster of 22 three-story brick buildings housing 873 low-income units, it is one of the Boston Housing Author ...
in South Boston
South Boston is a densely populated neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located south and east of the Fort Point Channel and abutting Dorchester Bay. South Boston, colloquially known as Southie, has undergone several demographic transformati ...
used this meaning to degrade the people considered to be of lower status, whether white or black.
In an academic setting
The word's usage in literature has led to it being a point of discussion in university lectures as well. In 2008, Arizona State University
Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...
English professor Neal A. Lester created what has been called "the first ever college-level class designed to explore the word 'nigger. Starting in the following decade, colleges struggled with attempts to teach material about the slur in a sensitive manner. In 2012, a sixth grade Chicago teacher Lincoln Brown was suspended after repeating the contents of a racially charged note being passed around in class. Brown later filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the headmaster and the Chicago public schools. A New Orleans high school also experienced controversy in 2017. Such increased attention prompted Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor, the daughter of Richard Pryor
Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor Sr. (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, and is widely regarded as on ...
and a professor at Smith College
Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...
, to give a talk opining that the word was leading to a "social crisis" in higher education.
In addition to Smith College, Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...
, Augsburg University
Augsburg University is a private university in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It was founded in 1869 as a Norwegian-American Lutheran seminary known as Augsburg Seminarium. Today, the u ...
, Southern Connecticut State University
Southern Connecticut State University (Southern Connecticut, Southern Connecticut State, SCSU, or simply Southern) is a public university in New Haven, Connecticut. Part of the Connecticut State University System, it was founded in 1893 and is g ...
, and Simpson College
Simpson College is a private Methodist liberal arts college in Indianola, Iowa. It is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and has about 1,250 full-time and 300 part-time students. In addition to the Indianola residential campus, Simpso ...
all suspended professors in 2019 over referring to the word "nigger" by name in classroom settings. In two other cases, a professor at Princeton
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine ...
decided to stop teaching a course on hate speech
Hate speech is defined by the ''Cambridge Dictionary'' as "public speech that expresses hate or encourages violence towards a person or group based on something such as race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation". Hate speech is "usually thoug ...
after students protested his utterance of "nigger" and a professor at DePaul had his law course cancelled after 80% of the enrolled students transferred out. Instead of pursuing disciplinary action, a student at the College of the Desert
College of the Desert (COD) is a public community college in Palm Desert, California. COD enrolls about 12,500 students, of which around one third attend college full-time. It serves the Coachella Valley of Riverside County. The college is federa ...
challenged his professor in a viral class presentation which argued that her use of the word in a lecture was not justified.
In the workplace
In 2018, the head of the media company Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
, Reed Hastings
Wilmot Reed Hastings Jr. (born October 8, 1960) is an American billionaire businessman. He is the co-founder, chairman, and co-chief executive officer (CEO) of Netflix, and sits on a number of boards and non-profit organizations. A former member ...
, fired his chief communications officer, Jonathan Friedland, for using the word twice during internal discussions about sensitive words. In explaining why, Hastings wrote:
The following year, screenwriter Walter Mosley
Walter Ellis Mosley (born January 12, 1952) is an American novelist, most widely recognized for his crime fiction. He has written a series of best-selling historical mysteries featuring the hard-boiled detective Easy Rawlins, a black private inv ...
turned down a job after his human resources department took issue with him using the word to describe racism that he experienced as a black man.
While defending Laurie Sheck, a professor who was cleared of ethical violations for quoting ''I Am Not Your Negro
''I Am Not Your Negro'' is a 2016 documentary film and social critique film essay directed by Raoul Peck, based on James Baldwin's unfinished manuscript '' Remember This House''. Narrated by actor Samuel L. Jackson, the film explores the hist ...
'' by James Baldwin
James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer. He garnered acclaim across various media, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'', was published in 1953; de ...
