NO!
NO!
152 comments
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Jokes aside, I'm about 95% sure Elmo is supposed to be black-coded
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You're not wrong, Sesame Street was developed to look like Harlem. It's been very much about black representation in every aspect they could consider since the very early days.
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Elmos voice actor til 2012
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How the hell is Elmo black-coded?
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Have you ever heard Elmo talk
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Holy shit
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Black guy here:
I give all you motherfuckers the Nigga Pass. I hereby bestow you all the title of Honourary Niggaz.
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Person here: I give you the homie badge
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Another person here: and I gave you..let's just say you should probably schedule a doctor's visit.
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Sweet! Now I can sing along to The Story of OJ in Harlem without any worries.
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Autistic here. I give you all permission to use the word Dork whenever you want.
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I've been given the pass by multiple black friends. I still can't bring myself to actually use it.
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when the time is right youll know. and have 2 passes so no ridicule
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Nice tap dancing.
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Yeah this is the one instance where idgaf I'm saying it.
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Nah. I listen to 90s hip hop quite a bit. No way around the word.
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I still don't even dare to say it even when I'm alone in my car and singing along because I don't want to slip if I ever sing it in public
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I do the same, but this is really the issue with words some people are allowed to say but others aren't. Hearing something all the time and not saying it just isn't something we're built for. So it's kind of like encouraging a cultural separation.
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If I recall correctly, many organizations that advocate in the interest of black people prefer no one use the word.
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It's for that reason why I advocate for everyone to be allowed to say it just like we do with cracker yea one is more prominent than the other but man if we are equal than shouldn't it be easy to decide if slurs are allowed at all or not yet again I advocate for all slurs to be allowed by everyone because banning them just gives them power via significance
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I mean, it's not that difficult. I listen to plenty of rap and I don't think I've ever spoken the word, certainly not in public. I don't see it as cultural separation but as cultural respect.
Eminem has gone an entire rap career without saying it, and he doesn't seem very fussed about it.Edit: He has said it before earlier in his career, but not now for quite a while. The general point I'm making is the same though.
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If it's in the song I like I just go along with. Me doing that isn't in any negative way. If the artist don't like some people say it, they shouldn't put in there.
Skipping it or bleeping it out is like censoring art.
He did give her a second try on the song.
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Hypocrite
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"If the artist don't like some people say it, they shouldn't put in there."
I think I've heard the response to this from creators, the idea is that it isn't made for you. They create media informed by black experiences and tailored for black audiences. They don't feel like they should have to change that to accommodate white/non-black audiences, and not doing so shouldn't be a free pass for people to turn bigoted language back at them.
Take what you will from that, and consider that I cited a vague "they" with no clear reference or origin. I'm going off shoddy memory, and as a non-black person.
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Same reason I tend to avoid songs with swears.
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Sir this is a Christian house hold
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What do you mean you're "not allowed to speak" it? lol. Y'all are so weird about being racist.
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You're ridiculous. You have that much trouble not saying nigga that you have to pretend the word doesn't exist?
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I once worked with a black dude who said the word all the time. One day we were talking hella shit about our boss and all kinds of n words flying out of his mouth, and I let one loose too, froze, and looked at him and he didn't even give a shit.
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People joke about the hard R but there really is a huge difference. And besides, people know there's a big contextual difference. Homies aren't going to mind if you're just hanging out with them ... probably.
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I'm curious, is there another word that have the same taboo status as the n-word? I've never heard of another word that can only be uttered if you have the right shade of skin. What a stupid world we live in, seriously.
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I'm not speaking from any position of authority here, but I think it has more to do with being in the right culture, not the right skin color like some people imply.
There are urban white kids who grew up in the projects who use the same language as their black peers, and I think generally no one cares. However, when someone outside that culture uses that language, it's not something they use for normal speech and there's probably some other motivation behind it. It's just like in a lot of people's speech they say "bro" but it doesn't mean brother. To people outside the culture it means black person, but they use it like others use "bro". It doesn't really mean anything.
Reiterating, I have very little experience with this. It's just my observations. I've known black people who it'd be weird for them to use this language and seen white people who it's just a normal part of their speech.
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That makes a bit more sense if that's a culture thing, but how do you define someone who belong in that culture? Is a black person born from a very wealthy European family still allowed to say it, even though he might have nothing to do with the culture? It just seems weird to me how you clearly define this, I mean even clearly defining what a black person is, is pretty much impossible.
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Maybe some well off black people wouldn't use the word, but it certainly would not be acceptable for any white person to use it in any context. Even if they grew up in "the hood" it would, at the very least, be frowned upon for them to say it. In many places it would earn them an immediate beat down.
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It's called "reappropriation", and there are words in other groups, such as the LGBT community, which are only considered "acceptable" when used by members of the in-group.
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That's fair, my only issue is clearly determining what makes someone a member of the group. I guess for LGBT it's more clearly defined, but it becomes a lot harder to determine if you're from X ethnicity or if you belong to Y culture (or I guess the hard part is to make people accept you in their club..)
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My guess is that the N word has pretty much no historical use outside of referring to darker skinned people in as derogatory of a way as possible. The F word for gays is about the only other one, unless you've got a British pal who smokes, but just about every other slur is either so obscure that it's only heard rarely, or has other legitimate uses, so you have to apply context to figure out what the situation is. N word was almost always bad, until they decided to blunt the blade, so to speak, by adopting it as a part of their own vernacular.
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There are exceptions, Puertoricans can say it all they want, just look at fat Joe.
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Voldemort
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There's not another word with as lengthy a history rooted in dehumanization of the other, so the unique status shouldn't be surprising.
