The origins of the term 'nigger'?

[Revalation]

I'm not sure if this should be posted here but does any1 know where this hateful term comes from?

[Revalation]

The Spanish word negro originates from the Latin word niger, meaning black just found out

[Red October]

probably comes from the country Niger.

[EwokUtopia]

A better version of this thread belongs in discrimination

the Spanish word A"Negro" which is derrived from the latin "Niger" was applied to a group of people they wanted to dehumanize when (Western European) people really began to start not only defining people by race, but defining race by colour. Before this point (about 500 years ago), race was never a big issue. The main source of discrimination was religious. For instance, there were black popes and emperors, and a Syrian archbishop of Canterbury, and nobody had any real qualms with this. Then Europe became more isolated, and all the sudden exploded into mercantilism and eventually imperialism, colonizing much of the world. They bought and stole Africans from west Africa, and called them "Negro", although race was not quite yet the focal point, that came when they needed justifications for the conquests of The Americas (the name the Spanish people gave to what the indigenous people in my area call, and this is a rough translation, Turtle Island), the differences between the physique of the Spaniards and the Indigenous people of Africa and America became twisted into a rough concept of race, and they justified discrimination of blacks by saying their black skin was "the curse of Ham" (read Genesis). Indeed, today African languages are still called Hamitic, because when the Christians dominated the world (probably shouldnt have used past tense) they believed that Africans were the decendents of Noahs cursed son Ham, who saw a drunk and naked Noah and therebydoing cursed himself and his progeny forever. Origionally, this story was a Hebrew ruse to go to war with the Canaanites, but European imperialists used it to help create ideas of race.

When the blacks came to what came to be America, their shit-for-brains English masters corrupted the word "Negro" into "Nigger" probably because its half a syllable easier. The word "Nigger" got its horrible connentation for what it was, a word for one group of people to dehumanize and verbally assault another group of people for 400 years.


And there is my brief history of race.

[Pow R. Toc H.]

Originally posted by [email protected] 19, 2007 02:24 am
A word for one group of people to dehumanize and verbally assault another group of people for 400 years.


It strikes me as kind of odd that some black people call other black people it. I hear it constantly at my school and in public places and it always catches me off guard because whenever I hear it I think racism.

[Jesus Christ!]

I think the best justification for that would be that they are attempting to take the word back and make it their own and end the derogatory sense of it.

[Free Leonard Peltier]

Originally posted by Jesus Christ!@January 19, 2007 05:04 am
I think the best justification for that would be that they are attempting to take the word back and make it their own and end the derogatory sense of it.
Yeah. They have changed it to more or less a greeting, or a remark made to a friend.

[Noah]

The word 'negro' in Arabic is a hairstyle and is commonly used I think for a perm. Because my nana said it to me and I was like :unsure: why did she call me that and my mum explained.

[redcannon]

i think it comes from "Negro", meaning black. White trash americans were just to lazy to learn the full word of another language.

[Tekun]

It comes from the Latin word "niger" which means black
Which was then used in the Spanish vocabulary for the color black, or "negro"
In French, the Latin word "niger" became "negre" and "negress"

In the US, the spanish word "negro" and the french word "negre" began to develop into other substitutes such as "negar," "neegar," "neger," and "niggor" and then finally "nigger"
It seems likely that it developed from mispronounciations by white southerners

[Cryotank Screams]

Originally posted by [email protected] 18, 2007 09:24 pm
I'm not sure if this should be posted here but does any1 know where this hateful term comes from?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger_%28word%29

[Fawkes]

Originally posted by Free Leonard Peltier+January 19, 2007 12:39 am--> (Free Leonard Peltier @ January 19, 2007 12:39 am)
Jesus Christ!@January 19, 2007 05:04 am
I think the best justification for that would be that they are attempting to take the word back and make it their own and end the derogatory sense of it.
Yeah. They have changed it to more or less a greeting, or a remark made to a friend. [/b]
Similar to "man" or "dude".

[wtfm8lol]

I think the best justification for that would be that they are attempting to take the word back and make it their own and end the derogatory sense of it.

That would be a good justification for it, but I sincerely doubt there is a concious race-wide movement to change its meaning.

[EwokUtopia]

It disturbs me how casually and often it is dropped on BET. That channel is perhaps the most culturally destructive force the Black community has to deal with in contemperary America. Not only is it ran by predominantly white corporations, but it creates negative stereotypes of the Black community and feeds them to all Americans, including a significant amount of African-Americans who adopt those fabricated stereotypes. I have only heard black people drop this word casually on TV, never in real life. Does anybody else agree on the harm that the BET provides by extensive use of this word, among other things?

[Boriznov]

It is stupid tho that those 'gangsta' rappers use this term against themselves. I mean such a awful word with such a history behind it, i can't understand they would use it.

[Guerrilla22]

It originally meant "an ignorant person" and became of course a discrimanatory term used by whites because they viewed blacks as ignorant and stupid.

[Luís Henrique]

Originally posted by [email protected] 24, 2007 12:07 am
It originally meant "an ignorant person" and became of course a discrimanatory term used by whites because they viewed blacks as ignorant and stupid.
No, that is not true.

See Tekun's post above for the correct ethimology.

Luís Henrique