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{{DISPLAYTITLE:''Nigger''}}
{{Otheruses}}
{{Short description|Racial slur against black people}}
{{Hatnote group|
{{Distinguish|Negro|Niger|Niger State}}
{{For|the colloquial slang term|Nigga}}}}
{{Redirect|N-word||N-word (disambiguation)|and|Nigger (disambiguation)}}
{{pp-move-indef|small=yes}}
{{pp-semi-indef|small=yes}}
{{Use American English|date=December 2024}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2024}}


In the [[English language]], '''''nigger''''' is a [[racial slur]] directed toward [[black people]]. Starting in the 1990s,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=n-word&year_start=1900 |title=Google Ngram |website=Google Ngram |access-date=January 18, 2024 |archive-date=January 18, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240118170037/https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=n-word&year_start=1900 |url-status=live }}</ref> references to ''nigger'' have been increasingly replaced by the [[euphemistic]] contraction {{nowrap|"'''the N-word'''"}}, notably in cases where ''nigger'' is [[Use–mention distinction|mentioned but not directly used]].<ref name=":0">[[Oxford English Dictionary Online]], s.v. ''nigger, n. and adj''.; ''neger, n.'' ''and adj''.; ''N-word, n''.</ref> In an instance of [[linguistic reappropriation]], the term ''nigger'' is also used casually and fraternally among African Americans, most commonly in the form of ''[[nigga]]'', whose spelling reflects the [[phonology]] of [[African-American English]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Rahman |first=Jacquelyn |date=2012 |title=The N Word: Its History and Use in the African American Community |journal=Journal of English Linguistics |language=en |volume=40 |issue=2 |pages=137–171 |doi=10.1177/0075424211414807 |s2cid=144164210 |issn=0075-4242}}</ref>
'''''Nigger''''' is an extremely [[controversial]] term used in many [[English language|English]]-speaking countries, including the [[United States]], [[United Kingdom]], [[Canada]], and [[Australia]] (but also in other languages such as [[German language|German]] as a [[loanword]]) to refer to people of [[Africa|African]] descent. During the chattel enslavement of Africans, it was once the standard, casual English term for [[Blacks|black]] people. Associations with the word traditionally have been an institutional contempt, a presumption of inherent inferiority, even of bestiality, making it extremely [[pejorative]] and abusive.


The origin of the word lies with the [[Latin]] adjective ''[[wikt:niger#Latin|niger]]'' ([ˈnɪɡɛr]), meaning "black".<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> It was initially seen as a relatively neutral term, essentially synonymous with the English word ''[[negro]]''. Early attested uses during the [[Atlantic slave trade]] (16th–19th century) often conveyed a merely patronizing attitude. The word took on a [[pejorative|derogatory connotation]] from the mid-18th century onward, and "degenerated into an overt slur" by the middle of the 19th century. Some authors still used the term in a neutral sense up until the later part of the 20th century, at which point the use of ''nigger'' became increasingly controversial regardless of its context or intent.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/30/opinion/john-mcwhorter-n-word-unsayable.html|title=Opinion &#124; How the N-Word Became Unsayable|first=John|last=McWhorter|work=The New York Times|date=April 30, 2021|via=NYTimes.com|access-date=March 22, 2023|archive-date=June 11, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240611014642/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/30/opinion/john-mcwhorter-n-word-unsayable.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
The word "nigger" originates from the Dutch and German "neger," which is their orthography and phonetics for the Portuguese and Spanish "negro." The English distorted neger to "negar" to "nigger." "Neger" (sometimes spelled "neggar") prevailed in the North in New York under the Dutch and in Philadelphia in the Moravian and "Pennsylvania Dutch" [German] communities. For example, the New York City "African Burial Ground" was originally known as "Begraaf Plaats van de Neger." It acquired its offensive and dehumanizing character from the confluence of Catholic and Protestant religious doctrine of nations engaged in slavery and, in America, the [[American Revolution]], which could not admit to black equality, even after freedom. Thus, after the Revolution nigger became a racial epithet, a word of hatred, for the black presence in "white" America.


Because the word ''nigger'' has historically "wreaked symbolic violence, often accompanied by physical violence", it began to disappear from general popular culture from the second half of the 20th century onward, with the exception of cases derived from [[In-group and out-group|intra-group usage]] such as [[Hip hop (culture)|hip hop culture]].<ref name=":1" /> The [[Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary]] describes the term as "perhaps the most offensive and inflammatory racial slur in English".<ref name=":1" /> The [[Oxford English Dictionary]] writes that "this word is one of the most controversial in English, and is liable to be considered offensive or taboo in almost all contexts (even when used as a self-description)".<ref name=":0" /> At the [[Murder trial of O. J. Simpson|trial of O. J. Simpson]], prosecutor [[Christopher Darden]] referred to it as "the filthiest, dirtiest, nastiest word in the English language".<ref>{{cite news |last=Wilson|first=Cherry|date=5 October 2020|title=N-word: The troubled history of the racial slur|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-53749800.amp|work=[[BBC News]]|access-date=6 November 2024}}</ref> Intra-group usage has been criticized by some contemporary Black American authors, a group of them (the ''eradicationists'') calling for the total abandonment of its usage (even under the variant ''nigga''), which they see as contributing to the "construction of an identity founded on self-hate".<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Asim |first=Jabari |title=The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't, and Why |date=2008 |publisher=HMH |isbn=978-0-547-52494-8}}</ref><ref name=":3" /> In wider society, the inclusion of the word ''nigger'' in classic works of literature (as in [[Mark Twain]]'s 1884 book ''[[The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'') and in more recent cultural productions (such as [[Quentin Tarantino]]'s 1994 film ''[[Pulp Fiction]]'' and 2012 film ''[[Django Unchained]]'') has sparked controversy and ongoing debate.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Kennedy |first=Randall |title=Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word |date=2002 |publisher=Pantheon Books |isbn=978-0-9650397-7-2 |pages=36–37; 91–111}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Allan |first=Keith |date=2015 |title=When is a Slur Not a Slur? The Use of Nigger in 'Pulp Fiction' |journal=Language Sciences |volume=52 |pages=187–199 |doi=10.1016/j.langsci.2015.03.001| issn=0388-0001}}</ref>
Historically, [[African American]]s have appropriated the slur, subverting it to a self-referential term that is often suggestive of familiarity, endearment, or kinship. When spelled phonetically, the word often was represented as ''nigguh''; however, currently, when used in this manner, the spelling is often changed to ''nigga'' or ''niggah''. In general the word is accepted as being [[racism|racist]] and dehumanizing.


The word ''nigger'' has also been historically used to designate "any person considered to be of low social status" (as in the expression ''[[white nigger]]'') or "any person whose behavior is regarded as reprehensible". In some cases, with awareness of the word's offensive connotation, but without intention to cause offense, it can refer to a "victim of prejudice likened to that endured by African-Americans" (as in [[John Lennon]]'s 1972 song "[[Woman Is the Nigger of the World]]").<ref name=":0" />
== Modern meanings ==
''Nigger'' is pejorative and widely considered inappropriate. Several American English dictionaries have labeled it a vulgarism, and the term may refer also to anyone regarded as inferior or of subordinate status. Its use to refer to a person who is considered backward, despised, or powerless, regardless of race, is evident in author [[Jerry Farber]]'s ''[[The Student as Nigger]]'', [[Pierre Vallières]]' ''[[White Niggers of North America]]'' and former [[Beatles|Beatle]] [[John Lennon]]'s song "Woman is the Nigger of the World".


==Etymology and history==
Previously used by blacks in primarily intra-ethnic settings, ''nigga'' as a socially acceptable term of kinship or endearment has become increasingly common among some black American youth and those who wish to emulate media-popularized images of African-American culture. For example: "Nigga" may be acceptable when spoken by one black to another, but is not generally accepted by blacks across racial, socioeconomic or generational bounds. The commercialization and subsequent proliferation of [[hip-hop]] culture internationally, for better or worse, have returned the term to broader public use across ethnicities as an artifact of hip-hop culture. This, however, is not to be confused with public acceptance of the term by blacks.
{{Main|Negro}}


===Early use===
Problems with this use of ''nigga'' are illustrated in the comedy-drama movie ''[[Gridlock'd]]'' ([[1997 in film|1997]]), which features the use of the word in its affectionate sense by a white character (played by [[Tim Roth]]). He is close enough to his black friend (played by [[Tupac Shakur]]) for it to go unremarked, but later he uses it when there are other blacks around whom he does not know so well, causing a dramatic reaction. ''Nigger'' (or more commonly ''Wigger'', a [[portmanteau]] of "white" and "nigger") is also sometimes used as a pejorative to refer to caucasians who adopt certain aspects of hip-hop culture.
The variants ''neger'' and ''negar'' derive from various [[Romance languages|Romance]] words for 'black', including the Spanish and Portuguese word {{lang|es|negro}} ('black') and the now-pejorative French {{lang|fr|nègre}}. Etymologically, {{lang|es|negro}}, {{lang|fr|noir}}, {{lang|fr|nègre}}, and ''nigger'' ultimately derive from {{lang|la|nigrum}}, the stem of the [[Latin]] {{lang|la|niger}} ('black').<!--Romance language nouns (typically) derive from the accusative case, not the nominative case quoted in English.-->


In its original English-language usage, ''nigger'' (also spelled ''niger'') was a word for a dark-skinned individual. The earliest known published use of the term dates from 1574, in a work alluding to "the Nigers of [[Aethiopia|Aethiop]], bearing witnes".<ref>{{cite book |author=Patricia T. O'Conner |author2=Stewart Kellerman |title=Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language |date=2010 |publisher=Random House Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-8129-7810-0 |page=134 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hsu47CBwJPUC&pg=PA134 |access-date=August 18, 2017 |archive-date=October 16, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191016202235/https://books.google.com/books?id=hsu47CBwJPUC&pg=PA134 |url-status=live }}</ref> According to the [[Oxford English Dictionary]], the first derogatory usage of the term ''nigger'' was recorded two centuries later, in 1775.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Peterson |first1=Christopher |title=Bestial Traces:Race, Sexuality, Animality: Race, Sexuality, Animality |date=2013 |publisher=Fordham Univ Press |isbn=978-0-8232-4520-8 |page=91 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_Z54563cYpoC&pg=PA91 |access-date=August 18, 2017 |archive-date=October 16, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191016202223/https://books.google.com/books?id=_Z54563cYpoC&pg=PA91 |url-status=live }}</ref>
Among other ethnicities, some use it, as an [[archaism]], to refer to people of African descent. ''Nigger'' also persists in use as a racial slur among non-blacks across ethnic and class boundaries.


In the [[colonial America]] of 1619, [[John Rolfe]] used ''negars'' in describing the African slaves shipped to the [[Virginia colony]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/nigger.htm |title=Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word |last=Kennedy |first=Randall |author-link=Randall Kennedy |date=January 11, 2001 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=August 17, 2007 |archive-date=November 23, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171123115941/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/nigger.htm |url-status=live }} (Book review)</ref> Later [[American English]] spellings, ''neger'' and ''neggar'', prevailed in [[New Netherland|New York under the Dutch]] and in [[Moravian Church in North America|metropolitan Philadelphia's Moravian]] and [[Pennsylvania Dutch]] communities; the [[African Burial Ground]] in New York City originally was known by the Dutch name {{lang|nl|Begraafplaats van de Neger}} (Cemetery of the Negro). An early occurrence of ''neger'' in American English dates from 1625 in [[Rhode Island]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Hutchinson |first=Earl Ofari |author-link=Earl Ofari Hutchinson |title=The Assassination of the Black Male Image |publisher=Simon and Schuster |year=1996 |page=82 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tL2dpZGqIrIC&pg=PA82 |isbn=978-0-684-83100-8 |access-date=September 24, 2016 |archive-date=September 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915130533/https://books.google.com/books?id=tL2dpZGqIrIC&pg=PA82#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Lexicography|Lexicographer]] [[Noah Webster]] suggested the ''neger'' spelling in place of ''negro'' in his 1806 dictionary.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.bartleby.com/185/|title=The American Language: An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States|last=Mencken|first=H. L.|publisher=A.A. Knopf|year=1921|edition=2nd rev. and enl.|location=New York|chapter=Chapter 8. American Spelling > 2. The Influence of Webster|author-link=H. L. Mencken|chapter-url=http://www.bartleby.com/185/32.html|access-date=August 8, 2007|archive-date=February 6, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060206121229/http://www.bartleby.com/185/|url-status=live}}<!--|isbn=978-1-58734-087-1 from Bartleby is not correct--></ref>
==Uses of word==


===18th- and 19th-century United States===
"In 1600 I was a darkie, until 1865 a slave. In 1900, I was a nigger, or at least that was my name. In 1960, I was a negro..." &mdash;[[Gil Scott-Heron]], Evolution (and Flashback), 1999.
[[File:Run, nigger, run, or the M. P. 'll catch you.jpg|left|thumb|Lyrics for the song "[[Run, Nigger, Run]]", about a [[Fugitive slaves in the United States|fugitive]] slave escaping from a [[slave patrol]], printed in 1851]]
During the late 18th and early 19th century, the word "nigger" also described an actual labor category, which African American laborers adopted for themselves as a social identity, and thus white people used the descriptor word as a distancing or derogatory epithet, as if "quoting black people" and their non-standard language.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Stordeur Pryor |first1=Elizabeth |title=The Etymology of Nigger: Resistance, Language, and the Politics of Freedom in the Antebellum North |journal=Journal of the Early Republic |date=Summer 2016 |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=203–245 |doi=10.1353/jer.2016.0028 |s2cid=148122937 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/620987 |access-date=February 26, 2021 |archive-date=April 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230415191429/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/620987 |url-status=live }} = {{cite journal |last1=Stordeur Pryor |first1=Elizabeth |title=The Etymology of Nigger: Resistance, Language, and the Politics of Freedom in the Antebellum North |journal=Smith ScholarWorks |date=Summer 2016 |publisher=Smith College |location=Northampton, Massachusetts |pages=203–245, especially 206 f |url=https://scholarworks.smith.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=hst_facpubs |access-date=February 26, 2021 |archive-date=March 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230314030732/https://scholarworks.smith.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=hst_facpubs |url-status=live }}</ref> During the early 1800s to the late 1840s [[North American fur trade#Fur trade in the western United States|fur trade in the Western United States]], the word was spelled "niggur", and is often recorded in the literature of the time. [[George Fredrick Ruxton]] used it in his "[[mountain man]]" lexicon, without pejorative [[connotation]]. "Niggur" was evidently similar to the modern use of "[[dude]]" or "guy". This passage from Ruxton's ''Life in the Far West'' illustrates the word in spoken form—the speaker here referring to himself: "Travler, marm, this niggur's no travler; I ar' a trapper, marm, a mountain-man, wagh!"<ref>{{cite book |last=Ruxton |first=George Frederick |title=Life In the Far West |year=1846 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-1534-4}}</ref> It was not used as a term exclusively for blacks among mountain men during this period, as Indians, Mexicans, and Frenchmen and Anglos alike could be a "niggur".<ref>{{cite web |title=Language of the Rendezvous |url=http://www.coon-n-crockett.org/cnc~glos.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121119031856/http://www.coon-n-crockett.org/cnc~glos.htm |archive-date=November 19, 2012 |access-date=September 6, 2012 }}</ref> "The noun slipped back and forth from derogatory to endearing."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Coleman |first1=Jon |title=Here Lies Hugh Glass: A Mountain Man, a Bear, and the Rise of the American Nation |url=http://us.macmillan.com/herelieshughglass/jontcoleman |date=2012 |publisher=Macmillan |page=272 |access-date=November 21, 2016 }}{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>


By 1859 the term was clearly used to offend, in an attack on [[John Brown (abolitionist)|abolitionist John Brown]].<ref>{{cite news
===Usage===
|title=A new version of an old song. Illustrating the growth of Public Sentiment [Old John Brown, he had a little nigger]
|newspaper=[[The National Era]] (Washington, D.C.)
|date=November 10, 1859
|page=3
|via=[[newspapers.com]]
|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97344558/old-john-brown-he-had-a-little-nigger/
|access-date=March 11, 2022
|archive-date=January 1, 2023
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230101220431/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97344558/old-john-brown-he-had-a-little-nigger/
|url-status=live
}}</ref>


The term "[[colored]]" or "negro" became a respectful alternative. In 1851, the [[Boston Vigilance Committee]], an [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist organization]], posted warnings to the ''Colored People of Boston and vicinity''. Writing in 1904, journalist [[Clifton Johnson (author)|Clifton Johnson]] documented the "opprobrious" character of the word ''nigger'', emphasizing that it was chosen in the South precisely because it was more offensive than "colored" or "negro".<ref>{{cite news |last=Johnson |first=Clifton |date=October 14, 1904 |title=They Are Only "Niggers" in the South |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84025811/1904-10-14/ed-1/seq-5/ |newspaper=The Seattle Republican |location=Seattle, Wash. |publisher=Republican Pub. Co. |access-date=January 23, 2011 |archive-date=July 21, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721044934/http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84025811/1904-10-14/ed-1/seq-5/ |url-status=live }}</ref> By the turn of the century, "colored" had become sufficiently mainstream that it was chosen as the racial self-identifier for the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]] (NAACP). In 2008 Carla Sims, its communications director, said "the term 'colored' is not derogatory, [the NAACP] chose the word 'colored' because it was the most positive description commonly used [in 1909, when the association was founded]. It's outdated and antiquated but not offensive."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2008/11/12/lohan-calls-obama-colored-naacp-says-no-big-deal#ftnb |title=Lohan calls Obama 'colored', NAACP says no big deal |newspaper=Mercury News |date=November 12, 2008 |access-date=May 12, 2016 |archive-date=January 10, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180110133214/http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2008/11/12/lohan-calls-obama-colored-naacp-says-no-big-deal/#ftnb |url-status=live }}</ref>
In the United States, the word was freely, if sometimes fraughtly, used by both whites and blacks until the [[American Civil Rights Movement|Civil Rights Era]] of the [[1960s]]. A striking usage is in televised coverage of a march in [[Birmingham, Alabama]], when protesters, led by Dr. [[Martin Luther King]], were met with attack dogs and fire hoses. A white woman from another Alabama county was interviewed. Visibly upset, she said, "It's not right. We don't treat niggers like that here." [[Louisiana]] Governor [[Earl Long]] also used the term when advocating expanded voting rights for African Americans. At that time, the term was less noteworthy than the expressions of support by white southerners, as it was a common regional term for blacks, along with "Negro" and "colored".


