Pardon me if these questionings are offensive in any way. That is not my intention. I am merely curious on the intricacies of the N-word and its uses.
It is commonly known, I think, that white people oughn’t say it, something which doesn’t extend to Black people. I wonder, though, if white people think of the word, in their head (assuming the person has some sort of inmer monologue). I would imagine thinking the word might increase one’s propensity to utter the word aloud. Or perhaps not. Certainly further exposure to content that features said language must increase one’s likelihood of using the term, no? Even if one never makes use of it aloud, surely the chances hypotetically increase, no?
Race is a social construct anyways, so what exactly are races? What defines a race? Is it from a 'Murican perspective? Asian is a race, innit? Is Latin American a race? If so, do white Latin Americans, or those with European descent, is that part of such race? How does the usage of the N-word apply to other races, assuming such thing?
Edit: I imagine race doesn’t just boil down to skin colour, right? There’s more to it than white = light skinned and Black = dark skinned, innit?
Edit 2: Maybe this was better for NoStupidQuestions. I may have mistankenly gone too soon for Ask Lemmy, seeing it is a question.
I’d like to add I am not questioning the N-word itself. I would not say it. I comprehend it is offensive. Seeing as it gets used by Black people, and it’s not to be used by white people, I was merely wondering on how this goes exactly. Whether it boils down to Black vs. non-Black, and what exactly defines being Black. (And also the part about thinking the word)
To add, I am not 'Murican, so no need to assume that. English isn’t even me first language.
Edit 3: to be very clear, I DO NOT WISH TO USE THE N-WORD. And I am not looking for some sort of loophole. I am merely trying to better understand things. I apologise if this is of any offense to Black people, as it is not my intention to harm anyone
Edit 4: mods, if needed be, you can safely delete this post. Not that you needed permission. I’d just like to let known if this is any problem, deletion is fine by me. I don’t intent on causing issues
Race being a social construct does not make slurs any more permissible to use.
That isn’t really what I was questioning there. I was just wondering what makes race. One might associate, for instance, skin colour to race. But skin colour is more of a… idk, a range? It’s not just two different things, black and white. There are darker skin tones, and lighter ones. It’s a scale, really. So if we were to take skin colour as defining race, one would have to draw a line somewhere, where one becomes dark enough to be deemed Black (assuming you’re taking skin colour as the indicator for race, that is). And that doesn’t even account for other races one might see. If one, for instance, were to imagine Asian as a race (idk if it is. Is it?), Asians are (generally) white, no? As far as skin colour. Like, what is it that defines a race?
Permissibility also a social construct. Society, too.
It seems like you maybe thought I was saying the exact opposite of what I was trying to say. I’m not sure if that’s your error or mine, so let me be clear: “Social construct” doesn’t mean “not real”, it means “important to consider when dealing with other people”.
There’s no confusion. I was merely adding that they’re all social constructs. (As real as money.)
Partly inspired by socks.
Welcome to society. Don’t like it? Isolate yourself away from everyone and everything. Best of luck out there champ!
Social currency & sanctimonious displays to gain it: also a social construct.
Well, since humans build societies, everything is a social construct.
Anything independent of human convention (like the rest of nature) isn’t. Neither is anything a priori (like logic).