Preview

Why Does The 'N' Word Mentally Degrade Other People?

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
447 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Why Does The 'N' Word Mentally Degrade Other People?
Now that you have been given you some background on our identity of Americans of African descent, let’s look at the ‘N’ word that has established itself as an acceptable term in some of the younger generations.

The word initially described slaves who were brought mostly from West Africa by the Dutch, English, and Portuguese from what was then a huge "Nigerian Basin" which makes up part of the countries of Nigeria and Niger today. Thus original source of the word “nigger”.

During the slave era, the slave owner attempt to control the mental state of his slaves. He had field slaves and house slaves. The owner would use the word “nigger” to mentally degrade his slaves. A slave, when among his peers would use the word toward each other out of anger toward that person. This would give that slave a sense of power as he degrade others of his own race until he realize that he was also speaking of himself.
…show more content…
By doing this, Black are staying on course with the former slave owner’s desires. He has used it to degrade us as the least of all creations without a real place on this planet. And his desires was to have his slaves and their descends to be trained to distrust and downgrade one another whenever possible. Those former slave owners would rejoice to know that those former slaves were still keeping themselves in an inferior position by using his word “nigger”. No matter how you say it, “nigger” with an english accent or “nigga” with a southern accent, the word still mean the same to the ears of the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Nigga Please Summary

    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Moreover, our nature born instincts tend to do things that are banned so even if we are banning people from saying the word, they will continue to use it more often. Continually, he also points out why Black people can be the biggest perpetrators of white supremacy. In reality, I also see a lot of African-Americans call each other "niggers" more than any other ethics and rappers usually include the n-word in songs more often than white rappers. Since many Black people are saying the word, non-black people must have thought that why would they say it even though they know its history, gradually it becomes an excuse for non-black people to say it too, but with a wicked mind. By that reason, I do agree with his statement," We become the victim of it and the perpetrators of it at the same damn…

    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The book does use the racial term “Nigger", and today that word is very hurtful and offensive to use, but back in the day that wasn't the case. It was a term used to describe African Americans at that time. Twain used that word because that is the way he knew it to be, there was no way he could have known that it would become a derogatory term. Anyone who knows anything about the history of that time would know that.…

    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    While reading the book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the term “nigger” tends to constantly appear. The word first appears in chapter two when Huck says, “Miss Watson’s big nigger, named Jim, was setting in the kitchen door” (Twain 7). After that the term keeps reappearing all throughout the novel. As the novel unravels, it becomes apparent that Mark Twain is not using the term in an offensive manner. The term “nigger” has been around since at least 1619. The denotation of the term is a black person or a member of the dark-skinned race as in Webster’s Dictionary. Sometime during the 1800s the connotation of the term turned into something rather offensive.…

    • 1533 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Without the original vocabulary, society cannot learn the important message that Twain is trying to teach. Twain’s use of “nigger” is like a whole new form of imagery. Many students shift uncomfortably in their desks when they hear it out loud, some…

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Huck Finn Synthesis

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages

    There are vast differences between the words “slave” and “nigger”. They are not interchangeable. As Matthews stated “a slave… [is an] unlucky member… of [the] feudal system… [Nigger] is a word that denies humanity, and along with it justice and mercy”. “Slave” is a very board term describing an individual as property that can be bought or sold. A “slave” can be White, Native American, Asian or African American. But “nigger” is an offensive reference to any dark-skinned individual. It is race based.…

    • 483 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    “He’s nothin’ but a nigger-lover!” is one of the many so called inappropriate texts from one of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The use of the ‘N’ word should remain in the book because it describes the setting of an important period of time, and shows mind set of racist characters. It is simply used for historical recognition and not as an insult.…

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Huck Finn Racist

    • 916 Words
    • 4 Pages

    “Thoughtful examination of Twain’s use of the word “nigger” can help teach students the importance of understanding the context in which a word is used.” (Apstein). The word can help students learn about how African-Americans were treated and viewed back then. He wanted to show the importance of the word. He couldn’t have just switched out the word for slave, because anyone can be a slave. Also if Twain didn’t want to use that word, he wouldn’t have. Twain put that word in there for a reason, he wanted it to spark conversations and controversy. He wanted the readers to understand what type of language people used back then and how certain people were treated and…