, John McWhorter
John Hamilton McWhorter V (; born October 6, 1965) is an American linguist with a specialty in creole languages, sociolects, and Black English. He is currently associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University, where he also teaches Amer ...
wrote that efforts to condemn racist language by white Americans had undergone mission creep
Mission creep is the gradual or incremental expansion of an intervention, project or mission, beyond its original scope, focus or goals, a ratchet effect spawned by initial success. Mission creep is usually considered undesirable due to how each su ...
. Similar controversies outside the United States have occurred at the University of Western Ontario
The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by resident ...
in Canada and the Madrid campus of Syracuse University
Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...
. In June 2020, Canadian news host Wendy Mesley
Wendy is a given name now generally given to girls in English-speaking countries.
In Britain, Wendy appeared as a masculine name in a parish record in 1615. It was also used as a surname in Britain from at least the 17th century. Its popularity ...
was suspended and replaced with a guest host after she attended a meeting on racial justice and, in the process of quoting a journalist, used "a word that no-one like me should ever use". In August 2020, BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
news, with the agreement of victim and family, mentioned the slur when reporting on a physical and verbal assault on the black NHS worker and musician K-Dogg. Within the week the BBC received over 18,600 complaints, the black radio host David Whitely resigned in protest, and the BBC apologized.
In 2021, in
Tampa, Florida
Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...
, a 27-year-old black employee at a
Dunkin' Donuts
Dunkin' Donuts LLC, also known as Dunkin' and by the initials DD, is an American multinational coffee and doughnut company, as well as a quick service restaurant. It was founded by Bill Rosenberg (1916–2002) in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 195 ...
punched a 77-year-old white customer after the customer had repeatedly called the employee a nigger. The customer fell to the floor and hit his head. Three days later, he died, having suffered a
skull fracture
A skull fracture is a break in one or more of the eight bones that form the cranial portion of the human skull, skull, usually occurring as a result of blunt force trauma. If the force of the impact is excessive, the bone may fracture at or near ...
and
brain contusion
Cerebral contusion, Latin ''contusio cerebri'', a form of traumatic brain injury, is a bruise of the brain tissue.
Like bruises in other tissues, cerebral contusion can be associated with multiple microhemorrhages, small blood vessel leaks into ...
s. The employee was arrested, and charged with
manslaughter
Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...
. In a
plea bargain
A plea bargain (also plea agreement or plea deal) is an agreement in criminal law proceedings, whereby the prosecutor provides a concession to the defendant in exchange for a plea of guilt or '' nolo contendere.'' This may mean that the defendan ...
, the employee pled guilty to
felony
A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that resu ...
battery
Battery most often refers to:
* Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power
* Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact
Battery may also refer to:
Energy source
*Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...
, and was sentenced to two years of
house arrest
In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if all ...
. In 2022, in explaining why the employee did not receive any jail time, Grayson Kamm, a spokesman for Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren, said "Two of the primary factors were the aggressive approach the victim took toward the defendant and everyone working with the defendant, and that the victim repeatedly used possibly the most aggressive and offensive term in the English language."
Intra-group versus intergroup usage
Black listeners often react to the term differently, depending on whether it is used by white speakers or by Black speakers. In the former case, it is regularly understood as insensitive or insulting; in the latter, it may carry notes of in-group disparagement, and is often understood as neutral or affectionate, a possible instance of
reappropriation
In linguistics, reappropriation, reclamation, or resignification is the cultural process by which a group reclaims words or artifacts that were previously used in a way disparaging of that group. It is a specific form of a semantic change (i.e. ...
.
In the Black community, ''nigger'' is often rendered as ''
nigga
''Nigga'' () is a colloquial and vulgar term used in African-American Vernacular English that began as a dialect form of the word ''nigger'', an ethnic slur against black people. The word is commonly associated with hip hop music and Afric ...
''. This usage has been popularized by the
rap
Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...
and
hip-hop music cultures and is used as part of an in-group lexicon and speech. It is not necessarily derogatory and is often used to mean ''homie'' or ''friend''.
Acceptance of intra-group usage of the word ''nigga'' is still debated,
although it has established a foothold amongst younger generations. The
NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
denounces the use of both ''nigga'' and ''nigger''. Usage of ''nigga'' by mixed-race individuals is still largely considered taboo, albeit not as inflammatory as ''nigger''. As of 2001, trends indicated that usage of the term in intragroup settings is increasing even amongst white youth, due to the popularity of rap and hip hop culture.
