Premium Essay

Controversy Behind The Use Of The Word Nigger

Submitted By
Words 518
Pages 3
The controversy behind the use of the word nigga vs the word nigger is one that has been around for quite some time now. Within our modern society, new rules have been established in terms of the usage of the new slang word "nigga". This new word takes a spin on the original slur "nigger" and has become one of the most commonly used words in our society. As an adolescent in highschool who listens to a lot of rap, I can really see where this article is coming from. Many people, including many of my close friends would never dare to use the word "nigger" in their everyday language but use the word nigga like its nothing. Due to the influence of media and music, the extremely offensive meaning of the word has been forgotten and it has been established that as long as you put the "a" at the end of the word then you mean no harm. I can't think of one song I listen to on a daily basis that doesn't implement the use of the word nigga. I also can't think of one black person who has never used the word. Due to this, we even see people of young age using this term with very minimal understanding of the history behind the word. …show more content…
It is very unfair to change the ending of a word and establish the newly made word as alright to say. As seen in the episode of blackish we watched as a class, many black people feel as if they have the complete right to use the word since it relates to their colour of skin and ancestral background. They've used this as an excuse to use the word and eventually came up with the slang word as a better replacement which can be more easily

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Huck Finn

...that depicts a realism in the novel about the society back in antebellum America. Mark Twain definitely characterizes the protagonist, the intelligent and sympathetic Huckleberry Finn, by the direct candid manner of writing as though through the actual voice of Huck. Every word, thought, and speech by Huck is so precise it reflects even the racism and black stereotypes typical of the era. And this has lead to many conflicting battles by various readers since the first print of the novel, though inspiring some. Says John H. Wallace, outraged by Twain’s constant use of the degrading and white supremacist word ‘nigger’, "[The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is] the most grotesque example of racist trash ever written" (Mark Twain Journal by Thadious Davis, Fall 1984 and Spring 1985). Yet, again to counter that is a quote by the great American writer Ernest Hemingway, "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn…it’s the best book we’ve had…There has been nothing as good since" (The Green Hills of Africa [Scribner’s. 1953] 22). The controversy behind the novel has been and will always remain the crux of any readers is still truly racism. Twain surely does use the word ‘nigger’ often, both as a referral to the slave Jim and any African-American that Huck comes across and as the epitome of insult and inferiority. However, the reader must also not fail to recognize that this style of racism, this malicious treatment of African-Americans, this degrading...

Words: 390 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Argumentative Essay On Huckleberry Finn

...I believe that the n-word should not be replaced in novels such as Huck Finn. Personally, I view the change as a form of censorship. In the 60 Minutes interview, a professor said that getting rid of the word removes the conversation that comes with it. If the word is removed, there will be no discussions about its origin or the history of slavery. The n-word has been included in numerous classic pieces of literature, and for good reason. It is an impactful word, that catches the reader’s attention and promotes an educational conversation. Reason #1: Within my group discussion, one of my group members believed that the n-word should not be replaced. In addition, they believed that the word should only be used by African Americans and the rest of the black community. They referenced the article “Mommy, What Does ‘Nigger’ Mean?” wherein the author describes the numerous meanings that her family members give to the n-word. The participant in my group discussion believed that the word should only be used by the black community, because only they could reclaim it. A slur is only reclaimed if used by the people it oppressed. Reason #1: Within the class discussion, there were many different viewpoints as to how the n-word should be handled. Some believe that the word should be kept, others...

Words: 999 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Huck Finn: Comparing and Contrasting the Controversies Surrounding Banning Books

...Huck Finn: Comparing and Contrasting the Controversies Surrounding Banning Books The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, deemed one of the great American novels, was published by Mark Twain in 1884. From the start, this novel has sparked a lot of negative criticism. There were heated debates among critics, and in schools debating whether or not to ban this controversial piece of literature. In today's society, this book still offends sensitive readers, because it was written in a time when people were not sensitive to the plight of African Americans. Just a month after it was published, The Concord, library in Massachusetts banned all copies stating that it was “Not suitable for trash.” (Ruta1) It was believed, that racism was at the heart of this book, and the content was, and still viewed as being harsh. Louisa May Alcott was a popular author who served on the very first library committee in Massachusetts, where The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was banned. She voted against this book from being sold, read or viewed. Criticizing Mark Twain saying that "Huck should not sweat. He should perspire." (Ruta1) Other libraries began removing their copies stating that it is inappropriate for children to read. The number of concerned citizens continue to debate on this subject today. Derogatory words are seen throughout this story in reference to showcase the difference between the two classes, white verses black. This book not only celebrates an unlikely friendship between...