[[Mark Twain]], in the autobiographic book ''[[Life on the Mississippi]]'' (1883), used the term within quotes, indicating [[reported speech]], but used the term "negro" when writing in his own [[Comic persona|narrative persona]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Twain |first=Mark |title=Life on the Mississippi |journal=Academic Medicine: Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges |publisher=James R. Osgood & Co., Boston (U.S. edition) |year=1883 |volume=75 |issue=10 |page=11,13,127,139,219 |doi=10.1097/00001888-200010000-00016 |pmid=11031147 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nBWbSj-r4U4C&pg=PA11 |isbn=978-0-486-41426-3}}</ref> [[Joseph Conrad]] published a novella in Britain with the title ''[[The Nigger of the "Narcissus"]]'' (1897); in the United States, it was released as ''The Children of the Sea: A Tale of the Forecastle''; the original had been called "the ugliest conceivable title" in a British review<ref>{{Cite journal|last=GOONETILLEKE|first=D.C.R.A.|date=2011|title=Racism and "The Nigger of the "Narcissus""|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24669418|journal=Conradiana|volume=43|issue=2/3|pages=51–66|jstor=24669418|issn=0010-6356|access-date=February 6, 2022|archive-date=February 6, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220206024508/https://www.jstor.org/stable/24669418|url-status=live}}</ref> and American reviewers understood the change as reflecting American "refinement" and "prudery."<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=RUDE|first1=DONALD W.|last2=DAVIS|first2=KENNETH W.|title=The Critical Reception of the First American Edition of "The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'"|date=1992|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20874005|journal=The Conradian|volume=16|issue=2|pages=46–56|jstor=20874005|issn=0951-2314|access-date=February 6, 2022|archive-date=February 6, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220206024508/https://www.jstor.org/stable/20874005|url-status=live}}</ref>
Today, the implied [[racism]] of the term is so strong that the use of ''nigger'' in most situations is a social [[taboo]] in English-speaking countries. Many American magazines and newspapers will not even print the word in full, instead using "n*gg*r", "n——", or simply "the N-word". A ''[[Washington Post]]'' article on [[Strom Thurmond]]'s [[1948]] candidacy for [[President of the United States]] went so far as to replace it with the [[periphrasis]] "the less-refined word for black people". The word was also completely excised from the [[Microsoft]] [[Encarta]] dictionary, despite its common usage. The shock effect of the word also has been used to deliberately cause offense, as in the name of the [[Internet]] [[Internet troll|trolling]] group, the [[Gay Nigger Association of America]].
[[File:TheChildrenOfTheSea.jpg|thumb|The US edition of Joseph Conrad's ''[[The Nigger of the "Narcissus"]]'' was called ''The Children of the Sea''.]]


===20th-century United States===
In [[Australia]], the word is now rarely used in polite speech by urban whites in any context; however, it has seen common use in rural or semi-frontier districts. In this context, the usage was British colonial, that is, applying generically to dark-skinned people of any origin (c.v. [[Rudyard Kipling]]). This has led to controversy, since [[Australian Aborigine]]s have started to take the term strongly to heart, in both the pejorative and revisionist senses. See below under [[Nigger (word)#Place names|Place names]].
A style guide to [[British English]] usage, [[H.W. Fowler]]'s ''[[A Dictionary of Modern English Usage]]'', states in the first edition (1926) that applying the word ''nigger'' to "others than full or partial negroes" is "felt as an insult by the person described, & betrays in the speaker, if not deliberate insolence, at least a very arrogant inhumanity"; but the second edition (1965) states "N. has been described as 'the term that carries with it all the obloquy and contempt and rejection which whites have inflicted on blacks'".<ref>Henry W. Fowler, Ernest Gowers: ''A Dictionary of Modern English Usage''. Oxford University Press, 1965. Compare the [https://www.etymonline.com/word/nigger entry "nigger (n.)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210426155516/https://www.etymonline.com/word/nigger |date=April 26, 2021 }}, in: ''Online etymology dictionary''.</ref> The quoted formula goes back to the writings of the American journalist [[Harold R. Isaacs]], who used it in several writings between 1963 and 1975.<ref>Harold R. Isaacs in: ''Encounter'', vol. 21, 1963, p. 9 ([https://books.google.com/books?id=nCsdAQAAMAAJ&q=the%20term%20that%20carries%20with%20it%20all%20the%20obloquy%20and%20contempt%20and%20rejection%20which%20whites%20have%20inflicted%20on%20blacks Google Books]). Compare Harold R. Isaacs: ''Idols of the Tribe: Group Identity and Political Change''. Harvard University Press, 1989, p. 88 ([https://books.google.com/books?id=0Kne87aU7D0C&dq=the+term+that+carries+with+it+all+the+obloquy+and+contempt+and+rejection+which+whites+have+inflicted+on+blacks&pg=PA88 Google Books] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230331170327/https://books.google.com/books?id=0Kne87aU7D0C&dq=the+term+that+carries+with+it+all+the+obloquy+and+contempt+and+rejection+which+whites+have+inflicted+on+blacks&pg=PA88 |date=March 31, 2023 }}).</ref> Black characters in [[Nella Larsen]]'s 1929 novel [[Passing (novel)|''Passing'']] view its use as offensive; one says "I'm really not such an idiot that I don't realize that if a man calls me a nigger, it's his fault the first time, but mine if he has the opportunity to do it again."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sullivan |first=Nell |date=1998 |title=Nella Larsen's Passing and the Fading Subject |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3042239 |journal=African American Review |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=373–386 |doi=10.2307/3042239 |issn=1062-4783 |jstor=3042239 |access-date=February 6, 2022 |archive-date=February 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220206025815/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3042239 |url-status=live }}</ref>


By the late 1960s, the social change brought about by the [[civil rights movement]] had legitimized the [[identity politics|racial identity]] word ''black'' as mainstream American English usage to denote black-skinned Americans of African ancestry. President [[Thomas Jefferson]] had used this word of his slaves in his ''[[Notes on the State of Virginia]]'' (1785), but "black" had not been widely used until the later 20th century. (See [[Black Pride|black pride]], and, in the context of worldwide anti-colonialism initiatives, ''[[Négritude]]''.)
===Literary uses===
''Nigger'' has a long history of controversy in literature. [[Carl Van Vechten]], a white photographer and writer famous as a supporter of the Harlem Renaissance, provoked debate and some protest from the African American community by titling his [[1926]] novel ''[[Nigger Heaven]]''. The uproar centered on the use of the word in the title and fueled the sales of the hit novel. Of the controversy, [[Langston Hughes]] wrote:


In the 1980s, the term "[[African American]]" was advanced analogously to such terms as "[[German American]]" and "[[Irish American]]", and was adopted by major media outlets. Moreover, as a [[compound word]], ''African American'' resembles the [[vogue word]] ''Afro-American'', an early-1970s popular usage. Some Black Americans continue to use the word ''nigger'', often spelled as ''[[nigga]]'' and ''niggah'', without irony, either to neutralize the word's impact or as a sign of solidarity.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Allan|first=Keith |author-link=Keith Allan (linguist) |title=The pragmatics of connotation |journal=Journal of Pragmatics |volume=39|issue=6 |date=June 2007 |pages=1047–1057|doi=10.1016/j.pragma.2006.08.004}}</ref>
<blockquote>No book could possibly be as bad as ''Nigger Heaven'' has been painted. And no book has ever been better advertised by those who wished to damn it. Because it was declared obscene, everybody wanted to read it, and I'll venture to say that more Negroes bought it than ever purchased a book by a Negro author. Then, as now, the use of the word "nigger" by a white was a flashpoint for debates about the relationship between African American culture and its White patrons.</blockquote>


==Usage==
The famous controversy over [[Mark Twain]]'s novel ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'' ([[1885]]), a classic frequently taught in American schools, revolves largely around the novel's 215 uses of the word, referring to Jim, Huck's raft mate.
Surveys from 2006 showed that the American public widely perceived usage of the term to be wrong or unacceptable, but that nearly half of whites and two-thirds of blacks knew someone personally who referred to blacks by the term.<ref name="Tesler">{{Cite news |last=Tesler |first=Michael |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2015/06/25/using-the-n-word-is-more-common-than-you-or-president-obama-may-think/ |title=Using the n-word is more common than you (or President Obama) may think |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=June 25, 2015 |access-date=August 15, 2018 |archive-date=August 16, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180816061712/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2015/06/25/using-the-n-word-is-more-common-than-you-or-president-obama-may-think/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Nearly one-third of whites and two-thirds of blacks said they had personally used the term within the last five years.<ref name="Tesler" />


===In names of people, places and things===
''Nigger in the Window'' is a book written by a young black girl that describes the world from her window.
{{Main|Use of nigger in proper names}}


===Political use===
Slaves often pandered to racist assumptions about blacks by using the term to their advantage as a self-deprecatory artifice of [[Uncle Tom|Tomming]]. Implicit in so doing was the unspoken reminder that a presumed inherently morally or intellectually inferior person or subhuman -- in essence, a "nigger" -- could not reasonably be held responsible for work performed incorrectly, an "accidental" fire in the kitchen, or any other similar offense. It was a means of deflecting responsibility in the hope of escaping the wrath of an overseer or master. Its use as a self-referential term was also a way to avoid suspicion and put whites at ease. A slave who referred to himself or another black as a "nigger" presumably accepted the subordinate role that was his unfortunate lot and, therefore, posed no threat to white authority.
[[File:Why the nigger is not fit to vote.jpg|thumb|Historical American cartoon titled "Why the nigger is not fit to vote", by [[Thomas Nast]], arguing the reason Democrats objected to African-Americans having the vote was that, in the [[1868 United States presidential election|1868 US presidential election]], African-Americans voted for the Republican candidates [[Ulysses S. Grant]] and [[Schuyler Colfax]]. "Seymour friends meet here" in the background is a reference to the Democratic Party candidate: [[Horatio Seymour]].]]


"[[Niggers in the White House]]"<ref name="Niggers in the White House">{{cite web|url=http://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Research/Digital-Library/Record.aspx?libID=o284393|publisher=Theodore Roosevelt Center, [[Dickinson State University]]|title=Niggers in the White House|access-date=September 12, 2013|archive-date=March 31, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230331161158/https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Research/Digital-Library/Record.aspx?libID=o284393|url-status=live}}</ref> was written in reaction to [[Booker T. Washington dinner at the White House|an October 1901 White House dinner]] hosted by Republican [[President of the United States|President]] [[Theodore Roosevelt]], who had invited [[Booker T. Washington]]—an African-American presidential advisor—as a guest. The poem reappeared in 1929 after [[First Lady of the United States|First Lady]] [[Lou Henry Hoover|Lou Hoover]], wife of President [[Herbert Hoover]], invited [[Jessie De Priest]], the wife of African-American congressman [[Oscar De Priest]], to [[Jessie De Priest tea at the White House|a tea for congressmen's wives at the White House]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Jones|first1=Stephen A.|last2=Freedman|first2=Eric|title=Presidents and Black America: A Documentary History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mBRKYgEACAAJ|year=2011|publisher=CQ Press|location=Los Angeles|isbn=9781608710089|page=349|access-date=July 25, 2020|archive-date=September 15, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915130429/https://books.google.com/books?id=mBRKYgEACAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> The identity of the author—who used the byline "unchained poet"—remains unknown.
An example of this historical use in American English occurs in [[Edgar Allan Poe]]'s [[short story]] ''[[The Gold Bug]]'' ([[1843]]). The narrator and a white character in the story use ''negro'' to refer to a black servant, Jupiter, while Jupiter himself uses ''nigger''.


In explaining his refusal to be [[Conscription in the United States#Vietnam War|conscripted to fight the Vietnam War]] (1955–75), professional boxer [[Muhammad Ali]] said, "No [[Vietcong]] ever called me nigger."<ref>{{cite book |last=Kennedy |first=Randall |author-link=Randall Kennedy |title=Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word |publisher=Random House |year=2002 |page=28 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yb8LmupcLdkC&pg=PA28 |isbn=978-0-375-42172-3 |access-date=September 24, 2016 |archive-date=September 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915130432/https://books.google.com/books?id=yb8LmupcLdkC&pg=PA28#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> Later, his modified answer was the title of a documentary, ''No Vietnamese Ever Called Me Nigger'' (1968), about the front-line lot of the U.S. Army black soldier in combat in Vietnam.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rollins |first=Peter C. |title=The Columbia Companion to American History on Film: How the Movies Have Portrayed the American Past |publisher=Columbia UP |year=2003 |page=341 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xB1rhm6Ke2UC&pg=PA341 |isbn=978-0-231-11222-2 |access-date=September 24, 2016 |archive-date=September 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915130433/https://books.google.com/books?id=xB1rhm6Ke2UC&pg=PA341#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> An Ali biographer reports that, when interviewed by [[Robert Lipsyte]] in 1966, the boxer actually said, "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong."<ref>{{cite book |last=Lemert |first=Charles |title=Muhammad Ali: Trickster in the Culture of Irony |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |year=2003 |pages=105–107 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MI1cTZGcDVgC&pg=PA105 |isbn=978-0-7456-2871-4 |access-date=September 24, 2016 |archive-date=September 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915130531/https://books.google.com/books?id=MI1cTZGcDVgC&pg=PA105 |url-status=live }}</ref>
A popular children's rhyme once contained the word ''nigger'' instead of ''[[tiger]]'' (and still does in [[Britain]] and [[Ireland]], although many children would be unaware of the meaning of the word). ''See:'' [[Eeny, meeny, miny, moe]]. [[Agatha Christie]]'s novel ''[[And Then There Were None]]'', also known as ''Ten Little Indians'', originally appeared as ''Ten Little Niggers''. Among the classic novels of [Joseph Conrad]] is ''[[The Nigger of the 'Narcissus']]'' ([[1897]]).


