coogar:

a white man has lost the right to use the word? hehehehehe -
it's safe to say okija-juju is a flaming racist! you are doing the equivalent of what the white supremacists did in the dark age! no one has lost any right to say anything and it saddens me black people blame the whites for their sufferings in the slave era. if only africans have put up a united front to stop the slave merchants from taking people, there would have been a different outcome but was that the case? your ancestors benefitted from slavery - they got mirrors, rifles, loads of jack daniels and barbie dolls! if there's no seller, there won't be a market!

KINGwax: don't mind that guy, he thought you are a bigot, he doesn't knw you are a 'tribalist'!

*Kails*:


Interesting.
And you have a point but considering i know the way the world works any and every white man is not in the position to remind me of anything. Lol. This is why they cant offend me with nigger. The average white man is broke (pinching pennies), struggling and a victim of the system like everyone else.

Most of them were descendants of scottish and irish slaves. Slaves to their own kind, moors and arabs alike. So any white man who tries to use that on me will be laughed at, as his efforts like the white superemacy movement is an epic fail.

freecocoa: For me its not making fun of them per se, cos its nothing short of the truth.

They use too much oil to cook and saying that isn't a crime or derogatory.

redsun: Never do well and fickle minded people see themselves as niggers,black or white notwithstanding.I see myself as a blackman,very proud and can't wish to be anything else,except for my skin to be darker.

afam4eva:
Why would anyone even describe themselves as "black"? Do you know the color of black at all? Being black means you'll be invisible in the night.

hyelhira:

Who defines 'too much oil'? So there is a 'Generally Accepted Oil Usage Standard' that the Yoruba's are breaching? Does the fact that people do things in a way different from what you are used to mean they are wrong? Give me a break .

I wonder if people like you are intelligent enough to understand the strength that can be harnessed from diversity.

cap28: when a white man uses the word nigger on a black man he is reminding you of your inferior status and the fact that he has had his foot on your neck for the past 500 years, he is reminding you of how his ancestors ra.ped your mother, wife, grandmother and sisters, he is reminding you of how his ancestors lynched you for fun and sat around with their mates laughing and eating while your lifeless body (thats where the world picnic - pick a nigger, came from) hung from a tree or burnt at the stake, he is reminding you of your zero status and powerlessness in the world order, he is reminding you that YOU COME TO HIM FOR JOBS, HOUSING, EDUCATION AND SURVIVAL , a black man can use the word nigger on another black person but it will never ever conjure up the terrible and hateful memories of slavery, ra.pe and lynching that that word connote because the black man in recent times has remained powerless.

a white man's use of the word nigger is a reminder to you the black man that you are still beneath him - it is a way of showing you how contemptuous he is of you and everythign you stand for.

coogar:

the same msdarkskin? what happened to your old moniker?
i have been looking for you for the past 5 years now - what's crackolating?

pak:


Please posters should first try to get their facts right before trying to educate the rest of us.

As for the word 'picnic', you can check the TRUE etymology here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picnic#Etymology


And for those giving false tales about the origin of the word in question -Truth is the word Nigger originated from the latin word 'Niger' for black. The same place you got the name of your country from

Nuzo':
@Op

You asked 3 questions:

1. The origin of the word Negro: it was a name given to black slaves bought or captured from the Niger area.

2. Why is it offensive: it was banned in the USA after the abolishment of slave trade cos the government thought it to be derogatory.

3. If offensive, why do blacks use it freely? Same reason a white guys gets worked up when a non-white calls him a cracker.

pak:


Please posters should first try to get their facts right before trying to educate the rest of us.

As for the word 'picnic', you can check the TRUE etymology here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picnic#Etymology


And for those giving false tales about the origin of the word in question -Truth is the word Nigger originated from the latin word 'Niger' for black. The same place you got the name of your country from

Blacks, Picnics and Lynchings

January 2004

Q: Is it true that the word picnic originally came from the word pick-a-nig or pick-a-nigger? Apparently, a black person was randomly "picked" and hanged for the entertainment of whites. The whites, including families, ate from box lunches while enjoying the barbaric act. If this is true we should stop using the word picnic, replacing it with outing or gathering.

