I’m a school bus driver and by far the weirdest experience (which I have regularly) is driving a busload of middle school or high school girl athletes (almost all white) somewhere and listening to them sing along to music with the n-word in it. They do not skip the n-word.
they wouldn’t be edgy and cool if they did.
deleted by creator
Just say ninja, every time. All those songs can be fun songs about ninjas.
Ninja please!
Ninja, what?!
Did you notice a sign out in front of my house that said “Dead Ninja Storage”?
No. I didn’t.
You know WHY you didn’t see that sign?
Why?
'Cause it ain’t there, 'cause storing dead ninjas ain’t my fucking business, that’s why!
Go ninja, go ninja, go!
My ninja
Jokes aside, I’m about 95% sure Elmo is supposed to be black-coded
You’re not wrong, Sesame Street was developed to look like Harlem. It’s been very much about black representation in every aspect they could consider since the very early days.
Huh, even as a young child in Australia I kind of was aware sesame street was from a rougher area, although safe. Wonder how I clocked that even though it was never explicit
The result of a very creative dude who had a vision of exactly how he wanted convey his message so everyone felt included.
We still miss you Jim.
Sesame Street and Avenue Q were closer than we thought.
Wow, even Sesame Street is whitewashing their characters now? :P
Removed by mod
How the hell is Elmo black-coded?
Have you ever heard Elmo talk
Removed by mod
Holy shit
Black guy here:
I give all you motherfuckers the Nigga Pass. I hereby bestow you all the title of Honourary Niggaz.
Person here: I give you the homie badge
Another person here: and I gave you…let’s just say you should probably schedule a doctor’s visit.
Was there a South Park episode where Tolkien had his allowance cut off, and made up for it by selling “Nigga Passes” to the school? Or did I dream that?
Tolkien or Token? 😂
Tolkien, he got his name retconned in the latests episodes. Pretty funny they basically go around and ask people what they thought his name was XD
If not, that sounds like a good plotline. But honestly that sounds like something they would’ve done already
Sweet! Now I can sing along to The Story of OJ in Harlem without any worries.
A quick note, YouTube started adding tracking into the URLs that are connected to ur account, if you want to remove these just remove the question mark and everything after it, then you have a clean URL
Idk if you will call me a nerd, but I thought it might be interesting
Huh… I didn’t even realize I had signed in on youtube in this browser which is a bit weird too. Thanks for the heads up. Didn’t even notice.
Yeah, it just fingerprints the user no matter what, that’s why the recommendation algorithm is still active when not logged in
deleted by creator
Autistic here. I give you all permission to use the word Dork whenever you want.
I’ve been given the pass by multiple black friends. I still can’t bring myself to actually use it.
when the time is right youll know. and have 2 passes so no ridicule
Nice tap dancing.
Honestly, this is why I don’t listen to music with the n-word in it. If I’m not allowed to speak that word, I don’t want it in my subconscious.
Yeah this is the one instance where idgaf I’m saying it.
Nah. I listen to 90s hip hop quite a bit. No way around the word.
I still don’t even dare to say it even when I’m alone in my car and singing along because I don’t want to slip if I ever sing it in public
I do the same, but this is really the issue with words some people are allowed to say but others aren’t. Hearing something all the time and not saying it just isn’t something we’re built for. So it’s kind of like encouraging a cultural separation.
If I recall correctly, many organizations that advocate in the interest of black people prefer no one use the word.
It’s for that reason why I advocate for everyone to be allowed to say it just like we do with cracker yea one is more prominent than the other but man if we are equal than shouldn’t it be easy to decide if slurs are allowed at all or not yet again I advocate for all slurs to be allowed by everyone because banning them just gives them power via significance
I mean, it’s not that difficult. I listen to plenty of rap and I don’t think I’ve ever spoken the word, certainly not in public. I don’t see it as cultural separation but as cultural respect.
Eminem has gone an entire rap career without saying it, and he doesn’t seem very fussed about it.Edit: He has said it before earlier in his career, but not now for quite a while. The general point I’m making is the same though.
For me when I hear someone speak my internal monologue patterns itself after their speech for a while, and I’ve heard others describe the same. Accents shift over time if you move somewhere with a different accent. I think it’s possible to have your words follow a set of rules, but for most people that will take active filtering that will make their speech less off-the-cuff and might slip if they are tired or drunk or something.