On February 28, 2007, the [[New York City Council]] symbolically banned the use of the word ''nigger''; however, there is no penalty for using it. This formal resolution also requests excluding from [[Grammy Award]] consideration every song whose lyrics contain the word; however, Ron Roecker, vice president of communication for the Recording Academy, doubted it will have any effect on actual nominations.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/usa/story/0,,2023817,00.html |title=New York city council bans use of the N-word |last=Pilkington |first=Ed |date=March 1, 2007 |work=The Guardian |access-date=August 17, 2007 |archive-date=September 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915130535/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/mar/01/usa.edpilkington |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://webdocs.nyccouncil.info/textfiles/Res%200693-2007.htm?CFID=425440&CFTOKEN=70865698 |title=Res. No. 693-A – Resolution declaring the NYC Council's symbolic moratorium against using the "N" word in New York City. |publisher=New York City Council |access-date=August 17, 2007 |archive-date=March 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220308044117/http://webdocs.nyccouncil.info/textfiles/Res%200693-2007.htm?CFID=425440&CFTOKEN=70865698 |url-status=live }}</ref>
Other examples of literary usage in [[Great Britain]] during the late 19th and early 20th centuries suggest a more neutral usage of the term, which can cause a problem when reading such books today when the word has such an offensive meaning.


The word can be invoked politically for effect. When Detroit mayor [[Kwame Kilpatrick]] came under intense scrutiny for his conduct in 2008, he deviated from an address to the city council, saying, "In the past 30 days, I've been called a nigger more than any time in my entire life." Opponents accused him of "playing the [[race card]]" to save his political life.<ref name="COXreaction">{{cite news |last=French |first=Ron |date=March 13, 2008 |url=http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080313/METRO/803130408 |title=Attorney General Cox: Kilpatrick should resign |access-date=March 13, 2008 |work=The Detroit News}}{{dead link|date=February 2021}}</ref>
In the original version of their operetta “[[The Mikado]]” by [[Gilbert and Sullivan]] The Mikado in his song “Make the Punishment fit the Crime” used the line “Blacked like a nigger/ With permanent walnut juice” when describing the appropriate punishment for an overly madeup society lady. The phrase caused no reaction in [[London]], but raised enough ire on the opening night in the [[USA]] that the line was changed to “Painted with vigour/ And permanent walnut juice”.


===Cultural use===
The “[[Scarlet Pimpernel]]” contains a black character referred to casually as a “nigger”, in a way which suggests no serious insult is intended.
{{Main|Use of nigger in the arts}}


The [[implicit racism]] of the word ''nigger'' has generally rendered its use [[taboo]]. Magazines and newspapers typically do not use this word but instead print censored versions such as "n*gg*r", "n**ger", "n——" or "the N-word";<ref>{{cite dictionary |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nigger |title=''Nigger'' Usage Alert |dictionary=[[dictionary.com]] |access-date=July 23, 2015 |archive-date=July 21, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150721100920/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nigger |url-status=live }}</ref> see [[#The N-word euphemism|below]].
In one [[John Buchan]] novel the hero goes into a night club in the early 1920’s, where “a rather good nigger band” is playing.


[[File:MrBradish.jpg|thumb|1885 illustration from [[Mark Twain]]'s ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'', captioned "Misto Bradish's nigger"]]
It has been suggested that the [[USA]] usage became more prevalent in [[Great Britain]] during and after the [[Second World War]]. Whether this is through contact with [[American]] troops or whether it reflects a growing [[racism]] in [[UK]] society is open to question.
The use of ''nigger'' in older literature has become controversial because of the word's modern meaning as a racist insult. One of the most enduring controversies has been the word's use in [[Mark Twain]]'s novel ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'' (1885). ''Huckleberry Finn'' was the fifth most challenged book during the 1990s, according to the [[American Library Association]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedbydecade/1990_1999/index.cfm |title=100 most frequently challenged books: 1990–1999 |work=ala.org |date=March 27, 2013 |access-date=April 2, 2011 |archive-date=January 12, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112170406/http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedbydecade/1990_1999/index.cfm |url-status=dead }}</ref> The novel is written from the point of view, and largely in the language, of an uneducated white boy, who is drifting down the Mississippi River on a raft with an adult escaped slave, Jim. The word "nigger" is used (mostly about Jim) over 200 times.<ref>{{cite web |title=Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn |work=The Complete Works of Mark Twain |url=http://www.mtwain.com/Adventures_Of_Huckleberry_Finn/ |access-date=March 12, 2006 |url-status = dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060909212120/http://www.mtwain.com/Adventures_Of_Huckleberry_Finn/ |archive-date=September 9, 2006 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Academic Resources: Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word |work=Random House |url=http://www.randomhouse.com/acmart/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780375713712&view=tg |access-date=March 13, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070122142322/http://www.randomhouse.com/acmart/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780375713712&view=tg |archive-date=January 22, 2007 }} [https://penguinrandomhousehighereducation.com/book/?isbn=9780375713712 Alt URL] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200715171506/https://penguinrandomhousehighereducation.com/book/?isbn=9780375713712 |date=July 15, 2020 }}</ref> Twain's advocates note that the novel is composed in then-contemporary vernacular usage, not racist stereotype, because Jim, the black man, is a sympathetic character.


In 2011, a new edition published by [[NewSouth Books]] replaced the word ''nigger'' with ''slave'' and also removed the word ''[[injun]]''. The change was spearheaded by Twain scholar [[Alan Gribben]] in the hope of "countering the 'pre-emptive censorship{{'"}} that results from the book's being removed from school curricula over language concerns.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jan/05/huckleberry-finn-edition-censors-n-word |title=New Huckleberry Finn edition censors 'n-word' |work=The Guardian|date=January 5, 2011 |last=Page |first=Benedicte |access-date=February 2, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Twain |first=Mark |url=http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1842832_1842838,00.html?iid=moreontime |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110110133900/http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1842832_1842838,00.html?iid=moreontime |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 10, 2011 |title='The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' – Removing the N Word from Huck Finn: Top 10 Censored Books |magazine=Time |date=January 7, 2011 |access-date=January 23, 2011}}</ref> The changes sparked outrage from critics [[Elon James]], [[Alexandra Petri]] and [[Chris Meadows]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2011/0105/The-n-word-gone-from-Huck-Finn-what-would-Mark-Twain-say |title=The 'n'-word gone from Huck Finn – what would Mark Twain say? |last=Kehe |first=Marjorie |work=The Christian Science Monitor |date=January 5, 2011 |access-date=February 2, 2021 |archive-date=April 30, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210430202839/http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2011/0105/The-n-word-gone-from-Huck-Finn-what-would-Mark-Twain-say |url-status=live }}</ref>
===''Nigger'' in popular culture===
At one time, the word was used freely in branding and packaging of consumer commodities in the U.S. and England. There were brands such as Nigger Hair Tobacco, Niggerhead Oysters, and other canned goods. [[Brazil nut]]s casually were referred to as "nigger toes". As times changed, so did labeling practices. The tobacco brand became "Bigger Hare", and the canned goods brand became "Negro Head". Eventually, such names disappeared from the marketplace altogether.


In his 1999 memoir ''All Souls'', Irish-American [[Michael Patrick MacDonald]] describes how many white residents of the [[Old Colony Housing Project]] in [[South Boston]] used this meaning to degrade the people considered to be of lower status, whether white or black.<ref>{{cite book|last=MacDonald|first=Michael Patrick|author-link=Michael Patrick MacDonald|title=All Souls: A Family Story from Southie |publisher=Random House, Inc.|year=2000|page=61 |isbn=978-0-345-44177-5}}</ref>{{blockquote|Of course, no one considered himself a nigger. It was always something you called someone who could be considered anything less than you. I soon found out there were a few black families living in Old Colony. They'd lived there for years and everyone said that they were okay, that they weren't niggers but just black. It felt good to all of us to not be as bad as the hopeless people in D Street or, God forbid, the ones in Columbia Point, who were both black and niggers. But now I was jealous of the kids in Old Harbor Project down the road, which seemed like a step up from Old Colony{{nbs}}...}}
The comedian and activist [[Dick Gregory]] used the word as the title of his best-selling [[autobiography]] in [[1964]]. In [[1967]], [[Muhammad Ali]] explained his refusal to be drafted to serve in the [[Vietnam War]] by saying, "I got nothing against no [[Viet Cong]]. No [[Vietnam]]ese ever called me 'nigger,'". In [[1972]], [[John Lennon]] released a song, "Woman is the Nigger of the World", the title of which implied that women were more universally oppressed than black people. During the same year, [[Curtis Mayfield]] used the "N" word in the first verse of "Pusherman" (a hit song from the ''[[Superfly]]'' soundtrack). [[Pierre Vallières]], a founding member of the [[FLQ]] [[terrorist]] group, wrote a book in 1968 called ''Les Nègres blancs de l'Amérique'', comparing the oppression of [[French-Canadians]] to that of blacks in the southern United States. When it was translated into English, it was published under the title ''White Niggers of America''.


===In an academic setting===
[[Jew|Jewish]] comedian [[Lenny Bruce]] used the word repeatedly in a comedy routine, suggesting that the more it was used and heard, the less power it would have. [[Richard Pryor]], whose albums included ''[[That Nigger's Crazy]]'' and ''[[Bicentennial Nigger]]'', vowed to never use the word again after a trip to [[Africa]] in the [[1980s]]. Commenting that he never saw any niggers while in Africa, Pryor said he realized that niggers were figments of white people's imaginations.
The word's usage in literature has led to it being a point of discussion in university lectures as well. In 2008, [[Arizona State University]] English professor Neal A. Lester created what has been called "the first ever college-level class designed to explore the word 'nigger{{'"}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/fall-2011/straight-talk-about-the-nword|title=Straight talk about the N-word|first=Sean|last=Price|publisher=Teaching Tolerance|year=2011|access-date=November 18, 2019|archive-date=December 10, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191210104913/https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/fall-2011/straight-talk-about-the-nword|url-status=live}}</ref> Starting in the following decade, colleges struggled with attempts to teach material about the slur in a sensitive manner. In 2012, a sixth grade Chicago teacher Lincoln Brown was suspended after repeating the contents of a racially charged note being passed around in class. Brown later filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the headmaster and the Chicago public schools.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/02/can-educators-ever-teach-the-n-word/253345/|title=Can educators ever teach the N-word?|first=Wendy|last=Kaminer|publisher=The Atlantic|date=February 21, 2012|access-date=December 24, 2021|archive-date=December 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211215190625/https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/02/can-educators-ever-teach-the-n-word/253345/|url-status=live}}</ref> A New Orleans high school also experienced controversy in 2017.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/05/us/teacher-student-n-word-exchange/index.html|title=School reflects on race after student-teacher N-word exchange|first=Donie|last=O'Sullivan|publisher=CNN|date=May 5, 2017|access-date=November 19, 2019|archive-date=November 12, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112020811/http://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/05/us/teacher-student-n-word-exchange/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Such increased attention prompted Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor, the daughter of [[Richard Pryor]] and a professor at [[Smith College]], to give a talk opining that the word was leading to a "social crisis" in higher education.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegram.com/news/20190919/elizabeth-stordeur-pryor-says-use-of-n-word-is-causing-social-crisis|title=Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor says use of the N-word is causing social crisis|publisher=Telegram & Gazette|first=Cyrus|last=Moulton|date=September 19, 2019|access-date=November 18, 2019|archive-date=December 18, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191218042632/https://www.telegram.com/news/20190919/elizabeth-stordeur-pryor-says-use-of-n-word-is-causing-social-crisis|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[Image:NWA_Compton_1988.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Hip-hop group [[N.W.A.]]]]
In [[1988]], [[hip hop]] group [[N.W.A.]] ("Niggaz With Attitude") released the album ''[[Straight Outta Compton]]''. Although they abbreviated it in all official contexts, their self-referential use of the word caused a great deal of controversy in America over the language and lyrics of [[hip hop]]. Today, the word is used nearly universally among black rappers in casual contexts.


In addition to Smith College, [[Emory University]], [[Augsburg University]], [[Southern Connecticut State University]], and [[Simpson College]] all suspended professors in 2019 over referring to the word "nigger" by name in classroom settings.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://abovethelaw.com/2019/10/the-original-emory-law-school-n-word-using-professor-faces-a-hearing-on-his-future-today/|title=The original Emory Law School N-word using professor faces hearing on his future today|first=Joe|last=Patrice|publisher=Above The Law|date=October 4, 2019|access-date=November 18, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thecollegefix.com/universities-repeatedly-discipline-professors-for-referring-to-the-n-word/|title=Universities repeatedly discipline professors for referring to the n-word|first=Matthew|last=Stein|website=The College Fix|date=April 11, 2019|access-date=November 18, 2019|archive-date=September 29, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190929154736/https://www.thecollegefix.com/universities-repeatedly-discipline-professors-for-referring-to-the-n-word/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2019/11/18/professor-wont-teach-more-classes-after-saying-n-word|title=Professor won't teach more classes after saying N-word|first=Colleen|last=Flaherty|publisher=Inside Higher Education|date=November 18, 2019|access-date=November 18, 2019}}</ref> In two other cases, a professor at [[Princeton University|Princeton]] decided to stop teaching a course on [[hate speech]] after students protested his utterance of "nigger" and a professor at DePaul had his law course cancelled after 80% of the enrolled students transferred out.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/13/585386694/professor-cancels-course-on-hate-speech-amid-contention-over-his-use-of-slur|title=Professor cancels course on hate speech amid contention over his use of slur|first=Colin|last=Dwyer|publisher=NPR|date=February 13, 2018|access-date=November 19, 2019|archive-date=March 15, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200315090311/https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/13/585386694/professor-cancels-course-on-hate-speech-amid-contention-over-his-use-of-slur|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://depauliaonline.com/42740/news/depaul-professor-formerly-under-fire-for-use-of-n-word-in-teaching-exercise-rehired/|title=Professor formerly under fire for use of 'N-word' in teaching exercise back at DePaul|first=Ella|last=Lee|work=The DePaulia|date=September 23, 2019|access-date=November 19, 2019|archive-date=September 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190924050400/https://depauliaonline.com/42740/news/depaul-professor-formerly-under-fire-for-use-of-n-word-in-teaching-exercise-rehired/|url-status=live}}</ref> Instead of pursuing disciplinary action, a student at the [[College of the Desert]] challenged his professor in a [[viral video|viral]] class presentation which argued that her use of the word in a lecture was not justified.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/college-student-presentation-n-word-professor-maleek-eid-california-a8813186.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220620/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/college-student-presentation-n-word-professor-maleek-eid-california-a8813186.html |archive-date=June 20, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=College student delivers presentation to call out professor for using n-word in class|first=Sarah|last=Harvard|work=The Independent|date=March 7, 2019|access-date=November 18, 2019}}</ref>
While ''nigga'' raises relatively few objections when used by black rappers, it generally is considered off-limits to nonblack performers. The [[Beastie Boys]], an all-white hip-hop group, were forced off-stage after using the word in a non-hostile context to refer to their audience. In 2001, [[Latina]] performer [[Jennifer Lopez]] provoked the ire of the African American community when she used the word in a song written by two black songwriters. White rap artist [[Eminem]], on the other hand, who has not hesitated to use apparent slurs aimed at women and [[homosexuality|homosexuals]], does not use ''nigga'' in his songs (or any other racial slurs), though ''[[The Source]]'' magazine unearthed recordings made earlier in his career in which he used the word, out of anger in a freestyle, at his alleged break up with a black girlfriend.


