Richard Widmark's character used the N-Word More times than Quentin Tarantino. Why IS it that when a white actor uses it, it's a racial epithet, but when a fellow black actor says it, it's considered a term of endearment? Reverse discrimination.
NOTICE TO MITT ROMNEY: A BAD DAY FREELOADING, IS BETTER THAN A GOOD DAY AT WORK.
Because to some Black people, the term nig ger has acquired a different meaning. It's the idea of taking a slur and making it your own, sort of the way some police officers starting using the term pig amongst themselves in the early 1970s. As to a White actor using it as a racial epithet, that's exactly the way Widmark's character intended to use it, as a ultimate insult. The term nig ger although it comes from the Spanish word for black (negro), was devised by Southern Whites as a derogatory term, so said term cannot be viewed as neutral (or a form of endearment) when used by us Whites. (Perhaps this is why IMDb won't even allow the word to be used in a post.)
share"Because to some Black people (Who? Snoop Dog?), the term {N-Word} has acquired a different meaning..."
Bull-bleep! That's just a cop-out!!!
NOTICE TO MITT ROMNEY: A BAD DAY FREELOADING, IS BETTER THAN A GOOD DAY AT WORK.
barryfleckmann, I agree with you, but that is the view taken today by many.
shareNo police officers ever used the word "pig" among themselves. That's nonsense.
shareOh, please, it's very common among most ethnic groups. It's like you calling your brother an *beep* all the time, but it would make you bristle if a stranger called him the same thing. And by the way...at the time this movie was made, it was NOT common for blacks to call each other the "N" word. They were just trying to get people to call them "colored" as an improvement; they were not throwing the "N" word around themselves. This movie is 63 years old...things have changed.
share"This movie is 63 years old...things have changed."
I'm 63 years, young! I was born on May 4, 1949, so DON'T go around lecturing ME about "The Way Things Were!" I just came back from six months in Florida, and down there, the "F-Word" is bandied about like a noun, a verb, an adjective, a pronoun and an adverb. Those cretins, down there, can't complete a sentence without using the ubiquitous "F-Word," and ALL its variations (see mother******. Yes, things HAVE changed! Manners. Courtesy.
NOTICE TO MITT ROMNEY: A BAD DAY FREELOADING, IS BETTER THAN A GOOD DAY AT WORK.
Why IS it that when a white actor uses it, it's a racial epithet...
... but when a fellow black actor says it, it's considered a term of endearment?
"Seriously, do you really struggle so with the elementary nuances of language, or are you one of those 'political correctness gone mad' losers (i.e. closet bigots)? Neither reflects particularly favourably on you."
Favourably? Are YOU a bloomin' Limey, or something? THAT ought to answer your question. My best buddy? Archie Bunker, of course!
NOTICE TO MITT ROMNEY: A BAD DAY FREELOADING, IS BETTER THAN A GOOD DAY AT WORK.
Wow. You broke easy.
~.~
I WANT THE TRUTH! http://www.imdb.com/list/ze4EduNaQ-s/
"Wow. You broke easy."
I aim to please.
NOTICE TO MITT ROMNEY: A BAD DAY FREELOADING, IS BETTER THAN A GOOD DAY AT WORK.
Give it up, barryfleckmann!!! You got your a$$ HANDED to you - and it made my day!!
share"You got your a$$ HANDED to you..."
No, I didn't, I just wiped it in the men's room.
"...and it made my day!!"
I'm glad you're happy! Glad to have been in service to you!!
NOTICE TO MITT ROMNEY: A BAD DAY FREELOADING, IS BETTER THAN A GOOD DAY AT WORK.
I don't care how old you are... You need help! Clearly you have issues.
For everyone else... Can you say "Troll"
but when a fellow black actor says it, it's considered a term of endearment?
Hypocrisy. Those fellow black actors (and comedians and rap stars) are hypocrites and are doing nothing but chipping away at the stigma of using that word. Dr King would hang his head in shame.
Yup, you GOT it, entirely. Hypocrisy! Either we ALL can USE the word, or NOBODY can USE it!! All or nothing at all!! Rapper Jay-Z uses the word in one of his "songs" (???), and he makes a cool billion dollars, or two, but a white person HAS to substitute the silly "N-Word" connotation. Absurd logic IF you ask me!!
George Zimmerman: Trayvon should NOT have brought a bag of Skittles to a gunfight.
I hear male black CO's using that term to each other in the locker room constantly. I don't know how it is in the female locker room (heh heh). But I believe if all black people stopped using the word, it would surely die out for the most part in 20-30 years.
shareI agree, The N-Word is merely used by blacks as a term of endearment, these days.
Reverse discrimination.
No. That's NOT what I was saying. I think you GOT my drift!!
shareYes, I did. I'm just not sure that I'd call it "reverse discrimination."
Personally, I don't like to hear the word in any context, but I understand why it happens, much as a 'reclamation' has occurred with many other terms in many other communities, such as "queer" in the gay and lesbian community. The N-word is used as a term of endearment among some African-Americans (as you said), or as a means of one African-American to tell another that he is a white man's puppet or a traitor to his people, and so forth. If you saw Django Unchained, you might recall the Jamie Foxx faux-slaver being referred to by some black slavers as a "black n*gg*r") for just that reason.
Whether the term's somewhat widespread usage within the black community (or within certain communities) is unfortunate or excessive (as I tend to believe) or not, what I don't understand is why a non-bigoted white person would want to get in on the action. The word carries a very different connotation from a white to a black, and so it's not really a question of "equality" or the same standard. A word's meaning changes depending upon who is communicating it to whom.
So, WHERE are WE having a problem? If I (as a Caucasian male) CAN'T use The N-Word, then WHY should a black man be able to use the word? Two (2) wrongs do NOT make a right. Rap music stars (Jay-Z, for example) are making millions of dollars using The N-Word in their songs. Huh?
share... because the meanings of words can be shifty and unstable (you know, poststructuralism, postmodernism, and those types of concepts). A word can feature multiple meanings or connotations depending upon who is saying it and who is saying it to whom. In other words, a "sign" changes based upon the "signifier" and/or the "signified." In effect, the word becomes different when Jay-Z says it as opposed to George Wallace. The temporal, tonal, and historical contexts also make a difference: I possessed no problem with the word's usage in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained because it proved appropriate to the historical and social contexts.
Again, I think that the word is ugly and can become dangerous when bandied about too readily. That said, the word's meaning changes based upon the context, the speaker, and the receiver; language and rhetoric are not static with equal meanings for everyone.
Hhhhhhmmmmmmm? So THIS means we agree, or no? Why can Jay-Z make millions using The N-Word, and I can't?
shareYou can try, and you would be legally entitled, but you won't make millions because the word will carry a different connotation coming from a white man ...
(Plus, Jay-Z is probably a more talented rapper than you. )