Ego – About political correctness and “nigger”

-

To begin with, political correctness is a load of hypocritical crap.

"Nigger" comes from "negro/negre", which means black. That's it, black.

People with black skin, or anything whose exterior is uniformly black, can be referred as negro. In Castellano we do not have this problem between black and negro because the etymology of the word is Latin as our language as well as French so the word remains practically unchanged. There's no other way for us to refer to a negro person by such quality than calling them negro/s.

I know the word has built up a lot of racist meaning but, technically, it only means black.

In the end, it is not about the spoken word but the intention behind it for which people are responsible as words do not have a will of their own. We are what we are and how much an insult takes in depends on the way we feel about ourselves rather than the general perception of ourselves: pride.

I took the liberty of adding a dictionary entry regarding the controversial morpheme for the purpose of providing its etymology.

I've been called a lot of things over the years and I came to realize what I have just said: if I feel offended, I am the one accountable for it for the offence takes place in my mind and in my mind alone hence if anyone were to feel offended by this comment, it'd be up to them.

The dictionary entry:

Main Entry:nigger
Pronunciation:*ni-g*r
Function:noun
Etymology:alteration of earlier neger, from Middle French negre, from Spanish or Portuguese negro, from negro black, from Latin niger
Date:1700

1 usually offensive  ,  see usage paragraph below   : a black person
2 usually offensive  ,  see usage paragraph below   : a member of any dark-skinned race
3 : a member of a socially disadvantaged class of persons *it's time for somebody to lead all of America's niggersT all the people who feel left out of the political process— Ron Dellums*
usage Nigger in senses 1 and 2 can be found in the works of such writers of the past as Joseph Conrad, Mark Twain, and Charles Dickens, but it now ranks as perhaps the most offensive and inflammatory racial slur in English. Its use by and among blacks is not always intended or taken as offensive, but, except in sense 3, it is otherwise a word expressive of racial hatred and bigotry.

 

 

 

 

 

© Entry: Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.