-- Sarah James, Baltimore, Maryland

A: Your question has several components; we will address each component. The etymology of the word picnic does not suggest racist or racial overtones. Picnic was originally a 17th Century French word, picque-nique. Its meaning was similar to today's meaning: a social gathering where each attendee brings a share of the food. The French piquer may have referred to a leisurely style of eating ("pick at your food" or it may, simply, have meant, "pick" (pic). The nique was probably a silly rhyming compound (as in English words like hoity-toity), but may have referred to an obsolete word meaning "a trifle." The literal meaning of picque-nique, which became our picnic, is "each pick a bit." A 1692 edition of Origines de la Langue Francoise de Menage mentions pique-nique. This suggests that the word had been used for some time in France. The term picnic does not appear in the English language until around 1800. 1

It is clear that picnic was not derived from "pick-a-nigger," "pick-a-nig," or similar racist phrases. However, some of the almost 4,000 blacks who were lynched between 1882 and 1962 were lynched in settings that are appropriately described as picnic-like. Phillip Dray, a historian, stated: "Lynching was an undeniable part of daily life, as distinctly American as baseball games and church suppers. Men brought their wives and children to the events, posed for commemorative photographs, and purchased souvenirs of the occasion as if they had been at a company picnic." 2 Bray did not exaggerate. At the end of the 19th century, Henry Smith, a mentally challenged 17-year-old black male, was accused of killing a white girl. Before a cheering crowd of hundreds, Smith was made to sit on a "parade float" drawn by four white horses. The float circled numerous times before the excited crowd tortured, then burned Smith alive. 3 After the lynching the crowd celebrated and collected body parts as souvenirs.

Often the lynch mob acted with haste, but on other occasions the lynching was a long-drawn out affair with speeches, food-eating, and, unfortunately, ritualistic and sadistic torture: victims were dragged behind cars, pierced with knives, burned with hot irons or blowtorches, had their fingers and toes cut off, had their eyes cut out, and were castrated -- all before being hanged or burned to death. One Mississippi newspaper referred to these gruesome acts as "Negro barbeques." 4

In many cases -- arguably in most cases -- lynch mobs had a particular target and confined their heinous aggression to a specific person. Blacks were lynched for a variety of accusations, ranging from murder, and rape (often not true), to trying to vote, and arguing with a white man. In 1938, a white man in Oxford, Mississippi declared that it was "about time to have another lynching. When the niggers get so they are not afraid of being lynched, it is time to put the fear in them." 5 There were many blacks lynched randomly, to send a message of white supremacy to black communities. As noted by Dominic J. Capeci, a historian, when it came to lynching, "one black man served as well as another." 6

We often think of a mob as an insane, bloodthirsty collection of adult male ruffians. However, respectable community leaders, including police, often lynched blacks. Although women and children were not typically the active aggressors they were often in the audience; and, they, too, celebrated. There were "secret lynches," but there were many done publicly -- and planned. Of course, news of an impending lynching traveled fast. Lynching was a brutal attempt to reinforce white supremacy, but it was also entertainment -- and food was present. According to Dray:

"While attendees at lynchings did not take away a plate of food, the experience of having witnessed the event was thought incomplete if one did not go home with some piece of cooked human being; and there is much anecdotal evidence of lynch crowds either consuming food and drink while taking part in the execution, or retiring en masse immediately afterward for a meal or, in the case of a notorious immolation in Pennsylvania in 1911, ice cream sundaes." 7

In 1903 a black man was lynched in Greenville, Mississippi. A white writer said, "Everything was very orderly, there was not a shot, but much laughing and hilarious excitemen... It was quite a gala occasion, and as soon as the corpse was cut down all the crowd betook themselves to the park to see a game of baseball." 8

The claim that the word picnic derived from lynching parties has existed in Black American communities for many years. Although many contemporary etymologists smugly dismiss this claim, it should be noted that there is a kernel of truth in this month's question. 9 The word picnic did not begin with the lynching of black Americans; however, the lynching of blacks often occurred in picnic-like settings.

Dr. David Pilgrim
Curator, Jim Crow Museum
January 2004

Footnotes

1 The information in this paragraph was drawn from several sources. Mish, Frederick C. 2003. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. 11th edition. Springfield: Massachusetts, p. 937. Flexner, Stuart Berg, 1983. The Random House Dictionary of the English Language. New York: Random House. p. 1465. Gove, Philip Babcock, 1993. Webster's Third New International Dictionary. Springfield, Massachusetts. p. 1711.

2 Dray, Philip. 2002. The Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America. New York: Random House. Dray's book is a well-written social history of lynching.

3 Ibid, p. 77-78.

4 Thernstrom, Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom. 1997. America In Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible. New York: Simon & Schuster.

5 McMillen, Neil R. 1990. Dark Journey: Black Mississippians in the Age of Jim Crow. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, p. 98.

