Deinonysus wrote:I'm sure most people on this forum have heard of Nigeria, one of the most populous countries in the world, as well as Niger. And I'm sure most people on this forum are also aware of the Latin etymology of this slur. Possible innocent interpretations of an offensive term, or etymologically related innocent terms, do not make the term inoffensive.
I, too, am among those who do confirm that usually it is offensive.
What I wrote was about pointing out that there also is one single difference between a word like N..... and other words that couldn't even possibly be interpreted, speaking of their literal meaning, as inoffensive.
And pointing out that there is one difference was about taking a closer look at the detailed reasons for some Africans offering a few others to call them like this. Because it is possible that among their reasons is that those particular Africans themselves do view that term as something that could be used for the color only in a few cases, while they wouldn't accept it in most of them because what also usually is connected to that word.
Deinonysus wrote:Imagine that a foreigner came to Germany with a Charlie Chaplin moustache, wearing a certain Indian geometric good luck symbol, and performing a historically accurate Roman salute. All of these things may have possible innocent origins, but I don't think the local Germans would take kindly to this individual and he would probably be carted away by the police.
Even without providing examples like these I do realize that referring to the origin only isn't enough to avoid the very real probability of offense. Generally speaking. And that particular moustache etc. example, things like the sole idea of doing them I simply fully detest (as in: hate) anyway.
Deinonysus wrote:Even talking about the N word will make most Americans very uncomfortable, whether or not they are black. It is almost never okay for a white person to use this word, even if a single black person says it's okay.
Also I am aware of the fact that a single African stating that it is personally OK to him doesn't change the general public's stance on it.
Deinonysus wrote:The few white people who can "get away with it" are actors or comedians who are generally portraying ignorant characters, exploring the topic of racism, or even just going for shock humor. These are people with an extremely nuanced understanding of where the line between humor and hate speech lies, and even then people get in trouble for it all the time. I would advise almost anyone to avoid the use of this word, especially someone who has self-described communication problems.
Advising against using it, even if a few particular Africans would offer it, is also what I have been doing when I wrote something about it in this forum.
Deinonysus wrote:I would also advise you to avoid imitating the various accents of black English speakers around the world.
Not intending to spawn any micro-discussion that could be close to hairsplitting, but I just wanted to mention (again) that in my case, it isn't really about what is usually meant by imitation. Instead, whenever I speak (as in: verbally express myself) English, I am, because of my many, many conversations with Africans in the past,
defaulting to African English (containing a few Caribbean elements as well, because it is not just the Caribbean population who "borrowed" something from African English, later, a reverse "borrowing" also occured). So unless I decide against using my default English setting, it is African. But I am not using it unless I know that the person/s I talk to appreciate/s it. For the sake of providing complete information: I even have met Africans who, in case I started switching to American English when speaking to them, either wouldn't have liked it at all, or would at least, for example, have started to wonder "what happened to me"
.
Deinonysus wrote:I understand that you aren't trying to make fun of anyone, but it's honestly pretty uncomfortable to read.
I acknowledge that this is your stance on it, and this clue also aids in realizing that others can feel the same way, too. While I do know that there are many others (no matter if they are in this forum or somewhere else) who either don't care about it or even like/love it, what you just mentioned is a good reason for me to
usually avoid it outside of my log dedicated to it. There might be a few threads sometimes were things could be different because of a different context, circumstances etc. But I do intend to usually avoid it outside of that log.
However, it still can happen that I drop a few of those words sometimes, because in the case of verbal speech, as I just mentioned, I am even using it per default unless I do some additional efforts to switch to pure American English.