Interesting about how the "N" word came about

Although they were not a great deal involved in the slave trade, the Spanish in America di buy a lot of the slaves coming to the new world and that is where the origin of the "N" word comes from the word for "black" in Spanish is either negra or negro depending on whether male or female. Not hard to see where the shortened, bastardized version today comes from.

This information has never been hidden to my knowledge. Nor is it particularly surprising.

I've known it since I was a kid.

For a long time when people said "the N word" in reference to blacks, I wondered if they were referring to Negro or nigger. I learned it the hard way when a black coworker falsely accused me of calling her the bad one to my supervisor. Ugh.

independentusa said:

Although they were not a great deal involved in the slave trade, the Spanish in America di buy a lot of the slaves coming to the new world and that is where the origin of the "N" word comes from the word for "black" in Spanish is either negra or negro depending on whether male or female. Not hard to see where the shortened, bastardized version today comes from.

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That's pretty widely known. Hence 'Nigeria'. Of course what's relevant is the n-word being created as a slur. It doesn't matter if the word was "ghjkerjkg", what matters is the intent and use. Of course it doesn't help that the word is ALSO used by many black people, in a 'the word isn't bad when used by blacks' mixed message.

For that matter, the terrible history and sensitivity on the issue prevents the language from having any word for whites to refer to sub-groups of black people as better or worse, the way sub-groups of other races are like 'white trash' or 'hillbilly' or 'low-rider' or 'deplorable' or 'hick' or 'bumpkin' etc. sort of do.

Not that we need a whole lot of such language in terms of its use for hate. But one use of the n-word by blacks seems to be for just that purpose, to describe a sort of 'lower class' black person, if I understand the use correctly.

'Negro' is more just obsolete, and like "ghkerjkg" its use is more about intent, where people going out of their way to use an obsolete word are suspected of having a hateful agenda - and sometimes trying to 'get away' with using it like a variation of the n-word, as I've seen at least one other misspelling of the n-word used to try to do. Including getting around online filters. There's a 'let's go Brandon' situation also - 'code words'.

Patriotic Voter said:

For a long time when people said "the N word" in reference to blacks, I wondered if they were referring to Negro or nigger. I learned it the hard way when a black coworker falsely accused me of calling her the bad one to my supervisor. Ugh.

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Kinda hard to portray yourself as the innocent party in your story when you casually typed the word uncensored in your post. Not to mention the fact that Negro isn't that much of a better term in the English language.

Maccabee said:

Kinda hard to portray yourself as the innocent party in your story when you casually typed the word uncensored in your post. Not to mention the fact that Negro isn't that much of a better term in the English language.

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It's not now, but negro has a history that includes a long period of being the normal, non-offensive word to use that the n-word doesn't. For example, as I recall MLK used negro regularly. This issue of 'offensive intent' has led to quite a history on the language, going through different words such as 'African-American' and 'colored' and 'people of color' as well.

What matters more than the history of the term is that too many today cannot seem to grasp what it means when someone uses the term, especially when white people try to justify its use by claiming false equivalency to someone black using the term in music and whatnot.

Craig234 said:

It's not now, but negro has a history that includes a long period of being the normal, non-offensive word to use that the n-word doesn't. For example, as I recall MLK used negro regularly. This issue of 'offensive intent' has led to quite a history on the language, going through different words such as 'African-American' and 'colored' and 'people of color' as well.

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I'll have to know when they said it so I can have a more accurate opinion.

Maccabee said:

I'll have to know when they said it so I can have a more accurate opinion.

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Oh, ya, I wasn't referring to your exchange with the other person, but just commenting on the word generally.

Maccabee said:

Kinda hard to portray yourself as the innocent party in your story when you casually typed the word uncensored in your post. Not to mention the fact that Negro isn't that much of a better term in the English language.

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What really happened was a white coworker told me a black coworker is a you know what. Not knowing any better, I told her that lady is NOT that. Someone told the black lady I, not the other white lady, called her the N word. So I got in trouble because of a lie to my supervisor.

Unfortunately my mom found out I was accused of saying the wrong N word. I told her about my confusion over which one is "the N word." She replied, "People say Negro." In her mind at least, the word Negro is NOT offensive.

If black people do not take offense to one word, why do they hate the other one? This is not the same as a word with no "nice" alternative.

Maccabee said:

I'll have to know when they said it so I can have a more accurate opinion.

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