Quote:
Originally Posted by Samurai of 2day
When I was younger and fresh off the street before I started my career, I never really had the opportunity to interact with people outside of the black or Hispanic demographic, so if I heard someone use any word in a derogatory way that was outside of those cultures, I would have taken serious offense.
When I started to be exposed to a variety of people of cultural, spiritual and ethnic backgrounds, I realized that the use of derogatory terms and a temp of endearment is more of a geographical phenomenon.
For example, growing up in Brooklyn and Queens, there were not many white people in my neighborhoods, so friends and family would use seemingly derogatory words as a term of endearment... like "that's my ni&&a" or "what up, ni&&a". Don't get me wrong, it could still be used in a derogatory manner within a cultural group, like "fuk that ni&&a". Hearing someone outside of this geographical and cultural group use terms like those would be considered extremely racist, probably most likely due to the rarity of interaction between the two groups.
Now on the other hand, there are MANY cities and towns that can fall into the "ghetto" or "hood" throughout the US that have a mixture between white and black people and the people within those communities can use those terms without discrimination because it is acceptable within that specific community.
Ultimately, I believe it boils down to our individual levels of tolerance, and the younger we are, the less we are willing to tolerate because of inexperience and lack of understanding. So I wouldn't get offended if I hear those words at this age because, I just don't care... unless of course it's being used in a manner to degrade me as an individual specifically...
then, dems fightin words as far as I'm concerned, lol.
See, typical ni&&a.  |
Yeah, agreed. I think nowadays it's less "serious."