Words: 2006 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

2014 Persuasive Speech

...2014 has been a roller coaster we saw everything But one thing that made this year stick out like a sore thumb was the amount of controversy we as a country faced this year. We dealt with many scary situations losing many lives including many celebrities who had an impact on many of us. Even in the entertainment industry there was a downfall There were countless moments where 2014 was an unforgettable year for good things, but the good outweighed by the bad every single time. August 9, 2014 18 year old Michael Brown was shot and killed by St.Louis county police officer Darren Wilson. Brown was in a convenience store and decided to steal 48 dollars worth of cigars and while in the process of doing that he physically assaulted the store clerk....

Words: 2433 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

Why Should Huckleberry Finn Be Banned In Schools

...Some schools have banned The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from their reading lists in hopes to protect their students from the chaos caused by one word. Unlike those who support censorship, these inviduals believe that replacing the word will not solve the conflict because it will demolish the significance of Jim’s character in the novel. However, they also do not want it to continue to be taught in classrooms because they categorize it as “inappropriate for children”(Lombardi). The racist language displayed in the novel could affect the young children, whom may not understand such a word or its impact. It is like a jack-in-the-box toy that jumps out of the novel everytime one comes across it. But the book itself provides a vluable lesson that all students should comprehend, so then why ban it? According to PBS, “every challenge purports that the book is racist… conflicted with the values of the community”(PBS). Those who want to ban the book argue that despite the novel’s popularity, its relevance is outdated and the racist language overruns the theme and values of the...

Words: 1734 - Pages: 7

Free Essay

Dr.Whitaker and Food

...Harvey Wiley, Theodore Roosevelt, and the Federal Regulation of Food and Drugs By Anthony Gaughan Food and Drug Law Mr. Peter Barton Hutt Harvard Law School Winter 2004 Introduction In 1906 Congress passed two landmark pieces of legislation: the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. The acts emerged from the reformist ethos of the Progressive Era, a time when the federal government took on a new and much more active role in the everyday lives of ordinary Americans. Of all the laws passed during the Progressive Era, no legislation proved more successful and more enduring than the 1906 food and drug legislation. The acts established the foundations of modern American food and drug law, and gave birth to the Food and Drug Administration. For the first time, the federal government assumed permanent and comprehensive responsibility for the health and safety of the American food and drug supply. Although the statutes have been revised many times since 1906, the essence of modern food and drug law remains consistent with the principles of federal responsibility for consumer safety that underlay the first statutes a century ago. The passage of the 1906 food and drug legislation stemmed from the actions of many people across the political landscape, ranging from Senator Albert Beveridge to socialist writer Upton Sinclair. But no indi- 1 viduals played a larger public role in the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act than Theodore...

Words: 11660 - Pages: 47

Free Essay

To Kill a Mocking Bird

...Lee, Harper—To Kill a Mockingbird 1960 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee DEDICATION for Mr. Lee and Alice in consideration of Love & Affection Lawyers, I suppose, were children once. Charles Lamb PART ONE 1 When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow. When it healed, and Jem’s fears of never being able to play football were assuaged, he was seldom self-conscious about his injury. His left arm was somewhat shorter than his right; when he stood or walked, the back of his hand was at right angles to his body, his thumb parallel to his thigh. He couldn’t have cared less, so long as he could pass and punt. When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out. I said if he wanted to take a broad view of the thing, it really began with Andrew Jackson. If General Jackson hadn’t run the Creeks up the creek, Simon Finch would never have paddled up the Alabama, and where would we be if he hadn’t? We were far too old to settle an argument with a fist-fight, so we consulted Atticus. Our father said we were both right. Being Southerners, it was a source of shame to some members of the family that we had no recorded ancestors on either side of the Battle of Hastings...

Words: 100426 - Pages: 402

Free Essay

General Patton

...in France before being wounded near the end of the war. In the interwar period, Patton remained a central figure in the development of armored warfare doctrine in the U.S. Army, serving in numerous staff positions throughout the country. Rising through the ranks, he commanded the U.S. 2nd Armored Division at the time of the U.S. entry into World War II. Patton led U.S. troops into the Mediterranean theater with an invasion of Casablanca during Operation Torch in 1942, where he later established himself as an effective commander through his rapid rehabilitation of the demoralized U.S. II Corps. He commanded the Seventh Army during the Invasion of Sicily, where he was the first allied commander to reach Messina. There he was embroiled in controversy after he slapped two shell-shocked soldiers under his command, and was temporarily removed from battlefield command for other duties such as participating in Operation Fortitude's disinformation campaign for Operation Overlord. Patton returned to command the Third Army...

