Nigger

{{further|Negro}}

The word nigger, then spelled in English neger or niger, appeared in the 16th century as an adaptation of French nègre, itself from Spanish negro. They go back to the Latin adjective niger ([ˈnɪɡɛr]), meaning "black".{{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 |issn=0075-4242}}Oxford English Dictionary Online, s.v. nigger, n. and adj.; neger, n. and adj.; N-word, n.

In its original English-language usage, nigger (also spelled niger) was a word for a dark-skinned individual. The earliest known published use of the term dates from 1574, in a work alluding to "the Nigers of Aethiop, bearing witnes".{{cite book |author=Patricia T. O'Conner |author2=Stewart Kellerman |title=Origins of the Specious: Myths and Misconceptions of the English Language |date=2010 |publisher=Random House Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-8129-7810-0 |page=134 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hsu47CBwJPUC&pg=PA134 |access-date=August 18, 2017 |archive-date=October 16, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191016202235/https://books.google.com/books?id=hsu47CBwJPUC&pg=PA134 |url-status=live }} According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first derogatory usage of the term nigger was recorded two centuries later, in 1775.{{cite book |last1=Peterson |first1=Christopher |title=Bestial Traces:Race, Sexuality, Animality: Race, Sexuality, Animality |date=2013 |publisher=Fordham Univ Press |isbn=978-0-8232-4520-8 |page=91 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_Z54563cYpoC&pg=PA91 |access-date=August 18, 2017 |archive-date=October 16, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191016202223/https://books.google.com/books?id=_Z54563cYpoC&pg=PA91 |url-status=live }}

In the colonial America of 1619, John Rolfe used negars in describing the African slaves shipped to the Virginia colony.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/nigger.htm |title=Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word |last=Kennedy |first=Randall |author-link=Randall Kennedy |date=January 11, 2001 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=August 17, 2007 |archive-date=November 23, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171123115941/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/nigger.htm |url-status=live }} (Book review) Later American English spellings, neger and neggar, prevailed in New York under the Dutch and in metropolitan Philadelphia's Moravian and Pennsylvania Dutch communities; the African Burial Ground in New York City originally was known by the Dutch name {{lang|nl|Begraafplaats van de Neger}} (Cemetery of the Negro). An early occurrence of neger in American English dates from 1625 in Rhode Island.{{cite book |last=Hutchinson |first=Earl Ofari |author-link=Earl Ofari Hutchinson |title=The Assassination of the Black Male Image |publisher=Simon and Schuster |year=1996 |page=82 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tL2dpZGqIrIC&pg=PA82 |isbn=978-0-684-83100-8 |access-date=September 24, 2016 |archive-date=September 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915130533/https://books.google.com/books?id=tL2dpZGqIrIC&pg=PA82#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }} Lexicographer Noah Webster suggested the neger spelling in place of negro in his 1806 dictionary.{{cite book|url=http://www.bartleby.com/185/|title=The American Language: An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States|last=Mencken|first=H. L.|publisher=A.A. Knopf|year=1921|edition=2nd rev. and enl.|location=New York|chapter=Chapter 8. American Spelling > 2. The Influence of Webster|author-link=H. L. Mencken|chapter-url=http://www.bartleby.com/185/32.html|access-date=August 8, 2007|archive-date=February 6, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060206121229/http://www.bartleby.com/185/|url-status=live}}

File:Run, nigger, run, or the M. P. 'll catch you.jpg", about a fugitive slave escaping from a slave patrol, printed in 1851]]