You know it’s interesting, because I’m the same way, but I haven’t had that happen for me. Not saying you’re wrong, it’s just interesting how the phenomenon varies. If I have one long listen/exposure, multiple hours long, then I’ll it happen to me. That isn’t a common occurrence though.
I get your point though. I suppose it just comes down to how someone’s brain is wired, and to what level they can separate it from their own speech.
If it’s in the song I like I just go along with. Me doing that isn’t in any negative way. If the artist don’t like some people say it, they shouldn’t put in there.
Skipping it or bleeping it out is like censoring art.
He did give her a second try on the song.
Hypocrite
He actually mentions this on his new album in the song Auntie Diaries, which is about him learning to understand his trans aunt and cousin. He uses gay slurs throughout the song as an example of what he’d say when he was younger. There’s a very poignant moment I’ll paraphrase:
“I said those words but I didn’t know any better. I was taught that words were [just words].” - Kendrick
“Kendrick, ain’t no room for contradiction. [Let’s look at it from a different perspective]. F* F* F* we can say it together, but only if you let a white girl say n–” - Cousin who’s trans
“If the artist don’t like some people say it, they shouldn’t put in there.”
I think I’ve heard the response to this from creators, the idea is that it isn’t made for you. They create media informed by black experiences and tailored for black audiences. They don’t feel like they should have to change that to accommodate white/non-black audiences, and not doing so shouldn’t be a free pass for people to turn bigoted language back at them.
Take what you will from that, and consider that I cited a vague “they” with no clear reference or origin. I’m going off shoddy memory, and as a non-black person.
Sir this is a Christian house hold
Same reason I tend to avoid songs with swears.
❄️
You’re missing out on a lot of really, really good music.
I know. When I made that choice I got rid of some songs I really liked. That’s the price I’m paying for keeping my mind more free of words I am forbidden from using.
yeah I get this. part of ADHD for me is having a lot of impulsive words floating through my head. I try to avoid things I wouldn’t want falling out later. I remember in high school I had a revival of “aw, gay” that kept popping up in my head, even though it had already died out socially years ago and I hadn’t said it (in that manner) in years. I probably saw it again on TV or something and it just stuck. it took a lot of conscious power to just stop saying it reflexively when I died in a video game or whatever.
I don’t know how to say this in a way that doesn’t sound like I’m shit talking so I’ll just put this here and say I mean it without sarcasm or insult.
That’s a hell of a sacrifice, and I wouldn’t make it, but I do respect your commitment.
What do you mean you’re “not allowed to speak” it? lol. Y’all are so weird about being racist.
You’re ridiculous. You have that much trouble not saying nigga that you have to pretend the word doesn’t exist?
I once worked with a black dude who said the word all the time. One day we were talking hella shit about our boss and all kinds of n words flying out of his mouth, and I let one loose too, froze, and looked at him and he didn’t even give a shit.
People joke about the hard R but there really is a huge difference. And besides, people know there’s a big contextual difference. Homies aren’t going to mind if you’re just hanging out with them … probably.
I’m curious, is there another word that have the same taboo status as the n-word? I’ve never heard of another word that can only be uttered if you have the right shade of skin. What a stupid world we live in, seriously.
I’m not speaking from any position of authority here, but I think it has more to do with being in the right culture, not the right skin color like some people imply.
There are urban white kids who grew up in the projects who use the same language as their black peers, and I think generally no one cares. However, when someone outside that culture uses that language, it’s not something they use for normal speech and there’s probably some other motivation behind it. It’s just like in a lot of people’s speech they say “bro” but it doesn’t mean brother. To people outside the culture it means black person, but they use it like others use “bro”. It doesn’t really mean anything.
Reiterating, I have very little experience with this. It’s just my observations. I’ve known black people who it’d be weird for them to use this language and seen white people who it’s just a normal part of their speech.
Removed by mod
You’d likely know where they grew up by the manner of their speaking. The white kids from the projects are going to sound “urban” and the black affluent people are going to sound stereotypically “white”. I wouldn’t be offended (I’m white) but I would be surprised if the black people I know who do not use that language started using the n-word suddenly. It’s not a part of their normal language, so what caused them to suddenly start using it? Probably nothing good I would assume.
It also depends on the time and place. Those white kids from the projects would probably need to code switch when going to a job interview or something, for example, just like their black peers do. That language is context-dependents on whether it’s acceptable. It’s more than just being black.
deleted by creator
That makes a bit more sense if that’s a culture thing, but how do you define someone who belong in that culture? Is a black person born from a very wealthy European family still allowed to say it, even though he might have nothing to do with the culture? It just seems weird to me how you clearly define this, I mean even clearly defining what a black person is, is pretty much impossible.
