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

    • loaf@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      11·
      15 hours ago

      This might sound dumb, so bear with me.

      I grew up in a super poor city, predominantly black. All my friends from there listened to hip hop where it was used a lot, they said it, their families said it, etc…

      What I did was sub that word with another when I was singing. It became a habit. I thought that was a better idea than getting into the habit of singing it, where I might slip up and say it around them (since it was commonly used around there).

      It’s a lot easier to create a new habit than break an old one, you know?

      • SanguinePar@lemmy.world
        1·
        6 hours ago

        This sounds like a decent approach, although it might struggle in instances where the n word is key to a rhyme.

        For example, in Nas’ NY State of Mind, there’s the sequence:

        But just a n___a walkin’ with his finger on the trigger
        Make enough figures until my pockets get bigger

        If I’m singing along to that, I now tend to leave a blank space rather than substitute another word. Especially because another word which rhymed could easily be mistaken for the real thing!

        I would absolutely never use the word in casual speech, but there was a brief period in the past where I felt that it was more respectful to the artist/material to use the words exactly as written.

        However I realised that I would only ever do that when I was alone - and thinking about why that was the case made me rethink what was really most important and stop doing even that.

      • SanguinePar@lemmy.world
        3·
        6 hours ago

        Plenty of superb songs use that word. Abandoning the songs altogether isn’t the answer IMO. Not singing the word is a better approach than never listening to the music.