6 Capeci, Dominic J. 1998. The Lynching of Cleo Wright. Lexington: The University of Kentucky Press, p. 181.

7 Dray, p. 81.

8 Ibid, p. 81-82.

9 There are many reliable texts examining the lynching of blacks in the United States. See, Ginzburg, Ralph. 1988. 100 Years of Lynching. Baltimore, Maryland: Black Classic Press. Also, White, Walter, 1929. Rope and gay: A Biography of Judge Lynch. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. And, Zangrando, Robert L. 1980. The NAACP Crusade Against Lynching, 1909-1950. Philadelphia; Temple University.

cap28:

thanks for pointing out the etymology of the word picnic - but see below how the word picnic came to be linked with the barbaric act of lynching in america - this information is from the Jim Crow museum of racist memorabilia which i would like to regard as an authoritative source of information about slavery and white supremacy in america:

other than that everything else i have posted is accurate.




http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/question/jan04.htm

also you can check the footnotes of the above if you are still in doubt, thanks

Shaw007: precisely!! Thank you,its their culture,and an outside person has no right what-soever to point that out or critizise them. . .jst cos its nt logical for other cultures doesnt mean its bad for them

afam4eva:
What is good for the goose is good for the gander. Let's not make different rules for different people. If a black man can say nigger to another black man then should a white man should also be able to do same.

[b]AFAM!! the word Nigger has been siezed by the blacks.. Its not just your everyday dictionary word. It was used to oppress, ridicule, demean, subjugate and subdue us.. Whats good for the goose is good for the Gander I agree, but when Whites were owning Niggers, beating Niggers, mugging Niggers, discriminating against Niggers, Hanging Niggers for sport, I wonder where the whats good for the goose theory went to.. WE BLACKS HAVE FORCIBLY TAKEN THAT WORD BACK!! There is a history behind that word.. Blacks greet themselves 'Ma broda', Whites can also call and greet blacks as 'My broda'.. But as far as the word Nigga goes.. The white man has lost every right to that word.. We blacks use that word as a rallying point in our struggle against oppression.. We now own that word.. It was coined by the whites for derogatory purposes and siezed from them by the blacks and used for a whole different context..

When a Black man says to another, 'My Nigger', he means my brother, my comrade, my friend.. It significant in a historic sort of way.. When a White man says 'Nigger'.. He means NIGGER!! [/b]

TerryCarr: it's dumb culture to call yourselves nigger/nigga i don't see Jews calling themselves kikes or Chinese calling themselves chinks or even South Africans calling themselves kaffir

PHC WhiteBoi:

White guys call each other Boys (usually collective). Especially in Ireland and some places of England.
I made the mistake of saying "Alright Boys" in greeting 2 of my Naija men colleagues and I could immediately sense the hurt, Later I made catfish pepper soup and we all got pissed and had a good laugh.

Shaw007: ppl call those guys those names,it was given to them,and not rightfully theirs. . .a jew can call his mate jew but from a white person its disrespectful. . .i can call my brother names and abuse him and all sorts,and we can laugh it off,from someone outside its unacceptable. . .and that's why they call it culture,we aren't chinese or jew and we can call ourselves anything we deem fit,cos that's what separartes us from others,peculiarity!!. . .Nigger

cap28: when a white man uses the word nigger on a black man he is reminding you of your inferior status and the fact that he has had his foot on your neck for the past 500 years, he is reminding you of how his ancestors ra.ped your mother, wife, grandmother and sisters, he is reminding you of how his ancestors lynched you for fun and sat around with their mates laughing and eating while your lifeless body (thats where the world picnic - pick a nigger, came from) hung from a tree or burnt at the stake, he is reminding you of your zero status and powerlessness in the world order, he is reminding you that YOU COME TO HIM FOR JOBS, HOUSING, EDUCATION AND SURVIVAL , a black man can use the word nigger on another black person but it will never ever conjure up the terrible and hateful memories of slavery, ra.pe and lynching that that word connote because the black man in recent times has remained powerless.

a white man's use of the word nigger is a reminder to you the black man that you are still beneath him - it is a way of showing you how contemptuous he is of you and everythign you stand for.

cap28:

but educated and knowledgeable african americans do not agree with you:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaEXjtYhJ8Y&feature=relmfu

collins123:

Nigger Area = Dumb Black Negro Man's land.

berem: so you quickly ran to view my profile? You are a real nigga with a gold chain. Lol!

*Kails*:
Coogar! Long time no speak!
Hey buddy! its msdarkskin btw.

coogar:

the same msdarkskin? what happened to your old moniker?
i have been looking for you for the past 5 years now - what's crackolating?



i agree with your sentiment..... but why is it kool to be called a nigga by a blackman but its not kool to be called by a white man? we either agree the word is kool from both groups or offensive from both groups! you cannot have it half-way otherwise it's racism!

ayobase:

There are some nicknames outsiders cant call u, but ur friends (and u answer them just like d name ur parents gave to u)....does that make u a snob or unfriendly?