Editing Nigger (section)

{{DISPLAYTITLE:''Nigger''}}
{{Short description|Racial slur against black people}}
{{Hatnote group|
{{Distinguish|Negro|Niger|Niger State}}
{{For|the colloquial slang term|Nigga}}}}
{{Redirect|N-word||N-word (disambiguation)|and|Nigger (disambiguation)}}
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{{pp-semi-indef|small=yes}}
{{Use American English|date=December 2024}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2024}}

In the [[English language]], '''''nigger''''' is a [[racial slur]] directed at [[black people]]. Starting in the 1990s,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=n-word&year_start=1900 |title=Google Ngram |website=Google Ngram |access-date=January 18, 2024 |archive-date=January 18, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240118170037/https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=n-word&year_start=1900 |url-status=live }}</ref> references to ''nigger'' have been increasingly replaced by the [[euphemistic]] contraction {{nowrap|"'''the N-word'''"}}, notably in cases where ''nigger'' is [[Use–mention distinction|mentioned but not directly used]].<ref name=":0">[[Oxford English Dictionary Online]], s.v. ''nigger, n. and adj''.; ''neger, n.'' ''and adj''.; ''N-word, n''.</ref> In an instance of [[linguistic reappropriation]], the term ''nigger'' is also used casually and fraternally among African Americans, most commonly in the form of ''[[nigga]]'', whose spelling reflects the [[phonology]] of [[African-American English]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Rahman |first=Jacquelyn |date=2012 |title=The N Word: Its History and Use in the African American Community |journal=Journal of English Linguistics |language=en |volume=40 |issue=2 |pages=137–171 |doi=10.1177/0075424211414807 |s2cid=144164210 |issn=0075-4242}}</ref>

The origin of the word lies with the [[Latin]] adjective ''[[wikt:niger#Latin|niger]]'' ([ˈnɪɡɛr]), meaning "black".<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> It was initially seen as a relatively neutral term, essentially synonymous with the English word ''[[negro]]''. Early attested uses during the [[Atlantic slave trade]] (16th–19th century) often conveyed a merely patronizing attitude. The word took on a [[pejorative|derogatory connotation]] from the mid-18th century onward, and "degenerated into an overt slur" by the middle of the 19th century. Some authors still used the term in a neutral sense up until the later part of the 20th century, at which point the use of ''nigger'' became increasingly controversial regardless of its context or intent.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/30/opinion/john-mcwhorter-n-word-unsayable.html|title=Opinion &#124; How the N-Word Became Unsayable|first=John|last=McWhorter|work=The New York Times|date=April 30, 2021|via=NYTimes.com|access-date=March 22, 2023|archive-date=June 11, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240611014642/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/30/opinion/john-mcwhorter-n-word-unsayable.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Because the word ''nigger'' has historically "wreaked symbolic violence, often accompanied by physical violence",<ref name=":1" /> it began to disappear from general popular culture from the second half of the 20th century onward, with the exception of cases derived from [[In-group and out-group|intra-group usage]] such as [[hip-hop culture]].<ref name=":1" /> The ''[[Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary]]'' describes the term as "perhaps the most offensive and inflammatory racial slur in English".<ref name=":1" /> The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' writes that "this word is one of the most controversial in English, and is liable to be considered offensive or taboo in almost all contexts (even when used as a self-description)".<ref name=":0" /> At the [[Murder trial of O. J. Simpson|trial of O. J. Simpson]], prosecutor [[Christopher Darden]] referred to it as "the filthiest, dirtiest, nastiest word in the English language".<ref>{{cite news |last=Wilson|first=Cherry|date=5 October 2020|title=N-word: The troubled history of the racial slur|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-53749800.amp|work=[[BBC News]]|access-date=6 November 2024}}</ref> Intra-group usage has been criticized by some contemporary Black American authors, a group of them (the ''eradicationists'') calling for the total abandonment of its usage (even under the variant ''nigga''), which they see as contributing to the "construction of an identity founded on self-hate".<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Asim |first=Jabari |title=The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't, and Why |date=2008 |publisher=HMH |isbn=978-0-547-52494-8}}</ref><ref name=":3" /> In wider society, the inclusion of the word ''nigger'' in classic works of literature (as in [[Mark Twain]]'s 1884 book ''[[The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'') and in more recent cultural productions (such as [[Quentin Tarantino]]'s 1994 film ''[[Pulp Fiction]]'' and 2012 film ''[[Django Unchained]]'') has sparked controversy and ongoing debate.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Kennedy |first=Randall |title=Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word |date=2002 |publisher=Pantheon Books |isbn=978-0-9650397-7-2 |pages=36–37; 91–111}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Allan |first=Keith |date=2015 |title=When is a Slur Not a Slur? The Use of Nigger in 'Pulp Fiction' |journal=Language Sciences |volume=52 |pages=187–199 |doi=10.1016/j.langsci.2015.03.001| issn=0388-0001}}</ref>

The word ''nigger'' has also been historically used to designate "any person considered to be of low social status" (as in the expression ''[[white nigger]]'') or "any person whose behavior is regarded as reprehensible". In some cases, with awareness of the word's offensive connotation, but without intention to cause offense, it can refer to a "victim of prejudice likened to that endured by African Americans" (as in [[John Lennon]]'s 1972 song "[[Woman Is the Nigger of the World]]").<ref name=":0" />