This entry makes me realize how 'politically incorrect' we all were as children! ;)

You know, though, I think part of our political incorrectness stemmed from the fact that we were just so unaware. Kids now are so well informed, I think it's great. I still hear my parents say things - slang and such - that they don't even realize stems from a racial slur. An example is the phrase, "Jew them down." I'm glad that children today are being taught about these things.

Yeh what about Eeny meeny miny moe catch a niger by his toe. We enver gave it a thought. Now kids are catching tigers by the toe!

Yeh what about Eeny meeny miny moe catch a nigger by his toe. We enver gave it a thought. Now kids are catching tigers by the toe!

Lynn, my dad also used the phrase "jew them down" or "jew them outta" and, since he was born and raised in northern Minnesota and had never met an actual Jew in his life, I never made the connection until I was well into high school.

On the other hand, kids were catching tigers by the toe even in Northern Minnesota, back when I was but a wee lass. I never heard it the other way around until my grandfather gave me a lecture on how his father called Brasil nuts "nigger toes" back in the day.

Just yesterday I received an announcement from the Bar of an upcoming Continuing Legal Education class (referred to as CLE's) on the following topic:

Emerging Economies in Indian Country, Cosponsored by the Indian Law Section (italics in original).

Yeah well thats how it goes Dave. I've heard black people call each other nigger and high five when they meet. They thump each other on the back and it's all good. Let someone else call them that and they either sue you or kill you.

We always called Brazil nuts nigger toes as kids. I still do.

That's the wonderful thing about children - they aren't racist. If they could grow up in a vacuum...racism would cease to exist.

Mmm, vacuum-packed children.
So, Tammy, do you get a lot of brothers down in your 'hood?

I can understand the whole "n" word issue, though. It's like if you jokingly call your girlfriend a bitch In context it's playful. But if some other person called you a bitch, it's no longer playful, it's hurtful.

Lynn, you bitch!

(I can do that - we're friends!)

I'm rubber and you're glue...you big ho.

what iz ya jivin' about, do I need ta slap ya Ya' dig?

If you to would like to be more culturally rounded, you can go to this translator.

No Joel. No brothers in my hood, just brothers in my city!

I never knew the catch a tiger thing was just a new version of a derogatory chant. Hmm. Man I feel...young.

That reminded me of one of the few times I saw my mom fight with her dad: he was referring to Brazil nuts as "nigger toes", as Nicole said, and my mother was furious with him for saying the n-word in the presence of his grandchildren. I was probably six-- it made quite an impression. I've always associated the word with ignorance and poverty, when spoken by "whites", and with a strange sense of historical empowerment when "blacks" adopt it for use on their own terms. The names we give things are important; let's choose carefully.

p.s. Jd has installed a new Spam-filter on our home email. It is categorizing some personal messages as Spam (particularly, it seems, if the words "money", "order" or "help" appear in the title). If we don't answer something, please make another attempt, or contact us by phone. On the other hand, we may just be avoiding you!

Having Native American on both sides of the family, it's my understanding that most Native Americans refer to themselves as Indians. Go figure. Doesn't seem that they find the term offensive. After all, it wasn't ever a derogatory term--just a mix-up in geography.

As for Brazil nuts, yep, my stepdad called them nigger toes, too. I've heard a lot of people call them that.

Denise and Lynn - take dis here spat ta da Jerry Springer show. what 'chew thinking man?

Dere'suh big difference between beotch niggas usin' da 'b' werd an' male niggas usin' da 'b' werd. Jus' like Orenthawl James.

Ya just gots ta love dis here translator
don't make me shank ya!

jive ta y'all later w0rd!

Ignorance is a part of peoples childhood, people don't want to let go of that. Ignorance is people not knowing why it is inappropriate for a person who is not black to call a black person a nigger. Ignorance is thinking all black people use the term and don't mind when even a black person calls them such. Ignorance is a person thinking they can look in from the outside on a culture and critique it. Ignorance is not being able to look at your faults and critique them, no matter what your grandparents taught you. You would think in this new age of information people would be better informed, but this is not the case. Ignorance is speaking garbage that you know nothing about which the members of this forum so eloquently do. It is easy for people to show their ignorance when their face is hidden.

Well, Julie, aren't you just the little conversation killer! I just saw people talking about what they have experienced, that isn't garbage, and it doesn't mean their racists.

Isn't speaking garbage eloquently kind of an oxymoron?

You go girl! Boy do we all stick together or what!?

Ignorance is coming onto a board and assuming you are more knowledgeable than others. Ignorance is the inability to read something and know how to apply it to the context in which it was written.

Ignorance is assuming our faces are hidden when in reality most of us here know exactly what the other one looks like due to the fact that we are all related or have known each other in highschool. Ignorance is making assumptions about people of whom you know nothing about!

I grew up in rural East Texas, and the only kids my age anywhere near me were mostly black kids, poor as dirt, on this old farm-to-market road I lived on. I played many hours with these kids, and had a total blast with them. But because of my upbringing, I still felt separate from them. Why, I'm not sure.
But even they used the terms, 'nigger toes' and 'nigger shooter' (slingshot), etc., and no one thought anything about it, at all.
I don't use the 'n' word as a blanket term for black folks as a rule. I have many black friends still today, and love them dearly.
But recently, I saw a black couple in a car stop at an intersection of a couple of small out-of-the-way streets in Houston, where the woman driving rolled down her window and simply pushed out a pile of Burger King trash, right out onto the street. Didn't even wad it up, try to throw it into the drainage ditch out of sight, or anything. Simply pushed it just outside the plane of the car's window, where it simply ceased to exist, as far as she was concerned, and fell to the street right beside the car. They left the whole heap of trash lying right in the middle of the street as they drove off.

THOSE WERE NIGGERS!!! It wouldn't matter whether they were black, brown, white, pink, or green. Their ACTIONS are what determined their NIGGER status in this case.

I also have a handful of black freinds but I witness the same litering in NJ. Paper cups, bags of fast food garbage...right out the car window. When you see this, you ask yourself- Why? It's a shock because people don't normally liter like this anymore?