During the late 18th and early 19th century, the word "nigger" also described an actual labor category, which African American laborers adopted for themselves as a social identity, and thus white people used the descriptor word as a distancing or derogatory epithet, as if "quoting black people" and their non-standard language.{{cite journal |last1=Stordeur Pryor |first1=Elizabeth |title=The Etymology of Nigger: Resistance, Language, and the Politics of Freedom in the Antebellum North |journal=Journal of the Early Republic |date=Summer 2016 |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=203–245 |doi=10.1353/jer.2016.0028 |s2cid=148122937 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/620987 |access-date=February 26, 2021 |archive-date=April 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230415191429/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/620987 |url-status=live }} = {{cite journal |last1=Stordeur Pryor |first1=Elizabeth |title=The Etymology of Nigger: Resistance, Language, and the Politics of Freedom in the Antebellum North |journal=Smith ScholarWorks |date=Summer 2016 |publisher=Smith College |location=Northampton, Massachusetts |pages=203–245, especially 206 f |url=https://scholarworks.smith.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=hst_facpubs |access-date=February 26, 2021 |archive-date=March 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230314030732/https://scholarworks.smith.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=hst_facpubs |url-status=live }} During the early 1800s to the late 1840s fur trade in the Western United States, the word was spelled "niggur", and is often recorded in the literature of the time. George Ruxton used it in his "mountain man" lexicon, without pejorative connotation. "Niggur" was evidently similar to the modern use of "dude" or "guy". This passage from Ruxton's Life in the Far West illustrates the word in spoken form—the speaker here referring to himself: "Travler, marm, this niggur's no travler; I ar' a trapper, marm, a mountain-man, wagh!"{{cite book |last=Ruxton |first=George Frederick |title=Life In the Far West |year=1846 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-1534-4}} It was not used as a term exclusively for blacks among mountain men during this period, as Indians, Mexicans, and Frenchmen and Anglos alike could be a "niggur".{{cite web |title=Language of the Rendezvous |url=http://www.coon-n-crockett.org/cnc~glos.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121119031856/http://www.coon-n-crockett.org/cnc~glos.htm |archive-date=November 19, 2012 |access-date=September 6, 2012 }} "The noun slipped back and forth from derogatory to endearing."{{cite book |last1=Coleman |first1=Jon |title=Here Lies Hugh Glass: A Mountain Man, a Bear, and the Rise of the American Nation |url=http://us.macmillan.com/herelieshughglass/jontcoleman |date=2012 |publisher=Macmillan |page=272 |access-date=November 21, 2016 }}{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

By 1859, the term was clearly used to offend, in an attack on abolitionist John Brown.{{cite news

|title=A new version of an old song. Illustrating the growth of Public Sentiment [Old John Brown, he had a little nigger]

|newspaper=The National Era (Washington, D.C.)|date=November 10, 1859|page=3|via=newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97344558/old-john-brown-he-had-a-little-nigger/|access-date=March 11, 2022

|archive-date=January 1, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230101220431/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97344558/old-john-brown-he-had-a-little-nigger/|url-status=live}}

The term "colored" or "negro" became a respectful alternative. In 1851, the Boston Vigilance Committee, an abolitionist organization, posted warnings to the Colored People of Boston and vicinity. Writing in 1904, journalist Clifton Johnson documented the "opprobrious" character of the word nigger, emphasizing that it was chosen in the South precisely because it was more offensive than "colored" or "negro".{{cite news |last=Johnson |first=Clifton |date=October 14, 1904 |title=They Are Only "Niggers" in the South |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84025811/1904-10-14/ed-1/seq-5/ |newspaper=The Seattle Republican |location=Seattle, Wash. |publisher=Republican Pub. Co. |access-date=January 23, 2011 |archive-date=July 21, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721044934/http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84025811/1904-10-14/ed-1/seq-5/ |url-status=live }} By the turn of the century, "colored" had become sufficiently mainstream that it was chosen as the racial self-identifier for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 2008 Carla Sims, its communications director, said "the term 'colored' is not derogatory, [the NAACP] chose the word 'colored' because it was the most positive description commonly used [in 1909, when the association was founded]. It's outdated and antiquated but not offensive."{{cite news |url=http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2008/11/12/lohan-calls-obama-colored-naacp-says-no-big-deal#ftnb |title=Lohan calls Obama 'colored', NAACP says no big deal |newspaper=Mercury News |date=November 12, 2008 |access-date=May 12, 2016 |archive-date=January 10, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180110133214/http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2008/11/12/lohan-calls-obama-colored-naacp-says-no-big-deal/#ftnb |url-status=live }}