===In the workplace===
African American comedian [[Chris Rock]]'s [[1996]] television special ''[[Bring the Pain]]'' and [[1997]] [[album (music)|album]] ''[[Roll with the New]]'' included a segment known as "[[Niggas vs Black People]]", which humorously describes the behavior of some blacks which conforms to the nigger stereotype. Rock cast "niggas" as "low-expectation-havin'" individuals -- proud to be ignorant, violent, and on welfare- the equivalent of "[[white trash]]". The controversy of this, to which many took exception because they felt it pandered to anti-black racism, was such that it led Rock to cease performing it.
In 2018, the head of the media company [[Netflix]], [[Reed Hastings]], fired his chief communications officer, Jonathan Friedland, for using the word twice during internal discussions about sensitive words.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Mele |first1=Christopher |title=Netflix Fires Chief Communications Officer Over Use of Racial Slur |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/22/business/media/jonathan-friedland-netflix-racial-slur.html |access-date=June 23, 2018 |work=The New York Times |date=June 23, 2018 |language=en |archive-date=June 23, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180623020342/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/22/business/media/jonathan-friedland-netflix-racial-slur.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In explaining why, Hastings wrote:
{{blockquote|[The word's use] in popular media like music and film have created some confusion as to whether or not there is ever a time when the use of the N-word is acceptable. For non-Black people, the word should not be spoken as there is almost no context in which it is appropriate or constructive (even when singing a song or reading a script). There is not a way to neutralize the emotion and history behind the word in any context. The use of the phrase 'N-word' was created as a euphemism, and the norm, with the intention of providing an acceptable replacement and moving people away from using the specific word. When a person violates this norm, it creates resentment, intense frustration, and great offense for many.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Landy |first1=Heather |title=Read the Netflix CEO's excellent memo about firing an executive who used the N-word |url=https://work.qz.com/1313072/read-netflix-ceo-reed-hastings-memo-about-the-firing-of-pr-chief-jonathan-friedland-for-using-the-n-word/ |access-date=June 23, 2018 |work=Quartz at Work |date=June 23, 2018 |archive-date=June 23, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180623162827/https://work.qz.com/1313072/read-netflix-ceo-reed-hastings-memo-about-the-firing-of-pr-chief-jonathan-friedland-for-using-the-n-word/ |url-status=live }}</ref>}}


The following year, screenwriter [[Walter Mosley]] turned down a job after his human resources department took issue with him using the word to describe racism that he experienced as a black man.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/06/opinion/sunday/walter-mosley.html |title=Why I quit the writer's room |first=Walter |last=Mosley |author-link=Walter Mosley |work=The New York Times |date=September 6, 2019 |access-date=September 19, 2019 |archive-date=September 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190921164048/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/06/opinion/sunday/walter-mosley.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
Conversely, part of the repertoire of white American comedian [[George Carlin]] is a routine concerning sensitive words - that words by themselves are never good or bad and it's the user's intention that counts. "We don't mind when Richard Pryor or [[Eddie Murphy]] uses it," he quips. "Why? Because we know they're not racists. They're Niggers!"


While defending Laurie Sheck, a professor who was cleared of ethical violations for quoting ''[[I Am Not Your Negro]]'' by [[James Baldwin]], [[John McWhorter]] wrote that efforts to condemn racist language by white Americans had undergone [[mission creep]].<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/whites-refer-to-the-n-word/596872/|title=The idea that white's can't refer to the N-word|first=John|last=McWhorter|author-link=John McWhorter|magazine=The Atlantic|date=August 21, 2019|access-date=November 19, 2019|archive-date=November 11, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191111140215/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/whites-refer-to-the-n-word/596872/|url-status=live}}</ref> Similar controversies outside the United States have occurred at the [[University of Western Ontario]] in Canada and the Madrid campus of [[Syracuse University]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://globalnews.ca/news/6091885/western-university-andrew-wenaus-n-word/|title=Western University professor apologizes after student calls out his use of the n-word|first=Jacquelyn|last=Lebel|publisher=Global News|date=October 28, 2019|access-date=November 19, 2019|archive-date=November 5, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191105120520/https://globalnews.ca/news/6091885/western-university-andrew-wenaus-n-word/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://dailyorange.com/2019/03/students-professor-use-n-word-classes-sus-madrid-program/|title=Students, professor use 'N-word' during class at SU's Madrid program|first=Catherine|last=Leffert|work=The Daily Orange|date=March 13, 2019|access-date=November 19, 2019|archive-date=November 23, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191123085850/http://dailyorange.com/2019/03/students-professor-use-n-word-classes-sus-madrid-program|url-status=live}}</ref> In June 2020, Canadian news host [[Wendy Mesley]] was suspended and replaced with a guest host after she attended a meeting on racial justice and, in the process of quoting a journalist, used "a word that no-one like me should ever use".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-cbc-host-wendy-mesley-apologizes-for-using-a-certain-word-in-2/|title=CBC host Wendy Mesley apologizes for using a certain word in discussion on race|first=Darren|last=Calabrese|publisher=The Canadian Press|date=June 9, 2020|access-date=June 13, 2020|archive-date=June 10, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200610161410/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-cbc-host-wendy-mesley-apologizes-for-using-a-certain-word-in-2/|url-status=live}}</ref> In August 2020, [[BBC]] news, with the agreement of victim and family, mentioned the slur when reporting on a physical and verbal assault on the black NHS worker and musician K-Dogg. Within the week the BBC received over 18,600 complaints, the black radio host David Whitely resigned in protest, and the BBC apologized.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53715814/|title=BBC apologises over racial slur used in news report|work=BBC News|date=August 9, 2020|access-date=August 26, 2020|archive-date=August 31, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200831135252/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53715814|url-status=live}}</ref>
Since the coining of the phrase "the N-word" (see below), some television broadcasters have added the word ''nigger'' retroactively to their lists of taboo words, thereby censoring movies and television programs from the past in which the word is used, no matter its context or the effect on the program. For example, television broadcasts of the film ''[[Die Hard with a Vengeance]]'' which originally featured a white character being placed in jeopardy when forced to carry a sign saying "I hate niggers" around [[Harlem]], are altered so that the sign now says "I hate everybody", which is not offensive and, critics argue, renders the scene far less effective. The comedy series ''[[All in the Family]]'' is rarely censored even though the "N-word" is used frequently&mdash;likely because the primary premise of the classic, groundbreaking show is directly related to the main character's social backwardness and racial biases. On the other hand, [[Mel Brooks]]'s anti-racism comedy ''[[Blazing Saddles]]'' is rarely shown on American commercial television anymore due to the pervasive use of the word (though, as in ''All in the Family'', the film's intent was to call attention to the issues of racism through satire&mdash;a fact discussed at length by Brooks when the film's 30th-anniversary edition DVD was released in 2004).


In 2021, in [[Tampa, Florida]], a 27-year-old black employee at a [[Dunkin' Donuts]] punched a 77-year-old white customer after the customer had repeatedly called the employee a nigger.<ref>{{cite web |author=Dan Sullivan |url=https://www.tampabay.com/news/tampa/2022/03/07/tampa-dunkin-case-a-racial-slur-a-fatal-punch-and-2-years-of-house-arrest/ |title=Tampa Dunkin' case: A racial slur, a fatal punch and 2 years of house arrest |publisher=Tampabay.com |date= |accessdate=September 25, 2022 |archive-date=September 23, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220923063729/https://www.tampabay.com/news/tampa/2022/03/07/tampa-dunkin-case-a-racial-slur-a-fatal-punch-and-2-years-of-house-arrest/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The customer fell to the floor and hit his head. Three days later, he died, having suffered a [[skull fracture]] and [[brain contusion]]s. The employee was arrested, and charged with [[manslaughter]]. In a [[plea bargain]], the employee pled guilty to [[felony]] [[battery (crime)|battery]], and was sentenced to two years of [[house arrest]]. In 2022, in explaining why the employee did not receive any jail time, Grayson Kamm, a spokesman for Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren, said "Two of the primary factors were the aggressive approach the victim took toward the defendant and everyone working with the defendant, and that the victim repeatedly used possibly the most aggressive and offensive term in the English language."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/corey-pujols-dunkin-worker-sentenced-fatal-punch-vonelle-cook-slur/|title=Florida Dunkin' employee is sentenced for fatally punching customer who used racist slur|publisher=CBS News|date=March 9, 2022|access-date=August 14, 2022|archive-date=August 14, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220814130244/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/corey-pujols-dunkin-worker-sentenced-fatal-punch-vonelle-cook-slur/|url-status=live}}</ref>
African-American comedian [[Dave Chapelle]] frequently has used the word in satire. In the first season of his show, ''[[Chappelle's Show]]'', a blind white supremacist, unaware of the fact that he was black, uses the word repeatedly in remarks disparaging black people and at the end of the sketch comments that he left his wife because she is a "nigger-lover". The second season of the Dave Chapelle show examines this word closely with the sketch, "The Niggar Family" a portrayal of a [[1950s]] white family with a last name resembling the infamous word. The comedy hinges upon the interaction among other members of the community and results in an uncensored and laughable outcome. (source: Multimedia Events-John Cashew")


===Intra-group versus intergroup usage===
The controversial animated series [[The Boondocks (television series)]] frequently uses the word "Nigga" by the main characters and sometimes others. The term can be used to shock the other characters, or for satirical purposes, as when Granddad tells Huey not to use the word in his house, Huey reminds him that he himself used the word 46 times the day before. Granddad's replay is "Nigga hush!". The show also makes note of "Nigga Moments", where an otherwise well-adjusted black man acts in an ignorant or self-destructive way(in other words, like a Nigga) out of anger. Nigga moments are said to be the #3 cause of death among young black males, right behind pork chops and [[FEMA]].
{{Main|Nigga}}
{{See also|Ingroups and outgroups}}


Black listeners often react to the term differently, depending on whether it is used by white speakers or by black speakers. In the former case, it is regularly understood as insensitive or insulting; in the latter, it may carry notes of in-group disparagement, or it may be understood as neutral or affectionate, a possible instance of [[reappropriation]].<ref name="Brontsema">{{Cite journal|last=Brontsema|first=Robin|date=June 1, 2004|title=A Queer Revolution: Reconceptualizing the Debate Over Linguistic Reclamation|journal=Colorado Research in Linguistics|volume=17|issue=1|doi=10.25810/dky3-zq57|issn=1937-7029|quote=Linguistic reclamation, also known as linguistic resignification or reappropriation, refers to the appropriation of a pejorative epithet by its target(s).}}</ref>
===Names of places and things===
Because the word was used freely for many years, there are many official place-names containing the word ''nigger''. Examples include [[Nigger Bill Canyon]], [[Nigger Hollow]], and [[Niggertown Marsh]]. In 1967, the [[United States Board on Geographic Names]] changed the word ''nigger'' to ''Negro'' in 143 specific place names, but use of the word has not been completely eliminated.


In the black community, ''nigger'' is often rendered as ''[[nigga]]''. This usage has been popularized by the [[rap]] and [[hip-hop]] music cultures and is used as part of an in-group lexicon and speech. It is not necessarily derogatory and is often used to mean ''homie'' or ''friend''.<ref name="usage-alert">{{cite dictionary |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nigga |title=''Nigga'' Usage Alert |dictionary=[[dictionary.com]] |access-date=July 23, 2015}}</ref>
The British term for a black iron post for mooring ships, made from an old cannon partially buried muzzle upward, with a slightly oversize black cannonball covering the hole, was "niggerhead". Sailors also once called an isolated [[coral]] head a [[niggerhead]]. The latter are notorious as [[navigation]] hazards.


Acceptance of intra-group usage of the word ''nigga'' is still debated,<ref name="usage-alert" /> although it has established a foothold amongst younger generations. The [[NAACP]] denounces the use of both ''nigga'' and ''nigger''. Usage of ''nigga'' by mixed-race individuals is still largely considered taboo,{{Efn|Whether this usage is considered acceptable may depend on a sense of the speaker's in-group belonging, as judged by the speaker him- or herself, the listener(s), or others.}} albeit not as inflammatory as ''nigger''. As of 2001, trends indicated that usage of the term in intragroup settings is increasing even amongst white youth, due to the popularity of rap and hip hop culture.<ref name="ENQ">{{cite news |last1=Aldridge |first1=Kevin |last2=Thompson |first2=Richelle |last3=Winston |first3=Earnest |url=http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2001/08/05/loc_1the_n-word.html |title=The evolving N-word |work=The Cincinnati Enquirer |date=August 5, 2001 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130110202405/http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2001/08/05/loc_1the_n-word.html |archive-date=January 10, 2013 |url-status=dead |access-date=October 14, 2011 }}</ref> Linguist [[Keith Allan (linguist)|Keith Allan]] rejects the view that ''nigger'' is always a slur, arguing that it is also used as a marker of camaraderie and friendship, comparable to the British and Australian term "mate" or the American "buddy".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Allan|first=Keith |title=When is a slur not a slur? The use of nigger in 'Pulp Fiction'|journal=Language Sciences |volume=52 |date=November 2015|pages=187–199|doi=10.1016/j.langsci.2015.03.001}}</ref>
Many varieties of flora and fauna commonly are still referred to by terms which include the word. The [[nigger-head cactus]], which is native to [[Arizona]], is round, the size of a cabbage, and covered with large, crooked thorns. The colloquial name for [[echinacea]], or coneflower, is, variously, "Kansas niggerhead" or "wild niggerhead". The "niggerhead termite" is native to Australia.


According to Arthur K. Spears in ''Diverse Issues in Higher Education, 2006'':
In April [[2003]], there was a stir in [[Australia]] over the naming of part of a stadium in [[Toowoomba, Queensland|Toowoomba]], "E.S. Nigger Brown Stand". "Nigger Brown" was the nickname of Toowoomba's first international rugby player. [[Edward Stanley Brown]] used the [[shoe polish]] brand "Nigger Brown". The stand was named in the [[1960s]]. As in the United States some decades ago, the word was used casually by whites, with little thought. Brown himself was happy with the nickname; in fact it is written on his [[tomb stone|tombstone]]. A growing black consciousness among Australia's aboriginal population, however, has meant the term increasingly has become an offensive one, particularly when uttered by whites. Even so, as in the U.S., some younger indigenous Australians have appropriated the term for self-referential use.
{{blockquote|In many African-American neighborhoods, nigga is simply the most common term used to refer to any male, of any race or ethnicity. Increasingly, the term has been applied to any person, male or female. "Where y'all niggas goin?" is said with no self-consciousness or animosity to a group of women, for the routine purpose of obtaining information. The point: ''nigga'' is evaluatively neutral in terms of its inherent meaning; it may express positive, neutral, or negative attitudes;<ref>{{cite journal |title=Perspectives: A View of the 'N-Word' from Sociolinguistics |url=http://diverseeducation.com/article/6114/ |last=Spears |first=Dr. Arthur K. |journal=Diverse Issues in Higher Education |date=July 12, 2006 |access-date=July 13, 2013 |archive-date=September 27, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140927014836/http://diverseeducation.com/article/6114/ |url-status=live }}</ref>}}


Kevin Cato, meanwhile, observes:
Australian civil rights activist [[Stephen Hagan]] took the local council responsible to court over the use of the word. Hagan lost the court case at the district and state level, and the High Court ruled that the matter was beyond federal jurisdiction. The federal government cited the High Court ruling on a lack of federal jurisdiction as its legal justification for continued inaction. (Hagan also has tried changing other supposed racial slurs such as the [[Coon cheese|Coon brand]] of [[cheese]].)
{{blockquote|For instance, a show on [[Black Entertainment Television]], a cable network aimed at a Black audience, described the word nigger as a "[[term of endearment]]". "In the African American community, the word ''nigga.'' (not ''nigger'') brings out feelings of pride." (Davis{{nbs}}1). Here the word evokes a sense of community and oneness among Black people. Many teens I interviewed felt the word had no power when used amongst friends, but when used among white people the word took on a completely different meaning. In fact, comedian Alex Thomas on BET stated, "I still better not hear no white boy say that to me{{nbs}}... I hear a white boy say that to me, it means 'White boy, you gonna get your ass beat.{{'"}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://wrt-intertext.syr.edu/XI/Nigger.html |title=Nigger |publisher=Wrt-intertext.syr.edu |access-date=January 23, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110517143530/http://wrt-intertext.syr.edu/XI/Nigger.html |archive-date=May 17, 2011}}</ref>}}


Addressing the use of ''nigger'' by black people, philosopher and [[public intellectual]] [[Cornel West]] said in 2007:
In [[Sweden]], the traditional treat [[Chokladboll|Negerbollar]] (Negro balls) is now more commonly referred to as Chocolate-, Oat- or Coco balls.
{{blockquote|There's a certain rhythmic seduction to the word. If you speak in a sentence, and you have to say ''cat'', ''companion'', or ''friend'', as opposed to ''nigger'', then the rhythmic presentation is off. That rhythmic language is a form of historical memory for Black people{{nbs}}... When [[Richard Pryor]] came back from Africa, and decided to stop using the word onstage, he would sometimes start to slip up, because he was so used to speaking that way. It was the right word at the moment to keep the rhythm together in his sentence making.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mohr |first=Tim|author-link=Tim Mohr |title=Cornel West Talks Rhymes and Race |journal=[[Playboy]] |volume=54 |issue=11 |page=44 |date=November 2007}}</ref>}}


