Date:  Thu, 30 Oct 1997 08:53:44 -0500
From:  "Dennis R. Preston" <preston[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]PILOT.MSU.EDU>
Subject: Re: What does the "n" word mean? (was PC dictionaries)

Tom,

Would you expand on the meaning of 'sound nasty'?

Dennis

>On Thu, 30 Oct 1997, STEPHANIE LYNN KIRK wrote:
>
>> I don't understand how a white person can use the "N" word and it be
>> offensive and black people can use this word toward each other and it
>> not be offensive. Maybe someone can explain this phenomenon to me. I
>> personally do not use this word in any context, but this is something I
>> just don't understand.
>
>People don't usually use slurs on themselves, so the offensive
>connotations of the term are stripped when the targets of the term use it.
>The terms "Christian" and "Quaker" both originated as slurs, but were
>borrowed and defused by the target groups. If a white fellow uses the N
>word, history indicates that he probably means it in a racist sense. If
>a black fellow uses the N word, a racist meaning would be nearly
>impossible.
>
>Ethnic slurs are not like most other expletives, which sound nasty only
>because they sound nasty; ethnic slurs also have specific targets.
>
>Tom Head
>tlh[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]netdoor.com
>http://www2.netdoor.com/~tlh
>
>"The first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible.
> What the second duty is, no one has yet discovered."
>                      -- Oscar Wilde

Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736