Mark Twain, in the autobiographic book Life on the Mississippi (1883), used the term within quotes, indicating reported speech, but used the term "negro" when writing in his own narrative persona.{{cite journal |last=Twain |first=Mark |title=Life on the Mississippi |journal=Academic Medicine: Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges |publisher=James R. Osgood & Co., Boston (U.S. edition) |year=1883 |volume=75 |issue=10 |page=11,13,127,139,219 |doi=10.1097/00001888-200010000-00016 |pmid=11031147 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nBWbSj-r4U4C&pg=PA11 |isbn=978-0-486-41426-3}} Joseph Conrad published a novella in Britain with the title The Nigger of the "Narcissus" (1897); in the United States, it was released as The Children of the Sea: A Tale of the Forecastle; the original had been called "the ugliest conceivable title" in a British review{{Cite journal|last=GOONETILLEKE|first=D.C.R.A.|date=2011|title=Racism and "The Nigger of the "Narcissus""|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24669418|journal=Conradiana|volume=43|issue=2/3|pages=51–66|jstor=24669418|issn=0010-6356|access-date=February 6, 2022|archive-date=February 6, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220206024508/https://www.jstor.org/stable/24669418|url-status=live}} and American reviewers understood the change as reflecting American "refinement" and "prudery."{{Cite journal|last1=RUDE|first1=DONALD W.|last2=DAVIS|first2=KENNETH W.|title=The Critical Reception of the First American Edition of "The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'"|date=1992|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20874005|journal=The Conradian|volume=16|issue=2|pages=46–56|jstor=20874005|issn=0951-2314|access-date=February 6, 2022|archive-date=February 6, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220206024508/https://www.jstor.org/stable/20874005|url-status=live}}

File:TheChildrenOfTheSea.jpg was called The Children of the Sea.]]

A style guide to British English usage, H.W. Fowler's A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, states in the first edition (1926) that applying the word nigger to "others than full or partial negroes" is "felt as an insult by the person described, & betrays in the speaker, if not deliberate insolence, at least a very arrogant inhumanity"; but the second edition (1965) states "N. has been described as 'the term that carries with it all the obloquy and contempt and rejection which whites have inflicted on blacks'".Henry W. Fowler, Ernest Gowers: A Dictionary of Modern English Usage. Oxford University Press, 1965. Compare the [https://www.etymonline.com/word/nigger entry "nigger (n.)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210426155516/https://www.etymonline.com/word/nigger |date=April 26, 2021 }}, in: Online etymology dictionary. The quoted formula goes back to the writings of the American journalist Harold R. Isaacs, who used it in several writings between 1963 and 1975.Harold R. Isaacs in: Encounter, vol. 21, 1963, p. 9 ([https://books.google.com/books?id=nCsdAQAAMAAJ&q=the%20term%20that%20carries%20with%20it%20all%20the%20obloquy%20and%20contempt%20and%20rejection%20which%20whites%20have%20inflicted%20on%20blacks Google Books]). Compare Harold R. Isaacs: Idols of the Tribe: Group Identity and Political Change. Harvard University Press, 1989, p. 88 ([https://books.google.com/books?id=0Kne87aU7D0C&dq=the+term+that+carries+with+it+all+the+obloquy+and+contempt+and+rejection+which+whites+have+inflicted+on+blacks&pg=PA88 Google Books] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230331170327/https://books.google.com/books?id=0Kne87aU7D0C&dq=the+term+that+carries+with+it+all+the+obloquy+and+contempt+and+rejection+which+whites+have+inflicted+on+blacks&pg=PA88 |date=March 31, 2023 }}). Black characters in Nella Larsen's 1929 novel Passing view its use as offensive; one says "I'm really not such an idiot that I don't realize that if a man calls me a nigger, it's his fault the first time, but mine if he has the opportunity to do it again."{{Cite journal |last=Sullivan |first=Nell |date=1998 |title=Nella Larsen's Passing and the Fading Subject |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3042239 |journal=African American Review |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=373–386 |doi=10.2307/3042239 |issn=1062-4783 |jstor=3042239 |access-date=February 6, 2022 |archive-date=February 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220206025815/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3042239 |url-status=live }}

By the late 1960s, the social change brought about by the civil rights movement had legitimized the racial identity word black as mainstream American English usage to denote black-skinned Americans of African ancestry. President Thomas Jefferson had used this word of his slaves in his Notes on the State of Virginia (1785), but "black" had not been widely used until the later 20th century. (See black pride, and, in the context of worldwide anti-colonialism initiatives, Négritude.)