====2010s: increase in use and controversy====
An [[Ireland|Irish]] colloquialism described [[prune]]s as "nigger's [[testicles|knackers]]".
In the 2010s, "nigger" in its various forms saw use with increasing frequency by African Americans amongst themselves or in self-expression, the most common swear word in hip hop music lyrics.<ref name="freq">{{cite news |last1=Sheinin |first1=Dave |last2=Thompson |first2=Krissah |author-link2=Krissah Thompson |title=Redefining the Word |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2014/11/09/the-n-word-an-entrenched-racial-slur-now-more-prevalent-than-ever/ |access-date=May 24, 2019 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=November 9, 2014 |archive-date=May 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190512104225/https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2014/11/09/the-n-word-an-entrenched-racial-slur-now-more-prevalent-than-ever/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="wapo">{{cite news |title=Profanity in lyrics: most used swear words and their usage by popular genres |publisher=Musixmatch |url=https://blog.musixmatch.com/profanity-in-lyrics-most-used-swear-words-and-their-usage-by-popular-genres-d8a12c776713 |access-date=May 24, 2019 |date=December 16, 2015}}</ref> [[Ta-Nehisi Coates]] suggested that it continues to be unacceptable for non-blacks to utter while singing or rapping along to hip-hop, and that by being so restrained it gives white Americans (specifically) an impression of what it is like to not be entitled to "do anything they please, anywhere". A concern often raised is whether frequent exposure will inevitably lead to a dilution of the extremely negative perception of the word among the majority of non-black Americans who currently consider its use unacceptable and shocking.<ref name="coates">{{cite news |last1=Bain |first1=Marc |title=Ta-Nehisi Coates Gently Explains Why White People Can't Rap the N-Word |url=https://qz.com/quartzy/1127824/ta-nehisi-coates-explains-why-white-hip-hop-fans-cant-use-the-n-word/ |access-date=May 24, 2019 |work=Quartz |date=November 13, 2017 |archive-date=May 24, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190524183923/https://qz.com/quartzy/1127824/ta-nehisi-coates-explains-why-white-hip-hop-fans-cant-use-the-n-word/ |url-status=live }}</ref>


==Avoiding offense==
==Related words==
===Derivatives===
[[File:The Nigger in the Woodpile.jpg|thumb|Anti-abolitionist cartoon from the 1860 presidential campaign illustrating colloquial usage of "[[Nigger in the woodpile]]"]]


In several English-speaking countries, "[[Niggerhead]]" or "nigger head" was used as a name for many sorts of things, including [[#Commercial products|commercial products]], [[#Place names|places]], [[#Nature|plants and animals]], as a descriptive term (lit. 'black person's head'). It also is or was a colloquial technical term in industry, mining, and seafaring. ''Nigger'' as "defect" (a hidden problem), derives from "[[nigger in the woodpile]]", a US slave-era phrase denoting escaped slaves hiding in train-transported woodpiles.<ref name="Oxford English Reference Dictionary 1996 p.981">{{cite book|title=The Oxford English Reference Dictionary |edition=2nd |year=1996|page=981}}</ref> In the 1840s, the ''[[Morning Chronicle]]'' newspaper report series ''[[London Labour and the London Poor]]'', by [[Henry Mayhew]], records the usages of both "nigger" and the similar-sounding word "niggard" denoting a false bottom for a grate.<ref>vol 2 p6</ref>
==="The N-Word"===
The [[euphemism]] "the N-word" became a part of the American lexicon during the racially polarizing trial of [[O.J. Simpson]], a retired African American football player charged with -- and ultimately acquitted of -- a widely publicized double murder. One of the prosecution's key witnesses was [[Los Angeles]] police detective [[Mark Fuhrman]], who initially denied using racial slurs, but whose prolific and derogatory use of it on a tape recording brought his credibility into question. The recordings were from a session in 1985 that Fuhrman had with [[Laura McKinney]], an aspiring screenwriter working on a screenplay about women in the police force. According to Fuhrman, he was using the word as part of his "bad-cop" persona.
Members of the media reporting on and discussing his testimony began using the term "the N-word" instead of repeating the actual word, presumably as a way to avoid offending audiences and advertisers. The euphemism was adopted quickly by Americans as a way to avoid uttering one of the most generally offensive words in [[American English]].
The euphemism is most often used in constructions like: "He called me the N-word", or "I can't believe she said the N-word." (This form mimics other euphemisms for offensive words such as "the F-word" for ''[[fuck]]'' or "the B-word" for ''[[bitch]]''.)


{{anchor|nigger lover}}In [[American English]], "nigger lover" initially applied to [[abolitionists]], then to white people sympathetic towards black Americans.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Herbst |first1=Philip |title=The Color of Words: An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Ethnic Bias in the United States |date=1997 |publisher=Intercultural Press |isbn=978-1-877864-97-1 |page=166 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UiZQH5gHuggC |via=[[Google Books]] |access-date=September 24, 2016 |archive-date=September 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915130531/https://books.google.com/books?id=UiZQH5gHuggC |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[portmanteau]] word ''[[wigger]]'' ('White' + 'nigger') denotes a white person emulating "street Black behavior", hoping to gain acceptance to the [[hip hop]], thug, and [[gangsta rap|gangsta]] sub-cultures. [[Norman Mailer]] wrote of the antecedents of this phenomenon in 1957 in his essay ''[[The White Negro]]''.
More recently the "N-word" has been joined by a similar euphemism suggestive of the potentially explosive nature of the racial epithet: "drop the N-bomb" as in "You didn't need to drop the N-bomb".


===Near-[[homophone]]s===
===''The N-word'' euphemism===
{{Quote box|width=376px|border=0px|salign=right|tstyle=font-size:100%|title=Notable usage<ref name="finnasidolandtarget">{{cite book |title=Huckleberry Finn as idol and target |first=Jonathan |last=Arac |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=twfLrDgYRlUC&pg=PA29 |access-date=August 18, 2010 |date=November 1997 |publisher=[[University of Wisconsin Press]] |location=[[Madison, Wisconsin]] |isbn=978-0-299-15534-6 |page=29 |archive-date=September 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915130940/https://books.google.com/books?id=twfLrDgYRlUC&pg=PA29#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>|source=— Kenneth B. Noble, January 14, 1995 ''[[The New York Times]]''<ref>{{cite news |work=The New York Times |title=Issue of Racism Erupts in Simpson Trial |first=Kenneth B. |last=Noble |date=January 14, 1995 |access-date=February 2, 2021 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/14/us/issue-of-racism-erupts-in-simpson-trial.html |archive-date=March 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308142922/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/14/us/issue-of-racism-erupts-in-simpson-trial.html |url-status=live }}</ref>|quote=The prosecutor {{bracket|[[Christopher Darden]]}}, his voice trembling, added that the "N-word" was so vile he would not utter it. "It's the filthiest, dirtiest, nastiest word in the English language."}}
The word '''''niger''''' is [[Latin]] for "black" and occurs in many Latin scientific terms and names. (See [[Niger]] for other meanings such as the river in Africa.) ''Niger'' is the root for some English words which are near homophones of ''nigger''.


One of the first uses of ''the [[wikt:n-word|N-word]]'' [[euphemism]] by a major public figure came during the racially contentious [[O. J. Simpson murder case]] in 1995. Key prosecution witness Detective [[Mark Fuhrman]], of the [[Los Angeles Police Department]]—who denied using racist language on duty—impeached himself with his prolific use of ''nigger'' in tape recordings about his police work. Co-prosecutor [[Christopher Darden]] refused to say the actual word, calling it "the filthiest, dirtiest, nastiest word in the English language". Media personnel who reported on Fuhrman's testimony substituted ''the N-word'' for ''nigger''.<ref>{{Cite news |last=McWhorter |first=John |date=April 30, 2021 |title=How the N-Word Became Unsayable |language=en-US |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/30/opinion/john-mcwhorter-n-word-unsayable.html |access-date=May 27, 2023 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=June 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240611014642/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/30/opinion/john-mcwhorter-n-word-unsayable.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Wilson |first=Cherry |date=October 4, 2020 |title=N-word: The troubled history of the racial slur |language=en-GB |work=[[BBC News]] |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-53749800 |access-date=May 27, 2023 |archive-date=February 10, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210210121239/https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-53749800 |url-status=live }}</ref>
''[[Nigra]]'', which is the way ''Negro'' is pronounced by some people in the [[American South]], was considered by some to be a more polite way to refer to a black person. Because of its similarity to the n-word, however, it generally is detested by blacks and is no longer regarded as acceptable.


===Similar-sounding words===
The words ''[[niggardly]]'' ("miserly") and '''''snigger''''' ("to laugh derisively") do not refer either to black people or to characteristics or behavior attributed to black people, nor do they have any etymological connection with the word. '''''Niggard''''' (a miserly person) and the verb '''''niggle''''' come from the [[Old Norse]] verb ''nigla'' -- "to fuss about small things". Many people are ignorant of this or feel the verbal similarity is more important than etymology, however, and so refuse to use these words and take offense to their usage. David Howard, a white city official in [[Washington, D.C.]], resigned from his job in January 1999, when he used ''niggardly'' in a fiscal sense while talking with African American colleagues, who took offense at his use of the word. Howard later was reinstated, after the furor subsided.
{{lang|la|Niger}} (Latin for "black") occurs in Latinate [[scientific nomenclature]] and is the [[root word]] for some [[homophone]]s of ''nigger''; sellers of [[niger seed]] (used as bird feed), sometimes use the spelling ''Nyjer'' seed. The classical [[Latin spelling and pronunciation|Latin pronunciation]] {{IPA|/ˈniɡeɾ/}} sounds similar to the English {{IPA|/ˈnɪɡər/}}, occurring in biologic and [[anatomic]] names, such as ''[[Hyoscyamus niger]]'' (black henbane), and even for animals that are in fact not black, such as ''[[Sciurus niger]]'' (fox squirrel).


{{lang|la|Nigra}} is the Latin feminine form of {{lang|la|niger}} (black), used in biologic and anatomic names such as [[substantia nigra]] (black substance).
===Revisionist usage===
In the United Kingdom, the word was in common use throughout the first half of the twentieth century to denote a shade of dark brown. "Nigger" was famously the name of a [[Labrador Retriever|Black Labrador]] belonging to the [[Royal Air Force|RAF]] [[Second World War]] [[war-hero|hero]] [[Wing Commander]] [[Guy Gibson]]. The dog died before the [[No. 617 Squadron RAF|617 Squadron]]'s 1943 raid on the [[Ruhr area|Ruhr dams]] (the "[[Operation Chastise|Dam Busters raid]]"), and "Nigger" was adopted as the radio code word signaling the destruction of the Möhne dam. Because of the modern connotations of the name, the [[United Kingdom|British]] [[television]] broadcaster [[ITV]] now tries to reduce offense by editing out some scenes including the dog when it broadcasts the film ''[[The Dam Busters (movie)|Dam Busters]]''. This has been condemned by some as "[[historical revisionism|revisionist]]", although the edited version apparently produced fewer complaints than a previous uncensored broadcast. However, this scene probably has been viewed more times than any other part of the movie. It was worked into the background of the infamous hotel-room sequence in the [[Pink Floyd]] film ''[[Pink Floyd The Wall (film)|The Wall]]'', during which the word ''nigger'' can be plainly heard coming from the television.


The word ''niggardly'' (miserly) is etymologically unrelated to ''nigger'', derived from the [[Old Norse]] word {{lang|non|nig}} (stingy) and the [[Middle English]] word {{lang|enm|nigon}}. In the US, this word [[controversies about the word niggardly|has been misinterpreted]] as related to ''nigger'' and taken as offensive. In January 1999, David Howard, a white Washington, D.C., city employee, was compelled to resign after using ''niggardly''—in a financial context—while speaking with black colleagues, who took umbrage. After reviewing the misunderstanding, Mayor [[Anthony A. Williams]] offered to reinstate Howard to his former position. Howard refused reinstatement but took a job elsewhere in the mayor's government.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/williams/williams020499.htm |title=D.C. Mayor Acted 'Hastily', Will Rehire Aide |last=Woodlee |first=Yolanda |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=February 4, 1999 |access-date=August 17, 2007 |archive-date=August 20, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080820112736/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/williams/williams020499.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[Rudyard Kipling]]'s [[Just So Stories|Just So Story]] "How the Leopard Got His Spots" tells of how an [[Ethiopian]] and a [[leopard]], who are originally sand-colored, decide to paint themselves for camouflage when hunting in dense tropical forest. The story originally included a scene in which the leopard, who now has spots, asks the Ethiopian why he doesn't want spots as well. The Ethiopian's original reply, "Oh, plain black's best for a nigger", has been changed in many modern editions to read, "Oh, plain black's best for me."


{{langx|es|Negro}} [ˈne.ɣ̞ɾo] is the Spanish word for black, and is commonly a part of place names and proper names, particularly in the [[Southwestern United States|Southwest of the United States]].
===''<span style="display:none;">"</span>Nigger<span style="display:none;">"</span>'' versus ''<span style="display:none;">"</span>nigga<span style="display:none;">"</span>'': the new revisionism===
[[Image:2pac-diamond.jpeg|thumb|right|150px|Hip-hop artist [[Tupac Shakur]]]]Since the 1980s, a common argument among some young African Americans and other youth centers around the pronunciation of ''nigger'' as "nigga". ''Nigga'', they contend, is simply a synonym for accepted slang words such as ''[[dude]]'' and ''[[guy]]''. Such use of ''nigga'' is heavily dependent on context. It could be an insult to say, "Hey, you niggaz"; whereas, "What up, my niggaz?" might be perfectly acceptable. Also, if a non-black refers to a black person as a "nigga", it is sometimes considered insulting. Dave Chappelle used the term profusely on ''Chappelle's Show''. In the first example, the use of "you guys" is similar to "you people", a phrase often seen as off-putting when used by whites to refer to blacks. The second example is in the African-American tradition of using the word to express kinship or affection.


===Denotational extension===
Proponents of this neorevisionist usage of the term believe ''nigger'', in its vernacular pronunciation, is harmless. Moreover, many believe it draws a line between blacks as victims of racism and blacks as empowered, street-wise individuals. In an interview in the [[Documentary film|documentary]] ''[[Tupac: Resurrection]]'', [[Tupac Shakur]] explains, "Niggers was the ones on the rope, hanging off the thing; Niggas is the ones with gold ropes, hanging out at clubs." [sic]
{{Anchor|Sand nigger}}
[[File:02 05 03 Die Arab Sand.jpg|thumb|Graffiti left by [[Kach]] members on a [[State of Palestine|Palestinian]] home in [[Hebron]], referring to the residents as "Arab sand-niggers", was discovered in the aftermath of [[Operation Defensive Shield]] (May 3, 2002).<ref>{{Cite web |date=2002-08-22 |title=CPTnet May Releases: HEBRON UPDATE: April 29-May 3, 2002 |url=http://www.prairienet.org/cpt/archives/2002/may02/0009.html |access-date=2024-11-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020822104737/http://www.prairienet.org/cpt/archives/2002/may02/0009.html |archive-date=August 22, 2002 }}</ref>]]


The [[denotation]]s of ''nigger'' also include non-black/non-white and other disadvantaged people. Some of these terms are self-chosen, to identify with the oppression and resistance of black Americans; others are [[ethnic slur]]s used by outsiders.
Opponents of this view argue that ''nigga'' is simply ''nigger'' pronounced with a southern accent, that the revisionist spelling is merely a phonetic representation of the word as it always has been pronounced in African American Vernacular English and nothing more. ''Nigger'', they point out, is also pronounced "nigga" by many who intend it as a racial slur. While proponents of the neorevisionist use of ''nigga'' contend they have "reclaimed" the word and robbed it of its racist connotations, critics dispute this. They claim such usage has not changed the word's centuries-old, racist nature. African Americans generally still consider the term offensive and inappropriate in most, if not all, contexts -- and never acceptable in any context when used by nonblacks. Usage by members of other ethnic groups is viewed as racist and/or, as with much of nonblack, hip-hop culture, a form of [[cultural appropriation]]. A passage from the ''African American Registry'' echoes this sentiment:


[[Jerry Farber]]'s 1967 essay collection, ''[[The Student as Nigger]]'', used the word as a metaphor for what he saw as the role forced on students. Farber had been, at the time, frequently arrested as a civil rights activist while beginning his career as a literature professor.
<blockquote>[Neorevisionist] arguments [for the use of "nigga"] may not be true to life. Brother (Brotha) and Sister (Sistah or Sista) are terms of endearment. Nigger was and still is a word of disrespect. ...the artificial dichotomy between blacks or African Americans (respectable and middle-class) and niggers (disrespectable and lower class) ought to be challenged. Black is a nigger, regardless of behavior, earnings, goals, clothing, skills, ethics, or skin color. Finally, if continued use of the word lessened its damage, then nigger would not hurt or cause pain now. Blacks, from slavery 'til today, have internalized many negative images that white society cultivated and broadcast about black skin and black people. This is mirrored in cycles of self- and same-race hatred. The use of the word nigger by blacks reflects this hatred, even when the user is unaware of the psychological forces involved. Nigger is the ultimate expression of white racism and white superiority no matter how it is pronounced.</blockquote>


In his 1968 autobiography ''[[White Niggers of America]]: The Precocious Autobiography of a Quebec "Terrorist"'', [[Pierre Vallières]], a [[Front de libération du Québec]] leader, refers to the oppression of the [[Québécois (word)|Québécois people]] in North America.
Sociologists commonly point to black-on-black violence and its association with [[gangsta rap]] -- the phenomenon most responsible for the rise in the revisionist use of the term among some black youth -- as a manifestation of the self-destructive, self-loathing mind-set referred to above.