The point is it isn’t clearly defined. It’s situational. Not all black people will or should say it, and some white people feel comfortable saying it and use it in situations where it doesn’t offend anyone. There is no “correct” race, skin tone, culture, etc where it’s always OK. There’s just situations where it’s OK for some people. I’m sure if you know it’s OK then you know it’s OK, and that’s the only time it’s OK. If you’re wondering if it’s appropriate, it probably isn’t.
Maybe some well off black people wouldn’t use the word, but it certainly would not be acceptable for any white person to use it in any context. Even if they grew up in “the hood” it would, at the very least, be frowned upon for them to say it. In many places it would earn them an immediate beat down.
It’s called “reappropriation”, and there are words in other groups, such as the LGBT community, which are only considered “acceptable” when used by members of the in-group.
That’s fair, my only issue is clearly determining what makes someone a member of the group. I guess for LGBT it’s more clearly defined, but it becomes a lot harder to determine if you’re from X ethnicity or if you belong to Y culture (or I guess the hard part is to make people accept you in their club…)
Faggot used to be a school yard insult but it’s being fast tracked to “The N Word for Gays”
Is there a better lemmy server that dont censor words like snowflakes? It makes it hard to have genuine dialogues
I’m not seeing any censoring in this thread. I’m based out of lemm.ee and using wefwef web client to read.
Are you seeing certain words censored out?
Try programming.dev. I don’t see any censoring.
I have been trying to get on Lemmy NSFW because what I am on Lemm.ee wants to hide the porn from me.
But I can say what I am on right now doesn’t sense your words, I can say retard and faggot like it was the early 2000s all over again
I think you just got censored
Not in my view. All the words are there. What exactly are you seeing?
Retard and removed. Unless you wrote removed
My guess is that the N word has pretty much no historical use outside of referring to darker skinned people in as derogatory of a way as possible. The F word for gays is about the only other one, unless you’ve got a British pal who smokes, but just about every other slur is either so obscure that it’s only heard rarely, or has other legitimate uses, so you have to apply context to figure out what the situation is. N word was almost always bad, until they decided to blunt the blade, so to speak, by adopting it as a part of their own vernacular.
There are exceptions, Puertoricans can say it all they want, just look at fat Joe.
Y * * lo, r * d, and m* * * to skinned are also taboo, but you don’t see people with those skin colors using the terms and keeping it popular.
I have no clue what words are those supposed to be so yeah, you’re right.
One was a football team
You censored the word “red?” I thought it was “retarded” lol
M is probably “mulatto” but what’s “y?”
Think Asian… and a color.
Yeah but I can use the word yellow all day without issue. Those words don’t share the cultural properties of the n word
Ahh ok the pattern follows too
There’s not another word with as lengthy a history rooted in dehumanization of the other, so the unique status shouldn’t be surprising.
Voldemort
When the artist makes the audience do the chorus in a gig, Elmo better not fuck it up
Unless you’re Korean. “Ni ga” (니가) literally means “you” in Korean. With the not-so-recent surge in popularity of Kpop globally, I know there’s been more than one outraged person accusing Korean rappers of racism for saying “you” in their own language.
Oh man I remember this in college. I was grabbing some stuff at a Walgreens and this Korean lady was on the phone saying that. When I got home I told one of my roommates and he was “No, no, they weren’t being really racist, that’s a common phrase in Korean!”
Incredibly unfortunate false cognate.
Russell Peters, a Canadian comedian, actually mentioned something similar in Mandarin years ago in one of his specials. Here he is talking about going to a KFC in Beijing.
Note: Russell is of Indian descent and uses a lot of racial jokes in both the entire special as well as this specific bit.
I worked a job where I’d often be driving people speaking Mandarin on conference calls. I had this exact thought while driving them around. I remember hearing this special around that time n laughing my ass off.
Please tell me you worked for a combined ride share and conference call service called Zoomy Zoom
Ha, it was a black car company with a lot of corporate clients. Those people would be on calls all the time.
That was pretty hilarious despite some jokes that definitely wouldn’t fly today. And were iffy then, too.
Oh absolutely. I remember laughing at that when I was a very young teenager but was cringing just a little while rewatching it yesterday. It’s not nearly as bad as some other stuff but it’s a little yikes. Wondering if thats why I haven’t seen Russell Peters in over a decade.
