Nigger

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 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''.

The word originated in the 18th century as an adaptation of the Spanish word ''negro'', a descendant of the Latin adjective ''niger 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, a 27-year-old black employee at a Dunkin' Donuts 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 and brain contusions. The employee was arrested, and charged with manslaughter. In a plea bargain, the employee pled guilty to felony battery (crime), battery, and was sentenced to two years of house arrest. 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 the Black community, ''nigger'' is often rendered as ''nigga''. This usage has been popularized by the rap 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 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 (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 Cornel West 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 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" or "nigger head" was used as a name for many sorts of things, including #Commercial products, commercial products, #Place names, places, #Nature, plants and animals, 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", a US slave-era phrase denoting escaped slaves hiding in train-transported woodpiles. In the 1840s, the ''Morning Chronicle'' newspaper report series ''London Labour and the London Poor'', by Henry Mayhew, records the usages of both "nigger" and the similar-sounding word "niggard" denoting a false bottom for a grate.

In American English, "nigger lover" initially applied to abolitionists, then to white people sympathetic towards Black Americans. The portmanteau word ''wigger'' ('White' + 'nigger') denotes a white person emulating "street Black behavior", hoping to gain acceptance to the hip hop, thug, and gangsta rap, gangsta sub-cultures. Norman Mailer wrote of the antecedents of this phenomenon in 1957 in his essay ''The White Negro''.

''The N-word'' euphemism

The euphemism ''the wikt:n-word, N-word'' became mainstream American English usage during the racially contentious O. J. Simpson murder case in 1995. Key prosecution witness Detective Mark Fuhrman, of the Los Angeles Police Department—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 "good cop/bad cop, 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 and is the root word for some homophones of ''nigger''; sellers of niger seed (used as bird feed), sometimes use the spelling ''Nyjer'' seed. The classical Latin spelling and pronunciation, Latin pronunciation sounds similar to the English , occurring in biologic and anatomic names, such as ''Hyoscyamus niger'' (black henbane), and even for animals that are in fact not black, such as ''Sciurus niger'' (fox squirrel).

is the Latin feminine form of (black), used in biologic and anatomic names such as substantia nigra (black substance).

The word ''niggardly'' (miserly) is etymologically unrelated to ''nigger'', derived from the Old Norse word (stingy) and the Middle English word . In the US, this word controversies about the word niggardly, 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 offered to reinstate Howard to his former position. Howard refused reinstatement but took a job elsewhere in the mayor's government.

Denotational extension

The denotations 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 slurs used by outsiders.

Jerry Farber's 1967 essay collection, ''The Student as Nigger'', 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: The Precocious Autobiography of a Quebec "Terrorist"'', Pierre Vallières, a Front de libération du Québec leader, refers to the oppression of the Québécois (word), Québécois people in North America.

In 1969, in the course of being interviewed by the British magazine ''Nova (UK magazine), Nova'', artist Yoko Ono said "woman is the nigger of the world;" three years later, her husband, John Lennon, published the song Woman Is the Nigger of the World, 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 used the word in "Rock N Roll Nigger".

In 1979, English singer Elvis Costello used the phrase ''white nigger'' in "Oliver's Army", a song describing the experiences of working-class soldiers in the British military forces on the "murder mile" (Belfast during The Troubles), where ''white nigger'' was a common List of religious slurs#Catholics, British pejorative for Irish Catholics. Later, the producers of the British talent show ''Stars in Their Eyes'' forced a contestant to censorship, 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, noted for bringing a Marxist 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).

Oberon Zell-Ravenheart#Green Egg, The editor of ''Green Egg'', a magazine described in ''The Encyclopedia of American Religions'' as a significant periodical, published an essay entitled "Niggers of the New Age". This argued that Neopaganism, Neo-Pagans were treated badly by other parts of the New Age movement.

Other languages

Other languages, particularly Romance languages, have words that sound similar to ''nigger'' (are homophones), but do not mean the same. Just because the words are cognate, i.e. from the same Latin stem as #Etymology and history, explained above, does not mean they have the same denotation (dictionary meaning) or connotation (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 slurs that disparage "othering, other" 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 language, Dutch: ('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 language, Finnish: ('Negro'), as a word loan ('Neger') from the Swedish language 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 metonymy, metonym 'musta' ('Black [person]'). In a survey conducted in 2000, Finnish respondents considered the term 'Neekeri' to be among the most offensive of minority designations.
*French language, French: is now considered derogatory. Although was the standard term for a ghostwriter, 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-based creole languages, French creole songs.
*german: Neger is dated and now considered offensive. ('Black [person]') or ("colored [person]") is more neutral.
* ht, nèg is used for any man in general, regardless of skin color (like ''dude'' in American English). Haitian Creole derives predominantly from French.
*Italian language, Italian 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 calque, loan translation of the English word ''colored''.
*Portuguese language, Portuguese: and are neutral; nevertheless can be offensive or at least "political correctness, politically incorrect" and is almost never proudly used by Afro-Brazilians. and are always extremely pejorative.
*Polish language, Polish: ''Murzyn'' 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 language, Russian: the word :ru:негр, 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

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{{Ethnic slurs

1775 neologisms
African-American-related controversies
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American English words
Anti-African and anti-black slurs
Anti-black racism
English profanity
English words