Linguist
Keith Allan rejects the view that ''nigger'' is always a slur, arguing that it is also used as a marker of camaraderie and friendship, comparable to the British and Australian term "mate" or the American "buddy".
According to Arthur K. Spears in ''Diverse Issues in Higher Education, 2006'':
Kevin Cato, meanwhile, observes:
Addressing the use of ''nigger'' by Black people, philosopher and
public intellectual
An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or a ...
Cornel West
Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, political activist, social critic, actor, and public intellectual. The grandson of a Baptist minister, West focuses on the role of race, gender, and class in American society and ...
said in 2007:
2010s: increase in use and controversy
In the 2010s, "nigger" in its various forms saw use with increasing frequency by African Americans amongst themselves or in self-expression, the most common swear word in hip hop music lyrics.
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Ta-Nehisi Paul Coates ( ; born September 30, 1975) is an American author and journalist. He gained a wide readership during his time as national correspondent at ''The Atlantic'', where he wrote about cultural, social, and political issues, parti ...
suggested that it continues to be unacceptable for non-Blacks to utter while singing or rapping along to hip-hop, and that by being so restrained it gives white Americans (specifically) an impression of what it is like to not be entitled to "do anything they please, anywhere". A concern often raised is whether frequent exposure will inevitably lead to a dilution of the extremely negative perception of the word among the majority of non-Black Americans who currently consider its use unacceptable and shocking.
Related words
Derivatives
In several English-speaking countries, "
Niggerhead
In several English-speaking countries, ''niggerhead'' or ''nigger head'' is a former name for several things thought to resemble the head of a black person (cf. "nigger"). The name is now taboo in normal usage.
The term was once widely used for ...
" or "nigger head" was used as a name for many sorts of things, including
commercial products
Commercial may refer to:
* a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television)
** Radio advertisement
** Television advertisement
* (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...
,
places
Place may refer to:
Geography
* Place (United States Census Bureau), defined as any concentration of population
** Census-designated place, a populated area lacking its own municipal government
* "Place", a type of street or road name
** Often ...
,
plants and animals
Plants and Animals are a Canadian indie-rock band from Montreal (featuring two members originally from Nova Scotia) which comprises guitarist-vocalists Warren Spicer and Nic Basque and drummer-vocalist Matthew Woody Woodley. The trio began playin ...
, as a descriptive term (lit. 'Black person's head'). It also is or was a colloquial technical term in industry, mining, and seafaring. ''Nigger'' as "defect" (a hidden problem), derives from "
nigger in the woodpile
''Nigger in the woodpile'' or ''nigger in the fence'' is a figure of speech originating in the United States meaning "some fact of considerable importance that is not disclosed—something suspicious or wrong".
Commonly used in the late 19th a ...
", a US slave-era phrase denoting escaped slaves hiding in train-transported woodpiles.
In the 1840s, the ''
Morning Chronicle
''The Morning Chronicle'' was a newspaper founded in 1769 in London. It was notable for having been the first steady employer of essayist William Hazlitt as a political reporter and the first steady employer of Charles Dickens as a journalist. It ...
'' newspaper report series ''
London Labour and the London Poor
''London Labour and the London Poor'' is a work of Victorian journalism by Henry Mayhew. In the 1840s, he observed, documented and described the state of working people in London for a series of articles in a newspaper, the ''Morning Chronicle'', ...
'', by
Henry Mayhew
Henry Mayhew (25 November 1812 – 25 July 1887) was an English journalist, playwright, and advocate of reform. He was one of the co-founders of the satirical magazine ''Punch'' in 1841, and was the magazine's joint editor, with Mark Lemon, in ...
, records the usages of both "nigger" and the similar-sounding word "niggard" denoting a false bottom for a grate.
In
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
, "nigger lover" initially applied to
abolitionists
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.
The Britis ...
