Self-Use of Ethnic Insults (was: Re: Ebonic Christmas )

On Thu, 13 Jan 2000 15:10:15 GMT hoensch@SOFTHOME.NET writes:
> The poem, offensive or not, is an ACCURATE representation
> of the COMIC STEREOTYPE of blacks.  Based on what?  Based
> on the fact that black comedians use it in their stand-up
> comedy.  Oh, and the prospect that only a member of a people
> can criticize/joke with those people is a rather pathetic
> invention.  If it is not offensive in their eyes, why is it
> considered offensive at all?  If "niger" means "guy" (which
> it does, at least to most Bronx minorities and a number of
> black artists) why is it offensive coming from whites?
.

I'd only heard the word "nigga" in a Chris Rock comedy show on TV, until
i went up to college and heard my roommate's large collection of
(non-radio-censored) rap music.  What i found amazing is that my
suitemates and their friends called eachother "nigga" constantly - and
they're not even African, they're *Asian*!

The closest Jews come to anything similar to the gansta-rap use of
"nigga" is using the word "jew" instead of the phrase "jewish person".
For some reason it sounds rougher, like a Nazi would probably yell "hey,
jew!" and not "hey, jewish person!" when chasing you down the street or
something.  For some reason it sounds derogatory.  Some of my friends
joked around about calling eachother "kike" but decided that it didn't
work very well.  Although, when my brother told a friend of ours (also
jewish) that he wants to move to Alaska, our friend was like "hey, you
can be the state kike!" jokingly, but that's about it.


-Stephen (Steg)
 "And for slanderers let there be no hope..."