In 1969, in the course of being interviewed by the British magazine ''[[Nova (UK magazine)|Nova]]'', artist [[Yoko Ono]] said "woman is the nigger of the world;" three years later, her husband, [[John Lennon]], published the song [[Woman Is the Nigger of the World|of the same name]]—about the worldwide phenomenon of discrimination against women—which was socially and politically controversial to US sensibilities.
There is also a marked class difference in African-American use of the term. The more highly educated, the higher one's socioeconomic status, regardless of age, the less likely one is to use the term self-referentially, if at all.


''Sand nigger'', an ethnic slur against Arabs, and ''timber nigger'' and ''prairie nigger'', ethnic slurs against Native Americans, are examples of the racist extension of ''nigger'' upon other non-white peoples.<ref name="Kennedy">{{Cite journal |title=Who Can Say "Nigger"? And Other Considerations |first=Randall L. |last=Kennedy |author-link=Randall Kennedy |journal=The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education |issue=26 |date=Winter 1999–2000 |pages=86–96 [87] |jstor=2999172 |doi=10.2307/2999172}}</ref>
==Combinations with other words==
Within American culture, following the word ''nigger'' with a second word connotes an extremely negative conception of that second word, usually playing to racist stereotypes. Thus, to call someone "[[nigger rich]]" is to say that they unwisely spend their entire paycheck upon its receipt. To say someone is playing "nigger hockey" implies that they're cheating. To say that something is "nigger-rigged" suggests that it was hastily or carelessly improvised from any available materials. While such phrases are used to describe people of any race, they are nonetheless considered as racist as using the word ''nigger'' by itself.


In 1978, singer [[Patti Smith]] used the word in "[[Rock N Roll Nigger]]". One year later in 1979, English singer [[Elvis Costello]] used the phrase "[[white nigger]]" in his song "[[Oliver's Army]]". The slur usually remains uncensored on radio stations, but Costello's usage of the word came under scrutiny, particularly after he used racial slurs during a drunken argument with [[Stephen Stills]] and [[Bonnie Bramlett]] in 1979. In the same year, Costello's father published a letter in ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' defending his son against accusations of racism, stating "Nothing could be further from the truth. My own background has meant that I am passionately opposed to any form of prejudice based on religion or race... His mother comes from the tough multiracial area of [[Liverpool]], and I think she would still beat the tar out of him if his orthodoxy were in doubt".<ref name="McManus">{{cite magazine |last=McManus |first=Ross |date=June 14, 1979 |title=Elvis Costello |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |location=New York City}}</ref>
''[[Nigger-lover]]'' is a derogatory term used to characterize whites who sympathize with blacks. This term is more commonly used by racist whites against other whites.


Historian [[Eugene Genovese]], noted for bringing a [[Marxist]] perspective to the study of power, class, and relations between planters and slaves in the South, uses the word pointedly in ''The World the Slaveholders Made'' (1988).
The term ''[[wigger]]'', or ''whigger'', refers to a young, white mimicker of certain affectations of hip-hop and [[criminal|thug]] culture. It is a [[portmanteau]] of ''white'' and ''nigger''. The word is widely considered offensive because of its similarity to ''nigger'' and because it reflects stereotypical notions about blacks.
{{blockquote|For reasons common to the slave condition all slave classes displayed a lack of industrial initiative and produced the famous Lazy Nigger, who under Russian serfdom and elsewhere was white. Just as not all Blacks, even under the most degrading forms of slavery, consented to become niggers, so by no means all or even most of the niggers in history have been Black.}}


[[Oberon Zell-Ravenheart#Green Egg|The editor]] of ''[[Green Egg]]'', a magazine described in ''The [[Encyclopedia of American Religions]]'' as a significant periodical, published an essay entitled "Niggers of the New Age". This argued that [[Neopaganism|Neo-Pagans]] were treated badly by other parts of the [[New Age]] movement.<ref>{{cite book |last1=G'Zell |first1=Otter |title=Green Egg Omelette: An Anthology of Art and Articles from the Legendary Pagan Journal |date=2009 |page=209 |publisher=New Page Books |isbn=978-1601630469}}</ref>
Similarly, other portmanteaus formed from ''nigger'', also generally considered offensive, are used to describe other groups.


===Other languages===
These include combining ''nigger'' with Chinese, to produce ''chigger'', with ''[[Jew]]'' , ''[[jigger]]'', with ''[[Koreans|Korean]]'', ''kigger''; and with ''spic'' (a slur for a Latino), to produce ''spigger''. The terms ''timber nigger'' and ''prairie nigger'' are used in some areas to refer to [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]]s. This term is found more in the northern part of the United States where the original Native Americans flourished in the large forests that once existed there. ''[[Sand nigger]]'' refers to those of [[Arab]] descent, and ''snow nigger'' is a slur against those of [[Inuit]] descent.
{{refimprove section|date=December 2023}}
Other languages, particularly [[Romance languages]], have words that sound similar to or share etymological roots with ''nigger'' but do not necessarily mean the same. In some of these languages, the words refer to the color black in general and are not specifically used to refer to black people. When used to refer to black people, these words have acquired varying degrees of offensiveness, ranging from completely neutral (as in [[Spanish language|Spanish]] ''negro'') to highly racist (as in [[Finnish language|Finnish]] ''Neekeri''). Examples of related words in other languages include:


*[[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]]: Негър (''negar''), loaned from French ''nègre'', is considered a neutral word for black people in [[Bulgaria]]. Some publications and institutions use ''чернокож'' or ''тъмнокож'', but the use of ''негър'' is more widespread.
==References==
*[[Dutch language|Dutch]]: {{lang|nl|Neger}} ('negro') used to be neutral, but many now consider it to be avoided in favor of {{lang|nl|zwarte}} ('black').<ref>[http://www.joop.nl/opinies/waarom-wil-je-ons-zo-graag-neger-noemen/ Waarom wil je ons zo graag neger noemen?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160220220515/http://www.joop.nl/opinies/waarom-wil-je-ons-zo-graag-neger-noemen |date=February 20, 2016 }}, joop.nl, 25 mei 2014</ref><ref>[http://taaltelefoon.vlaanderen.be/nlapps/docs/default.asp?id=2047 "Neger/zwarte"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130612182420/http://taaltelefoon.vlaanderen.be/nlapps/docs/default.asp?id=2047 |date=June 12, 2013 }}, Taaltelefoon.</ref><ref>Style guide of ''[[de Volkskrant]]'' {{cite web |title=Volkskrant stijlboek |url=http://www.volkskrant.nl/media/stijlboek~a4255465/ |website=Volkskrant |access-date=December 14, 2016 |archive-date=December 2, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161202235128/http://www.volkskrant.nl/media/stijlboek~a4255465/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Style guide of ''[[NRC Handelsblad]]'' {{cite web |title=Stijlboek |url=https://apps.nrc.nl/stijlboek/search/node/neger |website=NRC handelsblad |access-date=December 14, 2016 |archive-date=December 20, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220144116/https://apps.nrc.nl/stijlboek/search/node/neger |url-status=live }}</ref> {{lang|nl|Zwartje}} ('little black one') can be amicably or offensively used. {{lang|nl|Nikker}} is always pejorative.<ref>[[Van Dale]], Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse taal, 2010</ref>
*"Nigger Heaven and the Harlem Renaissance." Robert F. Worth, ''African American Review''. Fall 1995. 29(3):461-473
* [[Finnish language|Finnish]]: {{lang|fi|Neekeri}} ('negro/nigger'), as a loan word ('Neger') from the [[Swedish language]] appeared for the first time in a book published in 1771.<ref>{{cite book |last=Jussila |first=Raimo |title=Vanhat sanat: Vanhan kirjasuomen ensiesiintymiä |year=1998 |pages=170, 365 |location=Helsinki |publisher=Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura / Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus |isbn=951-746-008-2 |language=fi}}</ref> The use of the Finnish equivalent ('neekeri') began in the late 19th century. Until the 1980s, it was commonly used and generally not yet considered derogatory, although a few instances of it being considered to be so have been documented since the 1950s; by the mid-1990s the word was considered racist, especially in the metropolitan area and among the younger population.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rastas |first=Anna |chapter=Neutraalisti rasistinen? Erään sanan politiikkaa |title=Rasismi lasten ja nuorten arjessa: Transnationaalit juuret ja monikulttuuristuva Suomi |location=Tampere |publisher=Tampere University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-951-44-6946-6 |url=http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:978-951-44-6964-0 |language=fi |access-date=December 26, 2020 |archive-date=September 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915130944/https://trepo.tuni.fi/handle/10024/67726 |url-status=live }}</ref> It has since then usually been replaced by the [[metonymy|metonym]] 'musta' ('black [person]').<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Raittila |editor-first=Pentti |title=Etnisyys ja rasismi journalismissa |year=2002 |chapter=Etniset vähemmistöt uutisissa |pages=25–26 |last=Pietikäinen |first=Sari |location=Tampere |publisher=Tampere University Press |isbn=951-44-5486-3 |url=https://trepo.tuni.fi/handle/10024/65640 |access-date=December 26, 2020 |archive-date=April 17, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417183905/https://trepo.tuni.fi/handle/10024/65640 |url-status=live }}</ref> In a survey conducted in 2000, Finnish respondents considered the term 'Neekeri' to be among the most offensive of minority designations.<ref>{{cite journal| last=Tervonen| first=Satu| title=Etnisten nimitysten eri sävyt| journal=Kielikello| year=2001| number=1/2001| publisher=Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus| url=https://www.kielikello.fi/-/etnisten-nimitysten-eri-savyt| language=fi| access-date=December 26, 2020| archive-date=December 4, 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191204104134/https://www.kielikello.fi/-/etnisten-nimitysten-eri-savyt| url-status=live}}</ref>
*Swan, Robert J. ''New Amsterdam Gehenna; Segregated Death in New York City, 1630-1801,'' (forthcoming).
*[[French language|French]]: {{lang|fr|[[Nègre]]}} is now considered derogatory. Although {{lang|fr|Nègre littéraire}} was the standard term for a [[ghostwriter]], it has largely been supplanted by {{lang|fr|prête-plume}}. Some white Frenchmen have the surname [[Negre|Nègre]]. The word can still be used as a synonym of "sweetheart" in some traditional Louisiana [[French-based creole languages|French creole]] songs.

*[[German language|German]]: {{lang|de|Neger}} is dated and now considered offensive. {{lang|de|Schwarze/-r}} ('black [person]') or {{lang|de|Farbige/-r}} ("colored [person]") is more neutral.
==Further reading==
*[[Haitian Creole]]: {{lang|ht|nèg}} is used for any man in general, regardless of skin color (like ''[[dude]]'' in [[American English]]). Haitian Creole derives predominantly from French.
*''Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word'', by [[Randall Kennedy]] (ISBN 0375421726)
*[[Italian language|Italian]] has three variants: {{lang|it|negro}}, {{lang|it|nero}} and {{lang|it|di colore}}. The first one is the most historically attested and was the most commonly used until the 1960s as an equivalent of the English word "negro". It was gradually felt as offensive during the 1970s and replaced with {{lang|it|nero}} and {{lang|it|di colore}}. {{lang|it|Nero}} was considered a better translation of the English word ''black'', while {{lang|it|di colore}} is a [[calque|loan translation]] of the English word ''colored''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.accademiadellacrusca.it/it/lingua-italiana/consulenza-linguistica/domande-risposte/nero-negro-colore |title=Accademia della Crusca, ''Nero, negro e di colore'', 12 ottobre 2012 &#91;IT&#93; |access-date=September 30, 2019 |archive-date=September 30, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190930063932/http://www.accademiadellacrusca.it/it/lingua-italiana/consulenza-linguistica/domande-risposte/nero-negro-colore |url-status=dead }}</ref>
*[[Portuguese language|Portuguese]]: {{lang|pt-BR|Negro}} (as well as {{lang|pt-BR|preto}}) is neutral;<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/trabalhoerendimento/pnad2009/tabelas_pdf/brasil_1_2.pdf |title=Tabela 1.2 – População residente, por cor ou raça, segundo a situação do domicílio e o sexo – Brasil – 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924122330/http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/trabalhoerendimento/pnad2009/tabelas_pdf/brasil_1_2.pdf |archive-date=September 24, 2015}} and {{cite web |url=http://www.ibge.gov.br/ibgeteen/povoamento/negros/popnegra.html |title=Evolutio da populaco brasileira, segundo a cor – 1872/1991|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101221233359/http://www.ibge.gov.br/ibgeteen/povoamento/negros/popnegra.html |archive-date=December 21, 2010 }}</ref> nevertheless {{lang|pt-BR|preto}} can be offensive or at least "[[political correctness|politically incorrect]]" and is almost never proudly used by Afro-Brazilians. {{lang|pt-BR|Crioulo}} and {{lang|pt-BR|[[macaca (term)|macaco]]}} are always extremely pejorative.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Rio/0,,MUL58456-5606,00-SOU+INCAPAZ+DE+QUALQUER+ATITUDE+RACISTA+DIZ+PROCURADOR.html |title=G1 > Edição Rio de Janeiro – NOTÍCIAS – Sou incapaz de qualquer atitude racista, diz procurador |website=g1.globo.com |access-date=October 9, 2019 |archive-date=September 12, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220912031132/https://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Rio/0,,MUL58456-5606,00-SOU+INCAPAZ+DE+QUALQUER+ATITUDE+RACISTA+DIZ+PROCURADOR.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
*[[Romanian language|Romanian]]: {{lang|ro|Negrotei}} is derogatory;<ref>{{cite web|title=negrotei - definiție Argou și paradigmă - dexonline|url=https://dexonline.ro/definitie/negrotei|access-date=June 12, 2023|website=www.dexonline.ro|language=ro|archive-date=June 12, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230612194233/https://dexonline.ro/definitie/negrotei|url-status=live}}</ref>
*[[Russian language|Russian]]: the word {{lang|ru|[[:ru:негр|негр]]}} ({{lang|ru-Latn|negr}}) has been commonly used as neutral word to describe black people until recent years. It can also be used as a synonym for underpaid worker, "{{lang|ru|литературный негр}}" ({{lang|ru-Latn|literaturny negr}}) means ghostwriter.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Ozhegov, Sergeĭ Ivanovich.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1041202243|title=Tolkovyĭ slovarʹ russkogo i︠a︡zyka: okolo 100 000 slov, terminov i frazeologicheskikh vyrazheniĭ|last2=Ожегов, Сергей Иванович|others=Skvort︠s︡ov, Lev Ivanovich., Скворцов, Лев Иванович|year=2014|isbn=978-5-94666-678-7|edition=28-e izd., ispravlennoe|location=Moskva|oclc=1041202243|access-date=December 9, 2020|archive-date=September 15, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915130943/https://search.worldcat.org/title/1041202243|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=August 29, 2000|title=Латыши и гости столицы|url=https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/17514|access-date=March 8, 2021|website=www.kommersant.ru|language=ru|archive-date=August 18, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220818214659/https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/17514|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Писатели-призраки|url=https://newizv.ru/news/culture/29-06-2007/71864-pisateli-prizraki|access-date=March 8, 2021|website=newizv.ru|archive-date=April 17, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417202405/https://newizv.ru/news/culture/29-06-2007/71864-pisateli-prizraki|url-status=live}}</ref> Nowadays, a black person would often be described neutrally as "{{lang|ru|чернокожий}}" ({{lang|ru-Latn|chernokozhij}}, 'black-skinned'), though the organization [[Help Needed]] instead recommends "{{lang|ru|темнокожий}}" ({{lang|ru-Latn|temnokozhij}}, 'dark-skinned').<ref name="Такие Дела 2019 f016">{{cite web | title=Почему плохо говорить «негр»? | website=Такие Дела | date=April 8, 2019 | url=https://takiedela.ru/dictionary-words/negr/ | language=ru | access-date=July 25, 2023 | archive-date=January 3, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230103145526/https://takiedela.ru/dictionary-words/negr/ | url-status=live }}</ref>
*[[Spanish language|Spanish]]: {{lang|es|Negro}} is the word for "black" and is the only way to refer to that color.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=ASALE |first1=RAE- |last2=RAE |title=negro, negra {{!}} Diccionario de la lengua española |url=https://dle.rae.es/negro |access-date=February 1, 2023 |website=«Diccionario de la lengua española» - Edición del Tricentenario |language=es |archive-date=December 7, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221207211744/https://dle.rae.es/negro |url-status=live }}</ref>