, then to white people sympathetic towards Black Americans. The
portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words[wigger
''Wigger'', or ''wigga'', is a term for a white person of European ethnic origin, who emulates the perceived mannerisms, language, and fashions associated with African-American culture, particularly hip hop. The term is a portmanteau of ''whit ...](_blank)
'' ('White' + 'nigger') denotes a white person emulating "street Black behavior", hoping to gain acceptance to the
hip hop, thug, and
gangsta
Gangsta may refer to:
Urban culture
* Gangsta rap, a subgenre of hip hop music that evolved from hardcore hip hop and purports to reflect urban crime and the violent lifestyles of inner-city youths
* Gangster, a member of a gang
* Hip hop fashi ...
sub-cultures.
Norman Mailer
Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer ...
wrote of the antecedents of this phenomenon in 1957 in his essay ''
The White Negro
''The White Negro: Superficial Reflections on the Hipster,'' a 9,000-word essay by Norman Mailer, connects the "psychic havoc" wrought by the Holocaust and atomic bomb to the aftermath of slavery in America in the figuration of the Hipster, or t ...
''.
''The N-word'' euphemism
The
euphemism
A euphemism () is an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that is deemed offensive or suggests something unpleasant. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the user wishes ...
''the
N-word
In the English language, the word ''nigger'' is an ethnic slur used against black people, especially African Americans. Starting in the late 1990s, references to ''nigger'' have been progressively replaced by the euphemism , notably in cases ...
'' became mainstream American English usage during the racially contentious
O. J. Simpson murder case
''The People of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson'' was a criminal trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court starting in 1994, in which O. J. Simpson, a former National Football League (NFL) player, broadcaster and actor, was ...
in 1995. Key prosecution witness Detective
Mark Fuhrman
Mark Fuhrman (born February 5, 1952) is a former detective of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). He is primarily known for his part in the investigation of the 1994 murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman in the O. J. Simpson murd ...
, of the
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...
—who denied using racist language on duty—impeached himself with his prolific use of ''nigger'' in tape recordings about his police work. The recordings, by screenplay writer Laura McKinney, were from a 1985 research session wherein the detective assisted her with a screenplay about LAPD policewomen. Fuhrman excused his use of the word saying he used ''nigger'' in the context of his "
bad cop" persona. Media personnel who reported on Fuhrman's testimony substituted ''the N-word'' for ''nigger''.
Similar-sounding words
(Latin for "black") occurs in Latinate
scientific nomenclature
Nomenclature (, ) is a system of names or terms, or the rules for forming these terms in a particular field of arts or sciences. The principles of naming vary from the relatively informal conventions of everyday speech to the internationally agre ...
and is the
root word
A root (or root word) is the core of a word that is irreducible into more meaningful elements. In morphology, a root is a morphologically simple unit which can be left bare or to which a prefix or a suffix can attach. The root word is the prima ...
for some
homophone
A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A ''homophone'' may also differ in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (p ...
s of ''nigger''; sellers of
niger seed
''Guizotia abyssinica'' is an erect, stout, branched annual herb, grown for its edible oil and seed. Its cultivation originated in the Eritrea, Eritrean and Ethiopian highlands, and has spread to other parts of Ethiopia. Common names include noo ...
(used as bird feed), sometimes use the spelling ''Nyjer'' seed. The classical
Latin pronunciation
Latin phonology continually evolved over the centuries, making it difficult for speakers in one era to know how Latin was spoken before then. A given phoneme may be represented by different letters in different periods. This article deals primar ...
sounds similar to the English , occurring in biologic and
anatomic
Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...
names, such as ''
Hyoscyamus niger
''Hyoscyamus niger'', commonly known as henbane, black henbane, or stinking nightshade, is a poisonous plant in the nightshade family Solanaceae. It is native to temperate Europe and Siberia, and naturalised in Great Britain and Ireland.
Histor ...
'' (black henbane), and even for animals that are in fact not black, such as ''
Sciurus niger
The fox squirrel (''Sciurus niger''), also known as the eastern fox squirrel or Bryant's fox squirrel, is the largest species of tree squirrel native to North America. Despite the differences in size and coloration, it is sometimes mistaken for A ...
