[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by NVash

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Nigger
Look at definition number 4. Used to insult people then as a term of endearment? In the same conversation? That makes no sense at all.

A lot of parents call their kids "brats" as a term of endearment. Plenty of married people refer to their spouse as a "ball and chain;" I don't assume they all think of marriage as a prison sentence. Lots of employees refer to their bosses as "slavedrivers" when the boss announces a holiday party or other at-work bonus.

Among friends or other close groups , an insult can be used ironically, or as a sign of kinship or shared experiences, an acknowledgment that they understand the way outsiders might perceive them.

I guess my point is I think people need to stop getting so up in arms about it. Its just a word. People need to get over it. I dont care about where it came from. Those were horrible times to be sure but enough about what happened back then.

If it weren't used today as a hateful insult, that would be true. Nobody wants to edit Shakespeare to remove references to "whoreson," not because of the rarity of children of prostitutes, but because it's not thrown around today on schoolyard playgrounds, and because business owners don't tell their close friends (but only their close friends) that they'll never hire a "whoreson" for a management job.

Call a Caucasian a 'cracker' and he might laugh at you. 'Honkey' same thing. Call an African American an 'n-word' and he might beat you to death. I see a problem here.

The problem is that the white person being insulted has a firm awareness that racial bigotry isn't going to keep him from getting an education, a job, or a mortgage, or justice for crimes committed against him. Saying "white people aren't upset at this; why should black people be upset?" implies that they have equivalent starting circumstances and equal access to resources. They don't.

And look at rap. Seriously, take a look at rap music. Mostly African Americans and how many times do they say nigga? Its just ridiculous. They can say it all they want but a Caucasian says it and its racist? None of it makes sense.

I can call my kids brats all I want. I might call them little demons, if the mood strikes me. *YOU* may not. Workers in a factory may call each other "peons;" that doesn't mean they won't get amazingly hostile if management refers to them that way. Is this really so hard to understand--that what people call themselves is not necessarily welcome from outsiders?

Now maybe this was already brought up. But what Im saying is why in the World should this book be taken and redone just because a few people, anyone know what race they are, want to get insulted when most people didnt care to begin with and still dont care now?

The "most people" who "didn't care" are overwhelmingly white.