==See also==
==See also==
*[[Cultural appropriation]]
*[[List of ethnic group names used as insults]] (distinct from the below)
*[[List of ethnic slurs]]
*[[List of ethnic slurs]]
**[[List of ethnic group names used as insults]]
*[[Profanity]] &#8212; with a discussion of how words can differ in meaning and offensiveness depending on who is using them.
**[[Kaffir (ethnic slur)]]
*[[Racism]]
*[[Taboo]]
**[[Blackfella]]
*''[[Guilty or Innocent of Using the N Word]]'', a 2006 documentary
*[[Wigger]]
*[[List of topics related to the African diaspora]]
*[[Wiktionary:Nigger]]
*"[[With Apologies to Jesse Jackson]]", an episode of ''[[South Park]]'' with a plot revolving around the word's extreme offensiveness
*[[Racism]]
*[[Golliwog]]
*[[Profanity]]


==Notes==
== External links ==
{{wiktionary}}
{{notelist}}

*[http://www.ferris.edu/news/jimcrow/caricature/ "Nigger and Caricatures," Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, Ferris State University]
==References==
*[http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/2420/Nigger_the_word_a_brief_history "Nigger (the word), a brief history!" from the African American Registry]
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
*{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=The Oxford English Dictionary |edition=2nd |year=1989 |article=nigger}}
*{{cite book |last=Fuller |first=Neely Jr. |year=1984 |title=The United Independent Compensatory Code/System/Concept: A Textbook/Workbook for Thought, Speech, and/or Action, for Victims of Racism (white supremacy) |id=ASIN B000BVZW38}}
*{{cite book |last=Kennedy |first=Randall |author-link=Randall Kennedy |year=2002 |title=Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word |publisher=Pantheon Books |location=New York |isbn=978-0-375-42172-3|title-link=Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word}}
*{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Stephanie |year=2005 |title=Household Words: Bloomers, Sucker, Bombshell, Scab, Nigger, Cyber |publisher=[[University of Minnesota Press]] |location=Minneapolis |isbn=978-0-8166-4552-7}}
*{{cite book |last=Swan |first=Robert J. |year=2003 |title=New Amsterdam Gehenna: Segregated Death in New York City, 1630–1801 |publisher=Noir Verite Press |location=Brooklyn |isbn=978-0-9722813-0-0}}
*{{cite journal |last=Worth |first=Robert F. |title=Nigger Heaven and the Harlem Renaissance |journal=African American Review |date=Fall 1995 |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=461–473 |doi=10.2307/3042395 |jstor=3042395}}

{{Wiktionary|nigger|N-word}}
==Further reading==
{{commons category|Nigger}}
*{{cite book |last=Asim |first=Jabari |title=The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't, and Why |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Company]] |date=2007 |location=Boston |isbn=978-0-618-19717-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/nword00jaba}}


{{Ethnic slurs}}
[[Category:Pejorative terms for people]]
[[Category:Ethnic slurs]]


[[Category:1775 neologisms]]
[[de:Nigger]]
[[Category:African-American-related controversies]]
[[simple:Nigger]]
[[Category:African-American society]]
[[he:כושי]]
[[Category:American English words]]
[[Category:Anti-African and anti-black slurs]]
[[Category:English profanity]]
[[Category:English words]]
[[Category:Ethnonyms of African Americans]]
[[Category:Ethnonyms of dark-skinned Africans]]
[[Category:Historical ethnonyms]]

Latest revision as of 23:03, 22 December 2024

In the English language, nigger is a racial slur directed toward black people. Starting in the 1990s,[1] references to nigger have been increasingly replaced by the euphemistic contraction "the N-word", notably in cases where nigger is mentioned but not directly used.[2] In an instance of linguistic reappropriation, the term nigger is also used casually and fraternally among African Americans, most commonly in the form of nigga, whose spelling reflects the phonology of African-American English.[2][3]

The origin of the word lies with the Latin adjective niger ([ˈnɪɡɛr]), meaning "black".[2][3] It was initially seen as a relatively neutral term, essentially synonymous with the English word negro. Early attested uses during the Atlantic slave trade (16th–19th century) often conveyed a merely patronizing attitude. The word took on a derogatory connotation from the mid-18th century onward, and "degenerated into an overt slur" by the middle of the 19th century. Some authors still used the term in a neutral sense up until the later part of the 20th century, at which point the use of nigger became increasingly controversial regardless of its context or intent.[2][3][4]

Because the word nigger has historically "wreaked symbolic violence, often accompanied by physical violence", it began to disappear from general popular culture from the second half of the 20th century onward, with the exception of cases derived from intra-group usage such as hip hop culture.[3] The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary describes the term as "perhaps the most offensive and inflammatory racial slur in English".[3] The Oxford English Dictionary writes that "this word is one of the most controversial in English, and is liable to be considered offensive or taboo in almost all contexts (even when used as a self-description)".[2] At the trial of O. J. Simpson, prosecutor Christopher Darden referred to it as "the filthiest, dirtiest, nastiest word in the English language".[5] Intra-group usage has been criticized by some contemporary Black American authors, a group of them (the eradicationists) calling for the total abandonment of its usage (even under the variant nigga), which they see as contributing to the "construction of an identity founded on self-hate".[3][6][7][8] In wider society, the inclusion of the word nigger in classic works of literature (as in Mark Twain's 1884 book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) and in more recent cultural productions (such as Quentin Tarantino's 1994 film Pulp Fiction and 2012 film Django Unchained) has sparked controversy and ongoing debate.[6][8]

The word nigger has also been historically used to designate "any person considered to be of low social status" (as in the expression white nigger) or "any person whose behavior is regarded as reprehensible". In some cases, with awareness of the word's offensive connotation, but without intention to cause offense, it can refer to a "victim of prejudice likened to that endured by African-Americans" (as in John Lennon's 1972 song "Woman Is the Nigger of the World").[2]

Etymology and history

Early use

The variants neger and negar derive from various Romance words for 'black', including the Spanish and Portuguese word negro ('black') and the now-pejorative French nègre. Etymologically, negro, noir, nègre, and nigger ultimately derive from nigrum, the stem of the Latin niger ('black').

In its original English-language usage, nigger (also spelled niger) was a word for a dark-skinned individual. The earliest known published use of the term dates from 1574, in a work alluding to "the Nigers of Aethiop, bearing witnes".[9] According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first derogatory usage of the term nigger was recorded two centuries later, in 1775.[10]

In the colonial America of 1619, John Rolfe used negars in describing the African slaves shipped to the Virginia colony.[11] Later American English spellings, neger and neggar, prevailed in New York under the Dutch and in metropolitan Philadelphia's Moravian and Pennsylvania Dutch communities; the African Burial Ground in New York City originally was known by the Dutch name Begraafplaats van de Neger (Cemetery of the Negro). An early occurrence of neger in American English dates from 1625 in Rhode Island.[12] Lexicographer Noah Webster suggested the neger spelling in place of negro in his 1806 dictionary.[13]

18th- and 19th-century United States

Lyrics for the song "Run, Nigger, Run", about a fugitive slave escaping from a slave patrol, printed in 1851

During the late 18th and early 19th century, the word "nigger" also described an actual labor category, which African American laborers adopted for themselves as a social identity, and thus white people used the descriptor word as a distancing or derogatory epithet, as if "quoting black people" and their non-standard language.[14] During the early 1800s to the late 1840s fur trade in the Western United States, the word was spelled "niggur", and is often recorded in the literature of the time. George Fredrick Ruxton used it in his "mountain man" lexicon, without pejorative connotation. "Niggur" was evidently similar to the modern use of "dude" or "guy". This passage from Ruxton's Life in the Far West illustrates the word in spoken form—the speaker here referring to himself: "Travler, marm, this niggur's no travler; I ar' a trapper, marm, a mountain-man, wagh!"[15] It was not used as a term exclusively for blacks among mountain men during this period, as Indians, Mexicans, and Frenchmen and Anglos alike could be a "niggur".[16] "The noun slipped back and forth from derogatory to endearing."[17]

By 1859 the term was clearly used to offend, in an attack on abolitionist John Brown.[18]

The term "colored" or "negro" became a respectful alternative. In 1851, the Boston Vigilance Committee, an abolitionist organization, posted warnings to the Colored People of Boston and vicinity. Writing in 1904, journalist Clifton Johnson documented the "opprobrious" character of the word nigger, emphasizing that it was chosen in the South precisely because it was more offensive than "colored" or "negro".[19] By the turn of the century, "colored" had become sufficiently mainstream that it was chosen as the racial self-identifier for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 2008 Carla Sims, its communications director, said "the term 'colored' is not derogatory, [the NAACP] chose the word 'colored' because it was the most positive description commonly used [in 1909, when the association was founded]. It's outdated and antiquated but not offensive."[20]

Mark Twain, in the autobiographic book Life on the Mississippi (1883), used the term within quotes, indicating reported speech, but used the term "negro" when writing in his own narrative persona.[21] Joseph Conrad published a novella in Britain with the title The Nigger of the "Narcissus" (1897); in the United States, it was released as The Children of the Sea: A Tale of the Forecastle; the original had been called "the ugliest conceivable title" in a British review[22] and American reviewers understood the change as reflecting American "refinement" and "prudery."[23]

The US edition of Joseph Conrad's The Nigger of the "Narcissus" was called The Children of the Sea.

20th-century United States

A style guide to British English usage, H.W. Fowler's A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, states in the first edition (1926) that applying the word nigger to "others than full or partial negroes" is "felt as an insult by the person described, & betrays in the speaker, if not deliberate insolence, at least a very arrogant inhumanity"; but the second edition (1965) states "N. has been described as 'the term that carries with it all the obloquy and contempt and rejection which whites have inflicted on blacks'".[24] The quoted formula goes back to the writings of the American journalist Harold R. Isaacs, who used it in several writings between 1963 and 1975.[25] Black characters in Nella Larsen's 1929 novel Passing view its use as offensive; one says "I'm really not such an idiot that I don't realize that if a man calls me a nigger, it's his fault the first time, but mine if he has the opportunity to do it again."[26]

By the late 1960s, the social change brought about by the civil rights movement had legitimized the racial identity word black as mainstream American English usage to denote black-skinned Americans of African ancestry. President Thomas Jefferson had used this word of his slaves in his Notes on the State of Virginia (1785), but "black" had not been widely used until the later 20th century. (See black pride, and, in the context of worldwide anti-colonialism initiatives, Négritude.)

In the 1980s, the term "African American" was advanced analogously to such terms as "German American" and "Irish American", and was adopted by major media outlets. Moreover, as a compound word, African American resembles the vogue word Afro-American, an early-1970s popular usage. Some Black Americans continue to use the word nigger, often spelled as nigga and niggah, without irony, either to neutralize the word's impact or as a sign of solidarity.[27]

Usage

Surveys from 2006 showed that the American public widely perceived usage of the term to be wrong or unacceptable, but that nearly half of whites and two-thirds of blacks knew someone personally who referred to blacks by the term.[28] Nearly one-third of whites and two-thirds of blacks said they had personally used the term within the last five years.[28]

In names of people, places and things

Political use

Historical American cartoon titled "Why the nigger is not fit to vote", by Thomas Nast, arguing the reason Democrats objected to African-Americans having the vote was that, in the 1868 US presidential election, African-Americans voted for the Republican candidates Ulysses S. Grant and Schuyler Colfax. "Seymour friends meet here" in the background is a reference to the Democratic Party candidate: Horatio Seymour.

"Niggers in the White House"[29] was written in reaction to an October 1901 White House dinner hosted by Republican President Theodore Roosevelt, who had invited Booker T. Washington—an African-American presidential advisor—as a guest. The poem reappeared in 1929 after First Lady Lou Hoover, wife of President Herbert Hoover, invited Jessie De Priest, the wife of African-American congressman Oscar De Priest, to a tea for congressmen's wives at the White House.[30] The identity of the author—who used the byline "unchained poet"—remains unknown.

In explaining his refusal to be conscripted to fight the Vietnam War (1955–75), professional boxer Muhammad Ali said, "No Vietcong ever called me nigger."[31] Later, his modified answer was the title of a documentary, No Vietnamese Ever Called Me Nigger (1968), about the front-line lot of the U.S. Army black soldier in combat in Vietnam.[32] An Ali biographer reports that, when interviewed by Robert Lipsyte in 1966, the boxer actually said, "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong."[33]

On February 28, 2007, the New York City Council symbolically banned the use of the word nigger; however, there is no penalty for using it. This formal resolution also requests excluding from Grammy Award consideration every song whose lyrics contain the word; however, Ron Roecker, vice president of communication for the Recording Academy, doubted it will have any effect on actual nominations.[34][35]

The word can be invoked politically for effect. When Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick came under intense scrutiny for his conduct in 2008, he deviated from an address to the city council, saying, "In the past 30 days, I've been called a nigger more than any time in my entire life." Opponents accused him of "playing the race card" to save his political life.[36]

Cultural use

The implicit racism of the word nigger has generally rendered its use taboo. Magazines and newspapers typically do not use this word but instead print censored versions such as "n*gg*r", "n**ger", "n——" or "the N-word";[37] see below.

1885 illustration from Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, captioned "Misto Bradish's nigger"

The use of nigger in older literature has become controversial because of the word's modern meaning as a racist insult. One of the most enduring controversies has been the word's use in Mark Twain's novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885). Huckleberry Finn was the fifth most challenged book during the 1990s, according to the American Library Association.[38] The novel is written from the point of view, and largely in the language, of an uneducated white boy, who is drifting down the Mississippi River on a raft with an adult escaped slave, Jim. The word "nigger" is used (mostly about Jim) over 200 times.[39][40] Twain's advocates note that the novel is composed in then-contemporary vernacular usage, not racist stereotype, because Jim, the black man, is a sympathetic character.

In 2011, a new edition published by NewSouth Books replaced the word nigger with slave and also removed the word injun. The change was spearheaded by Twain scholar Alan Gribben in the hope of "countering the 'pre-emptive censorship'" that results from the book's being removed from school curricula over language concerns.[41][42] The changes sparked outrage from critics Elon James, Alexandra Petri and Chris Meadows.[43]

In his 1999 memoir All Souls, Irish-American Michael Patrick MacDonald describes how many white residents of the Old Colony Housing Project in South Boston used this meaning to degrade the people considered to be of lower status, whether white or black.[44]

Of course, no one considered himself a nigger. It was always something you called someone who could be considered anything less than you. I soon found out there were a few black families living in Old Colony. They'd lived there for years and everyone said that they were okay, that they weren't niggers but just black. It felt good to all of us to not be as bad as the hopeless people in D Street or, God forbid, the ones in Columbia Point, who were both black and niggers. But now I was jealous of the kids in Old Harbor Project down the road, which seemed like a step up from Old Colony ...