'' (fox squirrel).
is the Latin feminine form of (black), used in biologic and anatomic names such as
substantia nigra
The substantia nigra (SN) is a basal ganglia structure located in the midbrain that plays an important role in reward and movement. ''Substantia nigra'' is Latin for "black substance", reflecting the fact that parts of the substantia nigra app ...
(black substance).
The word ''niggardly'' (miserly) is etymologically unrelated to ''nigger'', derived from the
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
word (stingy) and the
Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
word . In the US, this word
has been misinterpreted as related to ''nigger'' and taken as offensive. In January 1999, David Howard, a white Washington, D.C., city employee, was compelled to resign after using ''niggardly''—in a financial context—while speaking with Black colleagues, who took umbrage. After reviewing the misunderstanding, Mayor
Anthony A. Williams
Anthony Allen Williams (born July 28, 1951) is an American politician who was the fifth mayor of the District of Columbia, for two terms, from 1999 to 2007. His predecessor had served twice, as the second and fourth mayor. Williams had previously ...
offered to reinstate Howard to his former position. Howard refused reinstatement but took a job elsewhere in the mayor's government.
Denotational extension
The
denotation
In linguistics and philosophy, the denotation of an expression is its literal meaning. For instance, the English word "warm" denotes the property of being warm. Denotation is contrasted with other aspects of meaning including connotation. For inst ...
s of ''nigger'' also include non-Black/non-White and other disadvantaged people. Some of these terms are self-chosen, to identify with the oppression and resistance of Black Americans; others are
ethnic slur
The following is a list of ethnic slurs or ethnophaulisms or ethnic epithets that are, or have been, used as insinuations or allegations about members of a given ethnicity or racial group or to refer to them in a derogatory, pejorative, or oth ...
s used by outsiders.
Jerry Farber
Jerry Farber (born 1935) is an American educator and writer.
Education
Farber was an undergraduate student at UCLA. In December 1954 he was nominated by the senior staff of the '' UCLA Daily Bruin'' to be city editor of the student newspaper, b ...
's 1967 essay collection, ''
The Student as Nigger
''The Student as Nigger'' is the title of an essay and subsequent book by American educator Jerry Farber.
Publication history
The essay first appeared in the ''Los Angeles Free Press'' in 1967 and is often cited as one of the first underground p ...
'', used the word as a metaphor for what he saw as the role forced on students. Farber had been, at the time, frequently arrested as a civil rights activist while beginning his career as a literature professor.
In his 1968 autobiography ''
White Niggers of America
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
: The Precocious Autobiography of a Quebec "Terrorist"'',
Pierre Vallières
Pierre Vallières ( – ) was a Québécois journalist and writer, known as an intellectual leader of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ). He was the author of the essay ''Nègres blancs d'Amérique'', translated as ''White Niggers of Am ...
, a
Front de libération du Québec
The (FLQ) was a Marxist–Leninist and Quebec separatist guerrilla group. Founded in the early 1960s with the aim of establishing an independent and socialist Quebec through violent means, the FLQ was considered a terrorist group by the Canadia ...
leader, refers to the oppression of the
Québécois people
Quebecers or Quebeckers (''Québécois'' in French, and sometimes also in English) are people associated with Quebec. The term is most often used in reference to descendants of the French settlers in Quebec but it can also be used to describe peop ...
in North America.
In 1969, in the course of being interviewed by the British magazine ''
Nova
A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramati ...
'', artist
Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野 洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking.
Ono grew up i ...
said "woman is the nigger of the world;" three years later, her husband,
John Lennon
John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...
, published the song
of the same name—about the worldwide phenomenon of discrimination against women—which was socially and politically controversial to US sensibilities.
''Sand nigger'', an ethnic slur against Arabs, and ''timber nigger'' and ''prairie nigger'', ethnic slurs against Native Americans, are examples of the racist extension of ''nigger'' upon other non-white peoples.