In the 1980s, the term "African American" was advanced analogously to such terms as "German American" and "Irish American", and was adopted by major media outlets. Moreover, as a compound word, African American resembles the vogue word Afro-American, an early-1970s popular usage. Some Black Americans continue to use the word nigger, often spelled as nigga and niggah, without irony, either to neutralize the word's impact or as a sign of solidarity.{{cite journal|last=Allan|first=Keith |author-link=Keith Allan (linguist) |title=The pragmatics of connotation |journal=Journal of Pragmatics |volume=39|issue=6 |date=June 2007 |pages=1047–1057|doi=10.1016/j.pragma.2006.08.004}}

Surveys from 2006 showed that the American public widely perceived usage of the term to be wrong or unacceptable, but that nearly half of whites and two-thirds of blacks knew someone personally who referred to blacks by the term.{{Cite news |last=Tesler |first=Michael |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2015/06/25/using-the-n-word-is-more-common-than-you-or-president-obama-may-think/ |title=Using the n-word is more common than you (or President Obama) may think |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=June 25, 2015 |access-date=August 15, 2018 |archive-date=August 16, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180816061712/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2015/06/25/using-the-n-word-is-more-common-than-you-or-president-obama-may-think/ |url-status=live }} Nearly one-third of whites and two-thirds of blacks said they had personally used the term within the last five years.

{{Main|Use of nigger in proper names}}

File:Why the nigger is not fit to vote.jpg, arguing the reason Democrats objected to African-Americans having the vote was that, in the 1868 US presidential election, African-Americans voted for the Republican candidates Ulysses S. Grant and Schuyler Colfax. "Seymour friends meet here" in the background is a reference to the Democratic Party candidate: Horatio Seymour.]]

"Niggers in the White House"{{cite web|url=http://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Research/Digital-Library/Record.aspx?libID=o284393|publisher=Theodore Roosevelt Center, Dickinson State University|title=Niggers in the White House|access-date=September 12, 2013|archive-date=March 31, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230331161158/https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Research/Digital-Library/Record.aspx?libID=o284393|url-status=live}} was written in reaction to an October 1901 White House dinner hosted by Republican President Theodore Roosevelt, who had invited Booker T. Washington—an African-American presidential advisor—as a guest. The poem reappeared in 1929 after First Lady Lou Hoover, wife of President Herbert Hoover, invited Jessie De Priest, the wife of African-American congressman Oscar De Priest, to a tea for congressmen's wives at the White House.{{cite book|last1=Jones|first1=Stephen A.|last2=Freedman|first2=Eric|title=Presidents and Black America: A Documentary History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mBRKYgEACAAJ|year=2011|publisher=CQ Press|location=Los Angeles|isbn=9781608710089|page=349|access-date=July 25, 2020|archive-date=September 15, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915130429/https://books.google.com/books?id=mBRKYgEACAAJ|url-status=live}} The identity of the author—who used the byline "unchained poet"—remains unknown.

In explaining his refusal to be conscripted to fight the Vietnam War (1955–1975), professional boxer Muhammad Ali said, "No Vietcong ever called me nigger."{{cite book |last=Kennedy |first=Randall |author-link=Randall Kennedy |title=Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word |publisher=Random House |year=2002 |page=28 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yb8LmupcLdkC&pg=PA28 |isbn=978-0-375-42172-3 |access-date=September 24, 2016 |archive-date=September 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915130432/https://books.google.com/books?id=yb8LmupcLdkC&pg=PA28#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }} Later, his modified answer was the title of a documentary, No Vietnamese Ever Called Me Nigger (1968), about the front-line lot of the U.S. Army black soldier in combat in Vietnam.{{cite book |last=Rollins |first=Peter C. |title=The Columbia Companion to American History on Film: How the Movies Have Portrayed the American Past |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2003 |page=341 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xB1rhm6Ke2UC&pg=PA341 |isbn=978-0-231-11222-2 |access-date=September 24, 2016 |archive-date=September 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915130433/https://books.google.com/books?id=xB1rhm6Ke2UC&pg=PA341#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }} An Ali biographer reports that, when interviewed by Robert Lipsyte in 1966, the boxer actually said, "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong."{{cite book |last=Lemert |first=Charles |title=Muhammad Ali: Trickster in the Culture of Irony |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |year=2003 |pages=105–107 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MI1cTZGcDVgC&pg=PA105 |isbn=978-0-7456-2871-4 |access-date=September 24, 2016 |archive-date=September 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915130531/https://books.google.com/books?id=MI1cTZGcDVgC&pg=PA105 |url-status=live }}