I just checked his Wikipedia, and it looks like he’s mostly been acting in some dubious looking comedy films with some TV on the side.
It reminds me of a problem with Japanese let’s players, how they’ve been playing more and more Western games lately, who have been playing Grand Theft Auto V.
See in Japanese culture, onomatopoeia is a bigger thing, and it’s not uncommon for people to sing an onomatopoeia or for them to be accounted for in the dialogue for media, especially in anime.
So a notice actually had to be given to Japanese Grand Theft Auto fans to stop playfully singing the N Word (as is done at the end of the infamous Franklin Roast)
Many fans mistook it for a playful onomatopoeia and just began singing it on stream in the most innocent way possible.
There are compilations of famous Japanese Vtubers doing this and it is as adorable as it is uncomfortable
Or as League of Legends personality “LS” says
Just call people 니가 and they literally cannot punish you
“Brother” scans and rhymes, and (probably) won’t get your ass kicked.
You got that right, my ninja.
I think “homie” would work too actually, and feels more correct since it’s slang. Like:
“Got my brothers in Paris, and we goin gorillas”
Vs
“Got my homies in Paris, and we goin gorillas”
But I mean it just comes down to which sounds better to you.
Whoa whoa whoa easy on the hard-r “brother” there.
“Got my brothas in Paris…”
I just make a record-scratch sound instead of say the word if it’s in a song I’m singing. If people think that’s lame then I’ll live with that. I do NOT want to get comfortable saying that word; I’m the same shade as printer paper.
I had a friend get very comfortable with the phrase “yeaaahhh, ma nizzle” (substitute nizzle for the word it’s code for, because I can confirm after using a perfectly acceptable word similar to snickering it will be removed and also I don’t wanna type it).
One day, we’re at a very rough pub in Digbeth. Lots of drinks had. We’re all sat at a table outside, behind my friend are two very large, very black bouncers. One legit looked like the Hulk and capable of casually ripping my friend’s head off. The other wasn’t as muscled but still well-built and very tall. Then… my friend… says the words. Everyone at the table kinda freezes and goes quiet. The very tall guy goes “What did he say?!” and the Hulk just shakes his head sadly and says “something stupid”. Thank you Hulk for not ripping my friend’s head off.
And that, boys and girls, is why you don’t get comfortable saying words that aren’t for you.
"My neighbor’ works just fine.
I can assure you that if I saw the guy next door out on his patio, and called over, “What’s up, my neighbor?” it would not “work just fine.”
I like homie better for this reason. It fits contextually and it’s also still slang, so it sounds a lot better.
Neighbors With Attitude want a kind word with you.
this is when howdly doodly goes rap
No way. They’re Bartcore through and through.
Wait, so are you telling me “Elmo’s Song” was originally ******'s song?
Yup. All those “la la las” you hear now? Originally something else
Same as Yada Yada Yada
Yada Yada Yada Yada Yada… I’m 100% Yada
Would his favorite song be “Elmo in Paris” ?
Now this is a cover I want.
Okay but if I’m doing karaoke I’m gonna sing the song like it is. I’m not the guy who’s just gonna skip the word or say “neighbor” or something, sorry.
you know karaoke is optional, right?
So is putting the word in the song. I’m not ruining my vibe over dumb shit. Don’t put it there and I won’t say it
yeah! if black people can say it, I can say it to. It’s racist to not say the n word.
Yes it’s very racist to say you can’t sing a certain music because the color of your skin. If someone gets upset that white guy said it then blame the song writer not the guy singing.
exactly. here’s to eating paintchips
This comment is ironic because most of the time that music isn’t even written for you.
Removed by mod
Fr if they are comfortable saying it among themselves then it obviously doesn’t offend them they’re just being racist to exclude people based on skin color
There’s so many songs to choose from
There’s so many words to choose from.
Also I don’t choose my songs based on whether or not they have the n word in them. If I like a song and it has the n word in it sucks to suck I’m singing it
King shit
I wouldn’t categorise the immense racist history and implications of thr n word as “dumb shit”
deleted by creator
I see, in fact it would be racist not to say the n word
deleted by creator
No one is surprised.
deleted by creator
Removed by mod
Speak for yourself
I may not agree with you on Bailey’s, but I can agree on this.
Vodka has less calories.
*picks the song “my nigga” by YG for karaoke
deleted by creator
Elmo’s favorite song