Words: 12444 - Pages: 50

Free Essay

Nass

...CHAPTER 2 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND TO THE RHODESIAN NOVEL BEFORE AND AFTER 1890 The history of Zimbabwe shows that land was at the centre of the people’s lives (as everywhere else in the world), before the arrival of white people; and at the centre of controversy from the time that the white people colonised the country in 1890. It is still at the centre of controversy as I write towards the end of the 20th Century because land has not been adequately redistributed among the black people. The history of Zimbabwe before the advent of the 1890 colonial experience also reveals what Chinua Achebe calls his fundamental theme. This fundamental theme is that “African people did not hear of culture for the first time from Europeans, that their societies were not mindless but frequently had a philosophy of great depth and value and beauty, that they had poetry and, above all, they had dignity. It is this dignity that many African people all but lost during the colonial period and it is this that they must now regain.” 1 The pre-colonial history of Zimbabwe further emphasises that “African societies of the past, with all their imperfections, were not consumers but 2 producers of culture.” This is because although the country was not 1 . Chinua Achebe, “The Role of the Writer in a New Nation” in G.D. Killam, ed., African Writers on African Writing (London, Ibadan and Nairobi: Heinemann Educational Books, 1973) 8. 2 . Ibid 13 27 politically organised...

Words: 10130 - Pages: 41

Premium Essay

The Ballot or the Bullet

...The Ballot or the Bullet by Malcolm X April 3, 1964 Cleveland, Ohio Mr. Moderator, Brother Lomax, brothers and sisters, friends and enemies: I just can't believe everyone in here is a friend, and I don't want to leave anybody out. The question tonight, as I understand it, is "The Negro Revolt, and Where Do We Go From Here?" or What Next?" In 4my little humble way of understanding it, it points toward either the ballot or the bullet. Before we try and explain what is meant by the ballot or the bullet, I would like to clarify something concerning myself. I'm still a Muslim; my religion is still Islam. That's my personal belief. Just as Adam Clayton Powell is a Christian minister who heads the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York, but at the same time takes part in the political struggles to try and bring about rights to the black people in this country; and Dr. Martin Luther King is a Christian minister down in Atlanta, Georgia, who heads another organization fighting for the civil rights of black people in this country; and Reverend Galamison, I guess you've heard of him, is another Christian minister in New York who has been deeply involved in the school boycotts to eliminate segregated education; well, I myself am a minister, not a Christian minister, but a Muslim minister; and I believe in action 15 on all fronts by whatever means necessary.Skaber autoritet da han er en præst ligesom alle de andre frohedskæmpere, dog ikke Kristen, men dette har ingen indflydelse – vil...

Words: 9246 - Pages: 37

Free Essay

Rules for Redicals

...Books by Saul Alinsky John L. Lewis, An Unauthorized Biography Reveille for Radicals The Professional Radical (with Marian Sanders) Rules for Radicals RULES FOR RADICALS A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals SAUL D. ALINSKY RANDOM HOUSE New York Acknowledgments This chapter "Of Means and Ends" was presented in the Auburn Lecture Series at Union Theological Seminary. Some of the other sections of this book were delivered in part in lectures before the Leaders of America series at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California; Yale Political Union, New Haven, Connecticut, April, 1970; The Willis D. Wood Fellowship Lecture, Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts, May, 1969; American Society of Newspaper Editors, Washington, D.C., 1968; U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D.C.; March, 1968; A.F. of L.-C.I.O. Labor Press Association, Miami, Florida, December, 1967; American Whig-Cliosophic Society, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, 1967; Centennial Address, Episcopal Theological Seminary, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1968; Harvard Medical Conference, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1969. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 Copyright © 1971 by Saul D. Alinsky All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. ISBN: 0-394-44341-1 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 70-117651 ...