On February 28, 2007, the New York City Council symbolically banned the use of the word nigger; however, there is no penalty for using it. This formal resolution also requests excluding from Grammy Award consideration every song whose lyrics contain the word; however, Ron Roecker, vice president of communication for the Recording Academy, doubted it will have any effect on actual nominations.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/usa/story/0,,2023817,00.html |title=New York city council bans use of the N-word |last=Pilkington |first=Ed |date=March 1, 2007 |work=The Guardian |access-date=August 17, 2007 |archive-date=September 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915130535/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/mar/01/usa.edpilkington |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=http://webdocs.nyccouncil.info/textfiles/Res%200693-2007.htm?CFID=425440&CFTOKEN=70865698 |title=Res. No. 693-A – Resolution declaring the NYC Council's symbolic moratorium against using the 'N' word in New York City |publisher=New York City Council |access-date=August 17, 2007 |archive-date=March 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220308044117/http://webdocs.nyccouncil.info/textfiles/Res%200693-2007.htm?CFID=425440&CFTOKEN=70865698 |url-status=live }}

The word can be invoked politically for effect. When Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick came under intense scrutiny for his conduct in 2008, he deviated from an address to the city council, saying, "In the past 30 days, I've been called a nigger more than any time in my entire life." Opponents accused him of "playing the race card" to save his political life.{{cite news |last=French |first=Ron |date=March 13, 2008 |url=http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080313/METRO/803130408 |title=Attorney General Cox: Kilpatrick should resign |access-date=March 13, 2008 |work=The Detroit News}}{{dead link|date=February 2021}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.mlive.com/grpress/2008/03/attorney_general_mike_cox_call.html|title=Attorney General Mike Cox calls for Kwame Kilpatrick's resignation|date=March 13, 2008|publisher=Advance Local Media}}

{{Main|Use of nigger in the arts}}

The implicit racism of the word nigger has generally rendered its use taboo. Magazines and newspapers typically do not use this word but instead print censored versions such as "n*gg*r", "n**ger", "n——" or "the N-word";{{cite dictionary |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nigger |title=Nigger Usage Alert |dictionary=Dictionary.com |access-date=July 23, 2015 |archive-date=July 21, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150721100920/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nigger |url-status=live }} see below.

File:MrBradish.jpg's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, captioned "Misto Bradish's nigger"]]

The use of nigger in older literature has become controversial because of the word's modern meaning as a racist insult. One of the most enduring controversies has been the word's use in Mark Twain's novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885). Huckleberry Finn was the fifth most challenged book during the 1990s, according to the American Library Association.{{cite web |url=http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedbydecade/1990_1999/index.cfm |title=100 most frequently challenged books: 1990–1999 |publisher=American Library Association |date=March 27, 2013 |access-date=April 2, 2011 |archive-date=January 12, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112170406/http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedbydecade/1990_1999/index.cfm |url-status=dead }} The novel is written from the point of view, and largely in the language, of an uneducated white boy, who is drifting down the Mississippi River on a raft with an adult escaped slave, Jim. The word "nigger" is used (mostly about Jim) over 200 times.{{cite web |title=Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |work=The Complete Works of Mark Twain |url=http://www.mtwain.com/Adventures_Of_Huckleberry_Finn/ |access-date=March 12, 2006 |url-status = dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060909212120/http://www.mtwain.com/Adventures_Of_Huckleberry_Finn/ |archive-date=September 9, 2006 }}{{cite web |title=Academic Resources: Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word |work=Random House |url=http://www.randomhouse.com/acmart/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780375713712&view=tg |access-date=March 13, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070122142322/http://www.randomhouse.com/acmart/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780375713712&view=tg |archive-date=January 22, 2007 }} [https://penguinrandomhousehighereducation.com/book/?isbn=9780375713712 Alternative URL] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200715171506/https://penguinrandomhousehighereducation.com/book/?isbn=9780375713712 |date=July 15, 2020 }} Twain's advocates note that the novel is composed in then-contemporary vernacular usage, not racist stereotype, because Jim, the black man, is a sympathetic character.

In 2011, a new edition published by NewSouth Books replaced the word nigger with slave and also removed the word injun. The change was spearheaded by Twain scholar Alan Gribben in the hope of "countering the 'pre-emptive censorship{{'"}} that results from the book's being removed from school curricula over language concerns.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jan/05/huckleberry-finn-edition-censors-n-word |title=New Huckleberry Finn edition censors 'n-word' |work=The Guardian|date=January 5, 2011 |last=Page |first=Benedicte |access-date=February 2, 2021}}{{cite magazine |last=Twain |first=Mark |url=http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1842832_1842838,00.html?iid=moreontime |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110110133900/http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1842832_1842838,00.html?iid=moreontime |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 10, 2011 |title='The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' – Removing the N Word from Huck Finn: Top 10 Censored Books |magazine=Time |date=January 7, 2011 |access-date=January 23, 2011}} The changes sparked outrage from critics Elon James, Alexandra Petri and Chris Meadows.{{cite news |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2011/0105/The-n-word-gone-from-Huck-Finn-what-would-Mark-Twain-say |title=The 'n'-word gone from Huck Finn – what would Mark Twain say? |last=Kehe |first=Marjorie |work=The Christian Science Monitor |date=January 5, 2011 |access-date=February 2, 2021 |archive-date=April 30, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210430202839/http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2011/0105/The-n-word-gone-from-Huck-Finn-what-would-Mark-Twain-say |url-status=live }}

