New York City councilman Leroy G. Comrie is tired of hearing people use the 'N-word,' the epithet so caustic to the black community and a career-ruining utterance for others. After listening to a group of black teenagers toss the word back and forth, Comrie decided to propose a measure that would enact a moratorium on the use of the word inside New York City. To avoid the obvious First Amendment challenge, Comrie wants to enact a "symbolic" ban, which means the law would have no enforcement component. The debate, however, has raised issues within the black community, as it is their use of the word that prompted Mr. Comrie's resolution. Councilman Comrie, who is himself black, feels the term is "ignorant and derogatory," but others think that blacks' appropriation of the word has stripped it of its power and allowed black people to turn the previously noxious epithet into a "term of endearment." Black author and filmmaker, John Ridley, has argued that any effort to ban the word is actually insulting to the black community, as it suggests that black people can be bested "by six letters and two syllables."
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I'm going try something
I'm gonna visit the 5th ward in Houston and refer to the first black man I see as "nigger." I'll say it in the nicest way possible, not even a little bit aggressive, angry or demeaning, and then I'm gonna see if I can get out alive. My first defense, of course, will be that its a "term of endearment."
Dumbest damn thing I ever heard. I don't call my uncle a guinea, he'd slap me around and call me Susan.
Black History
Pointless and a waste of resources.
This whole "n-word" ban is just a waste of taxpayer dollars and government resouces. You cannot ban a word if there is no way you can ban it's meaning. Fine, symbolicaly ban "nigger", but remember, people are still going to say it no matter what you pass. Go as far as legally banning the word, then people will just use the term "n-word". Now what is going to be done, ban the phrase "n-word"? No matter what is done to ban a word, you must get rid of the meaning or the context of the word. As long as that meaning is known and understood, the word "spatula" could be use to replace "nigger". This is a perpetual ongoing crap that is going to be the downfall of this country. We are doomed as a society and as a nation. We are not as "free" as we think we are. Yeah, we can move freely about and really don't get harassed by the government unless we ask for it. But with that said, we as a nation are encouraging our own rights to be stripped away from us. Ban speech, guns, and religion, then we are just throwing away the very fundamentals on which this country based. People seem to forget that stupid bans like this are just the precursor for the same oppressions in which our forefathers united and rose up against the British to fight, die, and eventually win our independance. Why are we thowing that away? I'm tired of bowing down to a certian group of people. I know that "nigger" is a horrible word and is considered in my mind an abomination. I know what the ramifications are if I deceide to use that word in a predominantly black neighborhood, and if I used that word, I understand that I would end up in the hospital. I think the African-American community can take care of themselves on this issue.
Lets stop pandering to these special intrest groups and sensitive communities. Why do people feel the need to be coddled and why do other people feel the need to provide the coddling? It make me sick to my stomach and just makes me feel that the outsiders comming in to this country are just reinventing their own homeland. Why come to this country and escape your oppressed nations to come here and insist that we change our laws and give up our rights because there is a group that is offended. Eventually, turning this country into the same hellhole they running from in the first place. Race, creed, religion, meat-eater vs vegetarians and PETA, where is the maddness going to stop? We are SO doomed as a nation. The funny things is that when special intrests make a big stink about somthing, they are just hurting their own causes and rights in the long-run and they do not even realize it.
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I want to symbolically ban white by wallywonderswhy :: NR0 :: Show
Oh crap! I mean the w-word. It's like a Monty Python movie.
We took the kids to see the Harlem Globetrotters yesterday. There was only one w-word player on the floor yet some of the biggest laughs were at his expense; the w-word guy, the ugly w-word guy, the angry w-word guy.
Perhaps we should make no laws, symbolic or real that are directed at peoples race. Or did someone already think of that?
Wally