In an academic setting

The word's usage in literature has led to it being a point of discussion in university lectures as well. In 2008, Arizona State University English professor Neal A. Lester created what has been called "the first ever college-level class designed to explore the word 'nigger'".[45] Starting in the following decade, colleges struggled with attempts to teach material about the slur in a sensitive manner. In 2012, a sixth grade Chicago teacher Lincoln Brown was suspended after repeating the contents of a racially charged note being passed around in class. Brown later filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the headmaster and the Chicago public schools.[46] A New Orleans high school also experienced controversy in 2017.[47] Such increased attention prompted Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor, the daughter of Richard Pryor and a professor at Smith College, to give a talk opining that the word was leading to a "social crisis" in higher education.[48]

In addition to Smith College, Emory University, Augsburg University, Southern Connecticut State University, and Simpson College all suspended professors in 2019 over referring to the word "nigger" by name in classroom settings.[49][50][51] In two other cases, a professor at Princeton decided to stop teaching a course on hate speech after students protested his utterance of "nigger" and a professor at DePaul had his law course cancelled after 80% of the enrolled students transferred out.[52][53] Instead of pursuing disciplinary action, a student at the College of the Desert challenged his professor in a viral class presentation which argued that her use of the word in a lecture was not justified.[54]

In the workplace

In 2018, the head of the media company Netflix, Reed Hastings, fired his chief communications officer, Jonathan Friedland, for using the word twice during internal discussions about sensitive words.[55] In explaining why, Hastings wrote:

[The word's use] in popular media like music and film have created some confusion as to whether or not there is ever a time when the use of the N-word is acceptable. For non-Black people, the word should not be spoken as there is almost no context in which it is appropriate or constructive (even when singing a song or reading a script). There is not a way to neutralize the emotion and history behind the word in any context. The use of the phrase 'N-word' was created as a euphemism, and the norm, with the intention of providing an acceptable replacement and moving people away from using the specific word. When a person violates this norm, it creates resentment, intense frustration, and great offense for many.[56]

The following year, screenwriter Walter Mosley turned down a job after his human resources department took issue with him using the word to describe racism that he experienced as a black man.[57]

While defending Laurie Sheck, a professor who was cleared of ethical violations for quoting I Am Not Your Negro by James Baldwin, John McWhorter wrote that efforts to condemn racist language by white Americans had undergone mission creep.[58] Similar controversies outside the United States have occurred at the University of Western Ontario in Canada and the Madrid campus of Syracuse University.[59][60] In June 2020, Canadian news host Wendy Mesley was suspended and replaced with a guest host after she attended a meeting on racial justice and, in the process of quoting a journalist, used "a word that no-one like me should ever use".[61] In August 2020, BBC news, with the agreement of victim and family, mentioned the slur when reporting on a physical and verbal assault on the black NHS worker and musician K-Dogg. Within the week the BBC received over 18,600 complaints, the black radio host David Whitely resigned in protest, and the BBC apologized.[62]

In 2021, in Tampa, Florida, a 27-year-old black employee at a Dunkin' Donuts punched a 77-year-old white customer after the customer had repeatedly called the employee a nigger.[63] The customer fell to the floor and hit his head. Three days later, he died, having suffered a skull fracture and brain contusions. The employee was arrested, and charged with manslaughter. In a plea bargain, the employee pled guilty to felony battery, and was sentenced to two years of house arrest. In 2022, in explaining why the employee did not receive any jail time, Grayson Kamm, a spokesman for Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren, said "Two of the primary factors were the aggressive approach the victim took toward the defendant and everyone working with the defendant, and that the victim repeatedly used possibly the most aggressive and offensive term in the English language."[64]

Intra-group versus intergroup usage

Black listeners often react to the term differently, depending on whether it is used by white speakers or by black speakers. In the former case, it is regularly understood as insensitive or insulting; in the latter, it may carry notes of in-group disparagement, or it may be understood as neutral or affectionate, a possible instance of reappropriation.[65]

In the black community, nigger is often rendered as nigga. This usage has been popularized by the rap and hip-hop music cultures and is used as part of an in-group lexicon and speech. It is not necessarily derogatory and is often used to mean homie or friend.[66]

Acceptance of intra-group usage of the word nigga is still debated,[66] although it has established a foothold amongst younger generations. The NAACP denounces the use of both nigga and nigger. Usage of nigga by mixed-race individuals is still largely considered taboo,[a] albeit not as inflammatory as nigger. As of 2001, trends indicated that usage of the term in intragroup settings is increasing even amongst white youth, due to the popularity of rap and hip hop culture.[67] Linguist Keith Allan rejects the view that nigger is always a slur, arguing that it is also used as a marker of camaraderie and friendship, comparable to the British and Australian term "mate" or the American "buddy".[68]

According to Arthur K. Spears in Diverse Issues in Higher Education, 2006:

In many African-American neighborhoods, nigga is simply the most common term used to refer to any male, of any race or ethnicity. Increasingly, the term has been applied to any person, male or female. "Where y'all niggas goin?" is said with no self-consciousness or animosity to a group of women, for the routine purpose of obtaining information. The point: nigga is evaluatively neutral in terms of its inherent meaning; it may express positive, neutral, or negative attitudes;[69]

Kevin Cato, meanwhile, observes:

For instance, a show on Black Entertainment Television, a cable network aimed at a Black audience, described the word nigger as a "term of endearment". "In the African American community, the word nigga. (not nigger) brings out feelings of pride." (Davis 1). Here the word evokes a sense of community and oneness among Black people. Many teens I interviewed felt the word had no power when used amongst friends, but when used among white people the word took on a completely different meaning. In fact, comedian Alex Thomas on BET stated, "I still better not hear no white boy say that to me ... I hear a white boy say that to me, it means 'White boy, you gonna get your ass beat.'"[70]

Addressing the use of nigger by black people, philosopher and public intellectual Cornel West said in 2007:

There's a certain rhythmic seduction to the word. If you speak in a sentence, and you have to say cat, companion, or friend, as opposed to nigger, then the rhythmic presentation is off. That rhythmic language is a form of historical memory for Black people ... When Richard Pryor came back from Africa, and decided to stop using the word onstage, he would sometimes start to slip up, because he was so used to speaking that way. It was the right word at the moment to keep the rhythm together in his sentence making.[71]

2010s: increase in use and controversy

In the 2010s, "nigger" in its various forms saw use with increasing frequency by African Americans amongst themselves or in self-expression, the most common swear word in hip hop music lyrics.[72][73] Ta-Nehisi Coates suggested that it continues to be unacceptable for non-blacks to utter while singing or rapping along to hip-hop, and that by being so restrained it gives white Americans (specifically) an impression of what it is like to not be entitled to "do anything they please, anywhere". A concern often raised is whether frequent exposure will inevitably lead to a dilution of the extremely negative perception of the word among the majority of non-black Americans who currently consider its use unacceptable and shocking.[74]

Derivatives

Anti-abolitionist cartoon from the 1860 presidential campaign illustrating colloquial usage of "Nigger in the woodpile"

In several English-speaking countries, "Niggerhead" or "nigger head" was used as a name for many sorts of things, including commercial products, places, plants and animals, as a descriptive term (lit. 'black person's head'). It also is or was a colloquial technical term in industry, mining, and seafaring. Nigger as "defect" (a hidden problem), derives from "nigger in the woodpile", a US slave-era phrase denoting escaped slaves hiding in train-transported woodpiles.[75] In the 1840s, the Morning Chronicle newspaper report series London Labour and the London Poor, by Henry Mayhew, records the usages of both "nigger" and the similar-sounding word "niggard" denoting a false bottom for a grate.[76]

In American English, "nigger lover" initially applied to abolitionists, then to white people sympathetic towards black Americans.[77] The portmanteau word wigger ('White' + 'nigger') denotes a white person emulating "street Black behavior", hoping to gain acceptance to the hip hop, thug, and gangsta sub-cultures. Norman Mailer wrote of the antecedents of this phenomenon in 1957 in his essay The White Negro.

The N-word euphemism

Notable usage[78]

The prosecutor [Christopher Darden], his voice trembling, added that the "N-word" was so vile he would not utter it. "It's the filthiest, dirtiest, nastiest word in the English language."

— Kenneth B. Noble, January 14, 1995 The New York Times[79]

One of the first uses of the N-word euphemism by a major public figure came during the racially contentious O. J. Simpson murder case in 1995. Key prosecution witness Detective Mark Fuhrman, of the Los Angeles Police Department—who denied using racist language on duty—impeached himself with his prolific use of nigger in tape recordings about his police work. Co-prosecutor Christopher Darden refused to say the actual word, calling it "the filthiest, dirtiest, nastiest word in the English language". Media personnel who reported on Fuhrman's testimony substituted the N-word for nigger.[80][81]

Similar-sounding words

Niger (Latin for "black") occurs in Latinate scientific nomenclature and is the root word for some homophones of nigger; sellers of niger seed (used as bird feed), sometimes use the spelling Nyjer seed. The classical Latin pronunciation /ˈniɡeɾ/ sounds similar to the English /ˈnɪɡər/, occurring in biologic and anatomic names, such as Hyoscyamus niger (black henbane), and even for animals that are in fact not black, such as Sciurus niger (fox squirrel).

Nigra is the Latin feminine form of niger (black), used in biologic and anatomic names such as substantia nigra (black substance).

The word niggardly (miserly) is etymologically unrelated to nigger, derived from the Old Norse word nig (stingy) and the Middle English word nigon. In the US, this word has been misinterpreted as related to nigger and taken as offensive. In January 1999, David Howard, a white Washington, D.C., city employee, was compelled to resign after using niggardly—in a financial context—while speaking with black colleagues, who took umbrage. After reviewing the misunderstanding, Mayor Anthony A. Williams offered to reinstate Howard to his former position. Howard refused reinstatement but took a job elsewhere in the mayor's government.[82]

Spanish: Negro [ˈne.ɣ̞ɾo] is the Spanish word for black, and is commonly a part of place names and proper names, particularly in the Southwest of the United States.

Denotational extension

Graffiti left by Kach members on a Palestinian home in Hebron, referring to the residents as "Arab sand-niggers", was discovered in the aftermath of Operation Defensive Shield (May 3, 2002).[83]

The denotations of nigger also include non-black/non-white and other disadvantaged people. Some of these terms are self-chosen, to identify with the oppression and resistance of black Americans; others are ethnic slurs used by outsiders.

Jerry Farber's 1967 essay collection, The Student as Nigger, used the word as a metaphor for what he saw as the role forced on students. Farber had been, at the time, frequently arrested as a civil rights activist while beginning his career as a literature professor.

In his 1968 autobiography White Niggers of America: The Precocious Autobiography of a Quebec "Terrorist", Pierre Vallières, a Front de libération du Québec leader, refers to the oppression of the Québécois people in North America.

In 1969, in the course of being interviewed by the British magazine Nova, artist Yoko Ono said "woman is the nigger of the world;" three years later, her husband, John Lennon, published the song of the same name—about the worldwide phenomenon of discrimination against women—which was socially and politically controversial to US sensibilities.

Sand nigger, an ethnic slur against Arabs, and timber nigger and prairie nigger, ethnic slurs against Native Americans, are examples of the racist extension of nigger upon other non-white peoples.[84]

In 1978, singer Patti Smith used the word in "Rock N Roll Nigger". One year later in 1979, English singer Elvis Costello used the phrase "white nigger" in his song "Oliver's Army". The slur usually remains uncensored on radio stations, but Costello's usage of the word came under scrutiny, particularly after he used racial slurs during a drunken argument with Stephen Stills and Bonnie Bramlett in 1979. In the same year, Costello's father published a letter in Rolling Stone defending his son against accusations of racism, stating "Nothing could be further from the truth. My own background has meant that I am passionately opposed to any form of prejudice based on religion or race... His mother comes from the tough multiracial area of Liverpool, and I think she would still beat the tar out of him if his orthodoxy were in doubt".[85]

Historian Eugene Genovese, noted for bringing a Marxist perspective to the study of power, class, and relations between planters and slaves in the South, uses the word pointedly in The World the Slaveholders Made (1988).

For reasons common to the slave condition all slave classes displayed a lack of industrial initiative and produced the famous Lazy Nigger, who under Russian serfdom and elsewhere was white. Just as not all Blacks, even under the most degrading forms of slavery, consented to become niggers, so by no means all or even most of the niggers in history have been Black.

The editor of Green Egg, a magazine described in The Encyclopedia of American Religions as a significant periodical, published an essay entitled "Niggers of the New Age". This argued that Neo-Pagans were treated badly by other parts of the New Age movement.[86]

Other languages

Other languages, particularly Romance languages, have words that sound similar to or share etymological roots with nigger but do not necessarily mean the same. In some of these languages, the words refer to the color black in general and are not specifically used to refer to black people. When used to refer to black people, these words have acquired varying degrees of offensiveness, ranging from completely neutral (as in Spanish negro) to highly racist (as in Finnish Neekeri). Examples of related words in other languages include:

  • Bulgarian: Негър (negar), loaned from French nègre, is considered a neutral word for black people in Bulgaria. Some publications and institutions use чернокож or тъмнокож, but the use of негър is more widespread.
  • Dutch: Neger ('negro') used to be neutral, but many now consider it to be avoided in favor of zwarte ('black').[87][88][89][90] Zwartje ('little black one') can be amicably or offensively used. Nikker is always pejorative.[91]
  • Finnish: Neekeri ('negro/nigger'), as a loan word ('Neger') from the Swedish language appeared for the first time in a book published in 1771.[92] The use of the Finnish equivalent ('neekeri') began in the late 19th century. Until the 1980s, it was commonly used and generally not yet considered derogatory, although a few instances of it being considered to be so have been documented since the 1950s; by the mid-1990s the word was considered racist, especially in the metropolitan area and among the younger population.[93] It has since then usually been replaced by the metonym 'musta' ('black [person]').[94] In a survey conducted in 2000, Finnish respondents considered the term 'Neekeri' to be among the most offensive of minority designations.[95]
  • French: Nègre is now considered derogatory. Although Nègre littéraire was the standard term for a ghostwriter, it has largely been supplanted by prête-plume. Some white Frenchmen have the surname Nègre. The word can still be used as a synonym of "sweetheart" in some traditional Louisiana French creole songs.
  • German: Neger is dated and now considered offensive. Schwarze/-r ('black [person]') or Farbige/-r ("colored [person]") is more neutral.
  • Haitian Creole: nèg is used for any man in general, regardless of skin color (like dude in American English). Haitian Creole derives predominantly from French.
  • Italian has three variants: negro, nero and di colore. The first one is the most historically attested and was the most commonly used until the 1960s as an equivalent of the English word "negro". It was gradually felt as offensive during the 1970s and replaced with nero and di colore. Nero was considered a better translation of the English word black, while di colore is a loan translation of the English word colored.[96]
  • Portuguese: Negro (as well as preto) is neutral;[97] nevertheless preto can be offensive or at least "politically incorrect" and is almost never proudly used by Afro-Brazilians. Crioulo and macaco are always extremely pejorative.[98]
  • Romanian: Negrotei is derogatory;[99]
  • Russian: the word негр (negr) has been commonly used as neutral word to describe black people until recent years. It can also be used as a synonym for underpaid worker, "литературный негр" (literaturny negr) means ghostwriter.[100][101][102] Nowadays, a black person would often be described neutrally as "чернокожий" (chernokozhij, 'black-skinned'), though the organization Help Needed instead recommends "темнокожий" (temnokozhij, 'dark-skinned').[103]
  • Spanish: Negro is the word for "black" and is the only way to refer to that color.[104]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Whether this usage is considered acceptable may depend on a sense of the speaker's in-group belonging, as judged by the speaker him- or herself, the listener(s), or others.

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Sources

Further reading