In 1978, singer
Patti Smith
Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946)
is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter and author who became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album '' Horses''.
Called the "punk poe ...
used the word in "
Rock N Roll Nigger
"Rock N Roll Nigger" is a rock song written by Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye, and released on the Patti Smith Group's 1978 album ''Easter''.
While the song has always been controversial for its repeated use of the racial epithet "nigger", a remi ...
".
In 1979, English singer
Elvis Costello
Declan Patrick MacManus Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in ...
used the phrase ''
white nigger
White nigger is an ethnic slur with somewhat different meanings in different parts of the English-speaking world.
North America
Dating from the nineteenth century, "white nigger" was a derogatory and often considered offensive term for a black ...
'' in "
Oliver's Army
"Oliver's Army" is a song written by Elvis Costello and performed by Costello and the Attractions, from the former's third studio album ''Armed Forces'' (1979). The song is a new wave track that was lyrically inspired by the Troubles in North ...
", a song describing the experiences of working-class soldiers in the British military forces on the "murder mile" (Belfast during
The Troubles
The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "i ...
), where ''white nigger'' was a common
British pejorative for Irish Catholics. Later, the producers of the British talent show ''
Stars in Their Eyes
''Stars in Their Eyes'' is a British television talent series, based on Joop van den Ende's Dutch format ''Soundmixshow''. It featured a singing contest in which members of the public impersonate showbiz stars.
The show premiered on 21 July 1 ...
'' forced a contestant to
censor one of its lines, changing "all it takes is one itchy trigger – One more widow, one less white nigger" to "one less white figure".
Historian
Eugene Genovese
Eugene Dominic Genovese (May 19, 1930 – September 26, 2012) was an American historian of the American South and American slavery. He was noted for bringing a Marxist perspective to the study of power, class and relations between planters and s ...
, noted for bringing a
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
perspective to the study of power, class, and relations between planters and slaves in the South, uses the word pointedly in ''The World the Slaveholders Made'' (1988).
The editor of ''
Green Egg
''Green Egg'' is a Neopagan magazine published by the Church of All Worlds intermittently since 1968. The ''Encyclopedia of American Religions'' described it as a significant periodical.
First version, 1968–1976
''Green Egg'' was created by O ...
'', a magazine described in ''The
Encyclopedia of American Religions
''Encyclopedia of American Religions'', renamed ''Melton's Encyclopedia of American Religions'' in the eighth edition, is a reference book by J. Gordon Melton first published in 1978, by Consortium Books, A McGrath publishing company. It is curre ...
'' as a significant periodical, published an essay entitled "Niggers of the New Age". This argued that
Neo-Pagans were treated badly by other parts of the
New Age
New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars conside ...
movement.
Other languages
Other languages, particularly
Romance languages
The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...
, have words that sound similar to ''nigger'' (are
homophone
A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A ''homophone'' may also differ in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (p ...
s), but do not mean the same. Just because the words are
cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...
, i.e. from the same Latin stem as
explained above, does not mean they have the same
denotation
In linguistics and philosophy, the denotation of an expression is its literal meaning. For instance, the English word "warm" denotes the property of being warm. Denotation is contrasted with other aspects of meaning including connotation. For inst ...
(dictionary meaning) or
connotation
A connotation is a commonly understood cultural or emotional association that any given word or phrase carries, in addition to its explicit or literal meaning, which is its denotation.
A connotation is frequently described as either positive o ...
(emotional association). Whether a word is abusive, pejorative, neutral, affectionate, old-fashioned, etc. depends on its cultural context. How a word is used in English does not determine how a similar-sounding word is used in another language. Conversely, many languages have
ethnic slur
The following is a list of ethnic slurs or ethnophaulisms or ethnic epithets that are, or have been, used as insinuations or allegations about members of a given ethnicity or racial group or to refer to them in a derogatory, pejorative, or oth ...
s that disparage "
other
Other often refers to:
* Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy
Other or The Other may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack
* ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...
" people, i.e. words that serve a similar function to ''nigger'', but these usually stem from completely different roots.