Words: 62916 - Pages: 252

Premium Essay

Kuharenko

.....………………………………………….. 3 CHAPTER I. PHONO-GRAPHICAL LEVEL. MORPHOLOGICAL LEVEL…............................... 13 Sound Instrumenting. Craphon. Graphical Means…………………………………………………………...6 Morphemic Repetition. Extension of Morphemic Valency………………………………………………….11 CHAPTER II. LEXICAL LEVEL..............................................……………………………………….…14 Word and its Semantic Structure…………………………………………………………………………….14 Connotational Meanings of a Word………………………………………………………………………….14 The Role of the Context in the Actualization of Meaning…………………………………………………….14 Stylistic Differentiation of the Vocabulary…………………………………………………………………..16 Literary Stratum of Words. Colloquial Words…..…………………………………………………………..16 Lexical Stylistic Devices…………………………………………………………………………………….23 Metaphor. Metonymy. Synecdoche. Play on Words. Irony. Epithet…………………………………………23 Hyperbole. Understatement. Oxymoron. ……………………………………………………………………23 CHAPTER III. SYNTACTICAL LEVEL..................................…………………………………………38 Main Characteristics of the Sentence. Syntactical SDs. Sentence Length…………………………………..38 One-Word Sentences. Sentence Structure. Punctuation. Arrangement of Sentence Members. Rhetorical Question. Types of Repetition. Parallel Constructions. Chiasmus. Inversion. Suspense, Detachment. Completeness of Sentence Structure. Ellipsis. One-Member Sentences. Apokoinu Constructions. Break. Types of Connection. Polysyndeton. Asyndeton. Attachment Lexico-Syntactical...

Words: 57354 - Pages: 230

Premium Essay

A Book of Practice in Stylistics

.....………………………………………….. 3 CHAPTER I. PHONO-GRAPHICAL LEVEL. MORPHOLOGICAL LEVEL…............................... 13 Sound Instrumenting. Graphon. Graphical Means…………………………………………………………...6 Morphemic Repetition. Extension of Morphemic Valency………………………………………………….11 CHAPTER II. LEXICAL LEVEL..............................................……………………………………….…14 Word and its Semantic Structure…………………………………………………………………………….14 Connotational Meanings of a Word………………………………………………………………………….14 The Role of the Context in the Actualization of Meaning…………………………………………………….14 Stylistic Differentiation of the Vocabulary…………………………………………………………………..16 Literary Stratum of Words. Colloquial Words…..…………………………………………………………..16 Lexical Stylistic Devices…………………………………………………………………………………….23 Metaphor. Metonymy. Synecdoche. Play on Words. Irony. Epithet…………………………………………23 Hyperbole. Understatement. Oxymoron. ……………………………………………………………………23 CHAPTER III. SYNTACTICAL LEVEL..................................…………………………………………38 Main Characteristics of the Sentence. Syntactical SDs. Sentence Length…………………………………..38 One-Word Sentences. Sentence Structure. Punctuation. Arrangement of Sentence Members. Rhetorical Question. Types of Repetition. Parallel Constructions. Chiasmus. Inversion. Suspense, Detachment. Completeness of Sentence Structure. Ellipsis. One-Member Sentences. Apokoinu Constructions. Break. Types of...

Words: 56594 - Pages: 227

Premium Essay

Music

...Music Journal Table of Contents 1-4 1. Two Trains Running................................................................………...5 2. Almost Lost My Mind.............................................................................5 3. Do You Love Me....................................................................................6 4. One Fine Day ..............................................................................................6 5. Fingertips (Part 2)..........................................................................................7 6.Mona Lisa……………………...........................................................................7 7. Shop Around......................................................................................................8 8. Please Mr. Postman...........................................................................................8 9. Save the Last Dance for Me...............................................................................9 10. Hello Stranger.....................................................................................................9 11. I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Hunny Bunch)..............................................9,10 12. Stop! in the Name of Love..................................................................10 13. Love Don’t Love Nobody..................................................................................10,11 14. You Can't...

Words: 22987 - Pages: 92

Free Essay

Childhood End

...Childhood’s End Arthur C. Clarke The opinions expressed in this book are not those of the author I EARTH AND THE OVERLORDS Chapter 1 The volcano that had reared Taratua up from the Pacific depths had been sleeping now for half a million years. Yet in a little while, thought Reinhold, the island would be bathed with fires fiercer than any that had attended its birth. He glanced towards the launching site, and his gaze climbed the pyramid of scaffolding that still surrounded the “Columbus”. Two hundred feet above the ground, the ship’s prow was catching the last rays of the descending sun. This was one of the last nights it would ever know; soon it would be floating in the eternal sunshine of space. It was quiet here beneath the palms, high up on the rocky spine of the island. The only sound from the Project was the occasional yammering of an air compressor or the faint shout of a workman. Reinhold had grown fond of these clustered palms; almost every evening he had come here to survey his little empire. It saddened him to think that they would be blasted to atoms when the “Columbus” rose in flame and fury to the stars. A mile beyond the reef, the “James Forrestal” had switched on her searchlights and was sweeping the dark waters. The sun had now vanished completely, and the swift tropical night was racing in from the east. Reinhold wondered, a little sardonically, if the carrier expected to find Russian...

Words: 71127 - Pages: 285