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When the artist makes the audience do the chorus in a gig, Elmo better not fuck it up
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Unless you're Korean. "Ni ga" (니가) literally means "you" in Korean. With the not-so-recent surge in popularity of Kpop globally, I know there's been more than one outraged person accusing Korean rappers of racism for saying "you" in their own language.
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Oh man I remember this in college. I was grabbing some stuff at a Walgreens and this Korean lady was on the phone saying that. When I got home I told one of my roommates and he was "No, no, they weren't being really racist, that's a common phrase in Korean!"
Incredibly unfortunate false cognate.
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Russell Peters, a Canadian comedian, actually mentioned something similar in Mandarin years ago in one of his specials. Here he is talking about going to a KFC in Beijing.
Note: Russell is of Indian descent and uses a lot of racial jokes in both the entire special as well as this specific bit.
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I worked a job where I'd often be driving people speaking Mandarin on conference calls. I had this exact thought while driving them around. I remember hearing this special around that time n laughing my ass off.
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That was pretty hilarious despite some jokes that definitely wouldn't fly today. And were iffy then, too.
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It reminds me of a problem with Japanese let's players, how they've been playing more and more Western games lately, who have been playing Grand Theft Auto V.
See in Japanese culture, onomatopoeia is a bigger thing, and it's not uncommon for people to sing an onomatopoeia or for them to be accounted for in the dialogue for media, especially in anime.
So a notice actually had to be given to Japanese Grand Theft Auto fans to stop playfully singing the N Word (as is done at the end of the infamous Franklin Roast)
Many fans mistook it for a playful onomatopoeia and just began singing it on stream in the most innocent way possible.
There are compilations of famous Japanese Vtubers doing this and it is as adorable as it is uncomfortable
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Or as League of Legends personality “LS” says
Just call people 니가 and they literally cannot punish you
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"Brother" scans and rhymes, and (probably) won't get your ass kicked.
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You got that right, my ninja.
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I think "homie" would work too actually, and feels more correct since it's slang. Like:
"Got my brothers in Paris, and we goin gorillas"
Vs
"Got my homies in Paris, and we goin gorillas"
But I mean it just comes down to which sounds better to you.
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Whoa whoa whoa easy on the hard-r "brother" there.
"Got my brothas in Paris..."
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I just make a record-scratch sound instead of say the word if it's in a song I'm singing. If people think that's lame then I'll live with that. I do NOT want to get comfortable saying that word; I'm the same shade as printer paper.
I had a friend get very comfortable with the phrase "yeaaahhh, ma nizzle" (substitute nizzle for the word it's code for, because I can confirm after using a perfectly acceptable word similar to snickering it will be removed and also I don't wanna type it).
One day, we're at a very rough pub in Digbeth. Lots of drinks had. We're all sat at a table outside, behind my friend are two very large, very black bouncers. One legit looked like the Hulk and capable of casually ripping my friend's head off. The other wasn't as muscled but still well-built and very tall. Then... my friend.... says the words. Everyone at the table kinda freezes and goes quiet. The very tall guy goes "What did he say?!" and the Hulk just shakes his head sadly and says "something stupid". Thank you Hulk for not ripping my friend's head off.
And that, boys and girls, is why you don't get comfortable saying words that aren't for you.
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Would his favorite song be "Elmo in Paris" ?
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Now this is a cover I want.
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Okay but if I'm doing karaoke I'm gonna sing the song like it is. I'm not the guy who's just gonna skip the word or say "neighbor" or something, sorry.
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Read a room. If you think people will be upset, don't say it. If you don't think people will be upset but they are, apologize and don't say it
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I literally just figured out what the meme was about by your comment. I thought people were annoyed by Elmo's voice lol.
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Or just... Don't say it?
EDIT: I'll be honest, didn't expect "don't say the n-word" to be my most controversial take on this platform. Yeesh.
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I still believe "and if you don't know, now you know, boy-o" is a much better line.
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Ah, the block list is going to go up a lot as I read this thread, I'm guessing.
If you aren't black, and you think you have a reason (or are trying to find one) where it's OK to say the N word in a non-academic context (and maybe even then), or you think you have a valid opinion on whether black folks should use it, or you think that black folks using it somehow justifies your use of it, you're either willfully ignorant of the depths to which that word has been used to dehumanize, and thus is indeed worthy of unique treatment, or you're a bigot, and likely both.
Edit: Not as many folks falling over themselves to find the corner case where it should be OK for them as I expected. gg fediverse, you aren't quite as shitty as rt yet.
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It's funny because we made the word powerful by forbidding certain people to say it yet the people it's the most offensive to say it the most.
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it's almost like context is important or something. nah, couldn't be that! nuance is for pussies
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It's not a difficult concept. Just don't say it. The word doesn't have any power above the comradery between black people and hatred coming from a white person. The power dynamic is what's important.
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Elmo should learn to listen to music without racial slurs
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Saying you cant say a word purely based on skin color is text book racism because ti discriminates on skin color race and ethnicity. Also saying that anyone using ut just want to be edgy or offensive is also a bad take since they might just not have american culture values
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being ignorant of African American history and African diaspora in general is not really a great excuse. but that's why people in other parts of the world might get your excuse. it's still pretty awful, but maybe not as awful as living in America and still being ignorant of it. or any country with a history of + hand in African diaspora, really. so like >50% of the world.
oh and if you think NOT saying slurs is racist then I think you might be one of the ignorant ones.
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I dont think I understand your last point
Either way not everyone shares american values or definitions when it comes to words
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152 comments
I'm a school bus driver and by far the weirdest experience (which I have regularly) is driving a busload of middle school or high school girl athletes (almost all white) somewhere and listening to them sing along to music with the n-word in it. They do not skip the n-word.
they wouldn't be edgy and cool if they did.