Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew H.
According to the "Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang," "N*****" did not originate as a slur and only took on that meaning over time. There's a lot of other evidence that it was not originally pejorative, too.
Although of course I'd be interested in countervailing evidence.
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In case you haven't figured it out, I am black and a Southerner. My family has long life spans so I was lucky enough to know my great great grandmother (my father’s mother’s mother’s mother). She was ALIVE during the 1800’s and HER mother and grandmother were slaves. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that “nigger” was a racial slur even back then. But since slaves were not considered to have feelings, maybe the people subjugating them felt that it wasn’t a slur…
I really don’t care what the "Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang" says about the word “nigger” since we all know that black slaves were not allowed to read or write. Nor did anyone care about their opinions.