    • 916 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The origin of the word “nigger” driven from the word “Negroid” which is trade. It was used by slave owners and, later, segregationist. It is highly offensive for a white man to use the word “nigger” to describe or insult an African American. It also has become widely used within the black community in a diversity of ways, both endearing and insulting. Racism is an issue that has been a matter of fact among the human societies since the end of the 19th century.…

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Black Like Me

    • 1292 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The word “nigger” not only was used to degrade the blacks but also revealed how ignorant the person who used it was.…

    • 1292 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The word “nigger” should not be used by anyone regardless of the circumstances. Nigger comes from the Latin word niger meaning black. Nigger was used derogatory term used to refer to black slaves during colonial times. It represents generations of endured racism and oppression. The word was used to make a mockery of black people. “Whether [nigger is] used as a noun, verb, or adjective, it strengthened the stereotype of the lazy, stupid, dirty, worthless nobody,” (Nigger, a brief history). The use of the word “nigger” strips away the individuality of a person. Nigger is evident in hip hop music, the civil rights movement, pop culture, and is now used as a term of endearment.…

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On The Word Nigger

    • 370 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The word nigga comes from the Latin word niger which simply means black. The word niger was then changed to negro and integrated into two other languages, Spanish which kept the pure meaning of the word as “black”, and English which perverted the meaning into “black person”. However, by about the 1800s most white Americans had adopted the word as a derogatory racial slur to describe black African American slaves and yet again changed it into a new form of the word. They transformed the word negro into the much more racially insulting word nigger. Most people believe that this transformation was made through the inability for the white southern slave owners to properly pronounce the word negro and thus, the word nigger was born. The New Oxford…

    • 370 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Analyzing White America

    • 437 Words
    • 2 Pages

    After viewing "Analyzing White America" by Paul Mooney, I was initially taken aback by the content. I never expected the rawness that Mooney brought to the stage and he hit the ground running with such a tone without looking back. A lot of the material made me laugh or at the very least smile because i found it to be identifiable with my own life and some of the surroundings that I was brought up in. The part that I found most amusing was Mooney's suggestion that white people were happier before slavery was abolished. I believe racism is very much present in today's world. When I was growing up, I can recall plenty of neighborhoods in my hometown that were considered "white" or even "black" for that matter. In these neighborhoods, if you were not from that part of town, you were not considered welcomed there. Any parts of the film that I did not laugh at, there was no particular reason other than I simply was not amused by the material because there were not any parts that I found personally offensive. I feel as though the word "nigger" is so controversial solely because of it's history and the origin of it's meaning. This word was meant to degrade and disparage African Americans when it was originated.Today, people use the term in a different context. The new meaning is one of affection but with it's use comes this unwritten rule that white people are prohibited from saying it. I never could wrap my mind fully around the idea that I can say the word "nigga" in reference to a friend of mine but a white kid was not allowed to use it, in the same context, all because we are of different races. In my opinion, it's not right for either myself or a white person to use the word in any context. In today's society, everything is just as much about race as it was in the days of slavery. The only difference between now and then is that openly addressing the issues that we, as a culture, all have with race is socially unacceptable. Mooney's antics on stage were…

    • 437 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The word nigger came from the Latin word Niger which means black. It became Negro which means black in Spanish and Portuguese. It was a word that came about during slavery that was used to describe an African American slave. It was used as a degrading word towards African Americans. It was established as a derogatory term in the 21st century.…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    caucasia notes

    • 974 Words
    • 4 Pages

    “I stood many nights in front of the bathroom mirror, practicing how to say ‘nigger’ the way the kids in school did, dropping the ‘er’ so that it became not a slur, but a term of endearment, ‘nigga’”(63).…

    • 974 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The N-Word Argument

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages

    “Every black person who lives in the United States at some point or another comes to accept one thing: the “N-word” is not going away. Whether you use it or not, whether you are OK with it or deeply offended by it, it’s a word weighted down with so much history and so much pain that is impossible to avoid” (Blay 1). The negative connotation around the “N-word” has been plaguing the country since its founding. One of the key principles that America is founded on is that “All Men Are Created Equal” (Jefferson Declaration of Independence), but let me continue it; All Men Are Created Equal except women, homosexuals and lastly niggers. The word “nigger” had so much power because it was used to belittle Africans and make it so that they were not…

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays