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Questions about the no-no word

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I'm sure this topic has been talked to death already, but I thought I'd drag it up again-what are people's perspectives on the n word? I've seen people who believe it shouldn't be considered racist and use it in a more friendly way-is this still offensive? Is using "the hard r" really worse than ending with "a"? If so, why? Has the word itself lost offensiveness and meaning on the internet? I'm mostly looking for people's own opinions, not whatever google says.


“I was so good at being a kid, and so terrible at being whatever I was now.”
― John Green, Turtles All the Way Down

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if people are offended by the word, it shouldn't be allowed. It's still a racial slur, even if used in a friendly way


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I use it outside of GFL, but I don't consider myself racist, mainly because it's used so much in New Zealand it isn't looked at as racism anymore. I do agree with the ban in GFL though, as the only people who use it do it to be "cool and edgy and hur hur im 10 love me" and it isn't needed.

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Posted  Edited by Bae

We, in TTT MC, blocked any loopholes and forms of the racial word. Like the hard r is obviously a big no and we prevent slang such as the a ending because it's like the same thing just more of a ghetto version. We also blocked like terms like the use of Niger. We understand it's a country, but if it's used as a term of being a racist, then it's not allowed. Like lets say, someone said "You're a niger" hinting that they meant to say... you know... 😆 So we just block anything that loopholes around the racial words. It's not the same thing if you said "You're a snicker". That just sounds kinky. There are people that are very nazi about racial slurs that's being blocked. Like how is it okay to say the slang version but not the actual word? You get what I mean. Best to block it completely. 

Edited by Bae

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credits to @Clavers

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16 minutes ago, Bae said:

 "You're a niger"

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
 

Anyways, context is important. Imo its fine if people use it in place of words like asshole or cunt. There are special situations where the actions of an individual rise above asshole to the n word, and it can be used to hilarious effect. What I'm worried about is people using it to go on qwerpi tier rants and chud out about minorities, which is relatively rare on go. That shit gives me a headache.

 

Im also sick of the played out "im not saying the n word" memes and the inevitable discussion around using it, but theres probably no way around that.

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Creating a protected class, i.e. black people, embeds this idea of 'race' and further pushes minorities and other marginalized groups into these protected classes that embed an identity of helplessness, and needing us to intervene. As  notable sociologist and race relations professor from Duke university stated in his paper "White logic, white methods," there is an effect of race, "this social construction of race as an unalterable characteristic places a conceptual limitation ... on the researcher's ability to understand racial dynamics" (Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, p. 6). By our own very definition of race, and thus our attempt to protect minorities through a racism rule, we are alienating and further pushing away those who we wish to protect. Silva goes on to state that race is a social construct and that within this construct we call race "the person of color does not exist outside of his or her otherness". By our own use and thus ban of the word 'nigger' we further emphasize this otherness, and alienation of minorities, and this sort of segregation and alienation of our friends, no matter what color or creed is something that drives me crazy. While the simple answer is to just say 'nigger' is racist, by mystifying and creating a protected class, as Silva showed us, it only leads to further segregation and alienation.

 

We can see examples of this 'other' created in articles such as "Black Feminist Archaeology", where the author, Whitney Battle-Baptiste (Professor from University of Massachusetts Amherst) discusses the impact of being 'othered' and seen as a different person. She discusses how the current depiction of african americans, specifically the intersectionality of african american women, has become "fraught with misconceptions, misgiving and stereotypes" and whether these are positive or negative, they are "fully entabled in the way women of African descent are perceived generally" (p. 40). Thus, the defintions we are creating here at GFL are creating this protected class of black people, and of minorities. We seemingly want to accept them on the surface, but there is a clear favoritism shown towards certain ethnicities due to us only chosing to protect certain ethnicities, i.e. blacks. Prof. Battle-Baptiste discusses in her article, how even when attempts are made to help and push a rhetoric more in favor of a certain ethnicity or minority, it creates countless problems, and then alienates those who it seemingly tries to protect. 

 

Another major way in which I feel we are alienating our friends who happen to be of a certain skin pigmentation is through limiting the word 'nigger'. As everyone knows, the word 'nigger' plays a prominent role within discussion and social discourse, and by limiting one's own ability to say it, we are limiting our ability to have an open and honest discussion surrounding the topic of race. 

 

Another major issue I hold with our ban on the word 'nigger' and the racism rule in general is that it creates an ordering of social justice, and what is and isn't ok to talk about. For those of you who don't known what intersectionality is, it's a theory created by Kimberly Crenshaw, a noted UCLA professor, that studies how different power structures interact in the lives of minorities, specifically black women, with a simple defintion by her is that it's "when African American women or any other women of colour experience either compound or overlapping discrimination" i.e. you can experience overlapping discrimination based on a multitude of characteristics, for example, a gay man may work at an office and a black woman may work at an office, but the office would be a lot less likely to hire a gay black woman than either a black woman or a gay man (Crenshaw, 2014). Now at GFL, I feel like there is a similar issue, sure we say we don't accept racism, but what about sexism? transphobia? etc. I can't call someone a nigger, but I can call them a cunt, or a 'fucking piece of shit tranny'? At what point do we draw the line, and where do we draw it? Is it ever enough? The more you try to protect certain classes of people, the less you protect anyone, as it elevates certain groups over others. This is why we shouldn't try to protect anyone, as it in fact creates an idea of otherness, embedding these horrible stereotypes and hierarchies into our minds, with certain classes being protected and other not. It's impossible to protect everyone from discrimination, so why protect anyone at all? In that scenario there can be no 'other' no person who is discriminated against more than another, and we're all equal, without true equality, we are simply enforcing ideas of a racial hierarchy. 

 

For the other articles you got the names and the authors feel free to look them up, I ain't making a whole bibliography.

https://www.newstatesman.com/lifestyle/2014/04/kimberl-crenshaw-intersectionality-i-wanted-come-everyday-metaphor-anyone-could

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Posted  Edited by _Rocket_

It's a word. A rude slur used for African American people that was popular during times when blacks were not treated equal, and especially during the times when slavery was legal.

 

Now it is used as an attempt for people to be edgy on the internet. This has resulted in the word losing it's "impact" since many of us are probably desensitized to it. But that doesn't change what it means.

 

If you walk up to a black person and call them this slur, you'll likely receive a firm "fuck you" followed by a strong "fuck off". That is because the word is still a racial slur. No amount of edgy teenagers on the internet will change that.

 

I strongly believe there are no "opinions" on the meaning of the word. I do believe everyone can feel differently about the word. It likely affects some people more than others. But that doesn't change what the racial slur is. It is and always will be a racial slur.

Edited by _Rocket_

I write programs and stuff.

 

If you need to contact me, here is my discord tag: Dustin#6688

 

I am a busy person. So responses may be delayed.

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3 hours ago, Bae said:

Like the hard r is obviously a big no and we prevent slang such as the a ending because it's like the same thing just more of a ghetto version.

 

That's kinda racist bro ngl

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If the n word is as bad as gfl higher ups says it is then why is there no rule against it? I rest my case #freethenword 

2 hours ago, VilhjalmrF said:

We're not racist

Shut it you ++++[++++>---<]>.-[-->+++<]>--.+++++++++++++.[----->+<]>+++.--[--->++++<]>.[---->+<]>+++.[->+++<]>++.+++.+++++++.---.----.[--->+<]>-.+[->+++<]>.--[--->+<]>-.--[->++++<]>+.----------.++++++.-[---->+<]>+++.++[--->++<]>.+++..----.------.-.-[--->+<]>-.---[->++++<]>.------------.+.++++++++++.+[---->+<]>+++.---[->++++<]>+.-----. :)

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Posted  Edited by TheThirdReaper - Edit Reason: added murder

As previously mentioned by @Kaitsedd, both are still racial slurs even if used in a friendly way. All racial/homophobic slurs and implications of racial/homophobic slurs are prohibited on GFL Gmod Prophunt. 

 

(This will also be the case with GFL Gmod Murder)

Edited by TheThirdReaper
added murder

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Just because a word offends someone, does not mean it's not true or that it should be banned. I can give you a list of people that were sentenced to prison or outright killed for saying things which as of today's standards are held as truth. By speaking, you risk to offend people, and even if you do it 'intentionally', you should still be allowed to say it. Negative rights exist, but negative group rights do not exist, if you're on a virtual persona on the Internet and I call you by the word 'Nigger', you have all the rights to be offended. Words hold social weight, and the more 'taboo' we make them, the more weight they hold, and it's a snowball effect. This has happened overtime to literally almost every single word in the dictionary, remember Shell shock? Yeah, they call it Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder now. It implies the same thing, an underlying problem, just tries to sugarcoat it and that's it. There was/is a racism problem in America and by I'm sure the keyboard warriors will out-censor themselves once the word starts to hold religious meaning. "Oh no, don't use the n-word, or you might summon the FBI"

Use the word people, in whatever context, fuck whoever tells you that they're offended, especially on the Internet. 

PS: don't be racist, that's just dumb, fundamentally.
PS2: saw a few people mentioning it as the 'a version' and 'hard r version', what's this? just because you use it doesn't mean someone's going to get enslaved, but surely you risk getting other people's voices muted for it. 
PS3: I study Anthropology as a secondary science and we use some pretty 'offensive' words yet nobody reacts because we know it's inherently meaningless, unless we give it weight. (Even when we go out, we don't use the words, and even when we use them we get no reactions from peers)

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     Although it can be offensive, we are taking this one word and elevating it to the point that if anyone uses it then it will be treated with high discretion. There are many other words that people can be offended by, including phrases that induce the allusion of asking someone to kill them self, which I have seen many times been giving by many people, including some admins who I will not go into. Of course there is other hate speech included, which I will not include here. We also see the word "Retard" being thrown out a lot with no consequence, or mostly any other racial slur that does not include the "Scary big N word," usually due to a staff member's ignorance and laziness to take 10 seconds to google it and learn what it means. We can also go into the real world, if you want to think about it more. America, which probably most of our players come from, know the cultural significance of the word and most should know it should not be said aloud. However, different regions of the world, and even smaller the U.S. can have different interpretations of the English language. Some states its very common to say slurs in your everyday life, texting and talking alike. If a person with this cultural background decides to come onto a GFL server, it would be somewhat hard to stop using his common dialect just for the sake of not getting gagged or muted. When we go onto a server, the only people that we could somehow make out a certain race is when they have microphones. If not, we are blind to know whether "Paul Cheenis" or "[email protected]" would be offended by a word that they might get a laugh out of or take deep offense to. For most players, race is taken out of the game, especially in a game like gmod. This also goes back to why the "N-word" gets the high pedestal in racial words. If only one word is banned from our servers, that is the most likely what people who want to troll the server or minge use when getting their point out. Sure, the ban caters to the 13.4% of black minorities that may come onto the server, but if someone from a different race may come onto the server, and sees that one race of people is getting better treated than theirs, then it would probably deter them from us. As @Kaitsedd says, yes, it can and will be offensive, but by his logic we have to wait for a person to get offended by a word before it is banned. We cannot be blindly thinking about a word without knowing its context, especially if it is only one word that we have banned. It is hard, especially for a new player to call an admin and say "this word offends me." I doubt that anyone has done this for a swear word or slur, with the "N-Word" ban just being a precaution instead of getting user feedback. The only reason it would be bad if it is known to be a targeted attack, which should have the offender punished for the crime, not for the amount of words he used.  Again, as @Syntax has also said, you are unintentionally giving the word weight, and that is why it is such a coveted word. 


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I feel like the true thought of racism lies in the people who hear the word, and judge on whether or not its racist. People see someone saying it and think "oh its racist" give it power. Normally, when you see someone say it, its because "haha funny n word" and not actual racism. This isn't to say racism doesn't exist, because I'm sure it does somewhere, but those few minority (haha get it) shouldn't be seen as the majority of people who say it. Those who do say it online I would guarantee do not say it in public and only say it for the funnies. Like @Banjo Kazooie said, if GFL higher ups have said it before without consequence, what is stopping the rest of the public from using it? I feel like the true gravity of the N word lies within the power of the people who hear it. If you think its racist, then it is. If you don't, then it isn't. Thank you.

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@willywilson I agreed with a lot of what you said. However, I disagree that we just shouldn't protect anyone. If Person A on a server is being racist or homophobic or transphobic or whatever towards Person B, basically ruining Person B's experience of the server, the admins have a duty to do something about Person A, because the main role of the admins is keeping the server enjoyable.


“I was so good at being a kid, and so terrible at being whatever I was now.”
― John Green, Turtles All the Way Down

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just like what @Exhaustive said if the higher ups can use it then why shouldn't the members or player's you're just saying the n word is like the biggest thing ever  which is not true there are other words that are worse that i cant say on the fourms but anyway that's beside the point. the point is that no matter how you use it even if you censord yourself its still going to get you muted or for admin demoted. but @Duc2000 let me ask you this why do you care about this, google doesn't have a complete answer. but then again you have to research everything plus @Xy is right  this is like the most talktive thing on any game any fourms and i dont understand why you should bring it up. look im just saying that word wasn't racist in the 40's 50's 60's 70's 80's then it become racist at the 90's 

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12 minutes ago, Dale Gribble. said:

but @Duc2000 let me ask you this why do you care about this, google doesn't have a complete answer. but then again you have to research everything plus @Xy is right  this is like the most talktive thing on any game any fourms and i dont understand why you should bring it up. look im just saying that word wasn't racist in the 40's 50's 60's 70's 80's then it become racist at the 90's 

I didn't want anyone to copy a definition off google. It's okay to do research to make an informed opinion, but I was interested in the actual feelings of people-what the feel when they see people using the word and what they think other people feel. I brought it up because I was asked to. It may be a little weird that we are this talkative about it, but talking about it is better than pretending it's not a word and just removing it from existence whenever we see it.

 

As for it not being racist in the past...hello? It was used as a demeaning term for hundreds of years.


“I was so good at being a kid, and so terrible at being whatever I was now.”
― John Green, Turtles All the Way Down

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