Some examples of how other languages refer to a Black person in a neutral and in a pejorative way include:
*
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
: ('Negro') used to be neutral, but many now consider it to be avoided in favor of ('Black'). ('little black one') can be amicably or offensively used. is always pejorative.
*
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
: ('Negro'), as a word loan ('Neger') from the
Swedish language
Swedish ( ) is a North Germanic language spoken predominantly in Sweden and in parts of Finland. It has at least 10 million native speakers, the fourth most spoken Germanic language and the first among any other of its type in the Nordic countr ...
appeared for the first time in a book published in 1771. The use of the Finnish equivalent ('neekeri') began in the late 19th century. Until the 1980s, it was commonly used and generally not yet considered derogatory, although a few instances of it being considered to be so have been documented since the 1950s; by the mid-1990s the word was considered racist, especially in the metropolitan area and among the younger population. It has since then usually been replaced by the
metonym
Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept.
Etymology
The words ''metonymy'' and ''metonym'' come from grc, μετωνυμία, 'a change of name' ...
'musta' ('Black
erson). In a survey conducted in 2000, Finnish respondents considered the term 'Neekeri' to be among the most offensive of minority designations.
*
French: is now considered derogatory. Although was the standard term for a
ghostwriter
A ghostwriter is hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are officially credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often h ...
, it has largely been supplanted by . Some white Frenchmen have the surname . The word can still be used as a synonym of "sweetheart" in some traditional Louisiana
French creole songs.
*german: Neger is dated and now considered offensive. ('Black
erson) or ("colored
erson) is more neutral.
* ht, nèg is used for any man in general, regardless of skin color (like ''
dude
''Dude'' is American slang for an individual, typically male. From the 1870s to the 1960s, dude primarily meant a male person who dressed in an extremely fashionable manner (a dandy) or a conspicuous citified person who was visiting a rural ...
'' in
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
). Haitian Creole derives predominantly from French.
*
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
has three variants: , and . The first one is the most historically attested and was the most commonly used until the 1960s as an equivalent of the English word "negro". It was gradually felt as offensive during the 1970s and replaced with and . was considered a better translation of the English word ''black'', while is a
loan translation
In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language wh ...
of the English word ''colored''.
*
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
: and are neutral; nevertheless can be offensive or at least "
politically incorrect
''Political correctness'' (adjectivally: ''politically correct''; commonly abbreviated ''PC'') is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in socie ...
" and is almost never proudly used by Afro-Brazilians. and are always extremely pejorative.
*
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
: ''
Murzyn
' () is a common Polish language, Polish word for a black person (person of Sub-Saharan African descent).
Etymology
The word '' is derived from a Czech borrowing of the German ''wikt:Mohr, Mohr'', derived from Latin ''wikt:Maurus, Maurus'', s ...
'' is used as a word for a Black person. Similarly to the Russian негр, it can also be used for ghostwriters or underpaid workers.
*
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
: the word
негр () has been commonly used to describe Black people. It can also be used as a synonym for underpaid worker, "литературный негр" ('literaturny negr') means ghostwriter.
() means a negro child. For example, the mystery novel ''And Then There Were None'' by Agatha Christie, originally called ''Ten Little Niggers'', is known in Russia as :ru:Десять негритят, Десять негритят (). In the 16th and 17th centuries, the word ('moors, moor') was used to describe people with dark skin. Nowadays, a black person would often be described neutrally as "", literally "black-skinned". The word (, 'black') is often used as a derogatory word for peoples of the Caucasus and, less often, Black people.
See also
*List of ethnic slurs
**List of ethnic group names used as insults
**Kaffir (ethnic slur)
**Blackfella
*''Guilty or Innocent of Using the N Word'', a 2006 documentary
*List of topics related to Black and African people
*"With Apologies to Jesse Jackson", an episode of ''South Park'' with a plot revolving around the word's extreme offensiveness
*Golliwog
Notes
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
Further reading
*
{{Ethnic slurs
1775 neologisms
African-American-related controversies
African-American society
American English words
Anti-African and anti-black slurs
Anti-black racism
English profanity
English words