In his 1999 memoir All Souls, Irish-American Michael Patrick MacDonald describes how many white residents of the Old Colony Housing Project in South Boston used this meaning to degrade the people considered to be of lower status, whether white or black.{{cite book|last=MacDonald|first=Michael Patrick|author-link=Michael Patrick MacDonald|title=All Souls: A Family Story from Southie |publisher=Random House |year=2000|page=61 |isbn=978-0-345-44177-5}}

{{blockquote|Of course, no one considered himself a nigger. It was always something you called someone who could be considered anything less than you. I soon found out there were a few black families living in Old Colony. They'd lived there for years and everyone said that they were okay, that they weren't niggers but just black. It felt good to all of us to not be as bad as the hopeless people in D Street or, God forbid, the ones in Columbia Point, who were both black and niggers. But now I was jealous of the kids in Old Harbor Project down the road, which seemed like a step up from Old Colony{{nbs}}...}}

The word's usage in literature has led to it being a point of discussion in university lectures as well. In 2008, Arizona State University English professor Neal A. Lester created what has been called "the first ever college-level class designed to explore the word 'nigger{{'"}}.{{cite web|url=https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/fall-2011/straight-talk-about-the-nword|title=Straight talk about the N-word|first=Sean|last=Price|work=Teaching Tolerance|year=2011|access-date=November 18, 2019|archive-date=December 10, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191210104913/https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/fall-2011/straight-talk-about-the-nword|url-status=live}} Starting in the following decade, colleges struggled with attempts to teach material about the slur in a sensitive manner. In 2012, a sixth grade Chicago teacher Lincoln Brown was suspended after repeating the contents of a racially charged note being passed around in class. Brown later filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the headmaster and the Chicago public schools.{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/02/can-educators-ever-teach-the-n-word/253345/|title=Can educators ever teach the N-word?|first=Wendy|last=Kaminer|work=The Atlantic|date=February 21, 2012|access-date=December 24, 2021|archive-date=December 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211215190625/https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/02/can-educators-ever-teach-the-n-word/253345/|url-status=live}} A New Orleans high school also experienced controversy in 2017.{{cite web|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/05/us/teacher-student-n-word-exchange/index.html|title=School reflects on race after student-teacher N-word exchange|first=Donie|last=O'Sullivan|work=CNN|date=May 5, 2017|access-date=November 19, 2019|archive-date=November 12, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112020811/http://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/05/us/teacher-student-n-word-exchange/index.html|url-status=live}} Such increased attention prompted Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor, the daughter of Richard Pryor and a professor at Smith College, to give a talk opining that the word was leading to a "social crisis" in higher education.{{cite web|url=https://www.telegram.com/news/20190919/elizabeth-stordeur-pryor-says-use-of-n-word-is-causing-social-crisis|title=Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor says use of the N-word is causing social crisis|work=Telegram & Gazette|first=Cyrus|last=Moulton|date=September 19, 2019|access-date=November 18, 2019|archive-date=December 18, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191218042632/https://www.telegram.com/news/20190919/elizabeth-stordeur-pryor-says-use-of-n-word-is-causing-social-crisis|url-status=live}}

In addition to Smith College, Emory University, Augsburg University, Southern Connecticut State University, and Simpson College all suspended professors in 2019 over referring to the word "nigger" by name in classroom settings.{{cite web|url=https://abovethelaw.com/2019/10/the-original-emory-law-school-n-word-using-professor-faces-a-hearing-on-his-future-today/|title=The original Emory Law School N-word using professor faces hearing on his future today|first=Joe|last=Patrice|work=Above The Law|date=October 4, 2019|access-date=November 18, 2019}}{{cite web|url=https://www.thecollegefix.com/universities-repeatedly-discipline-professors-for-referring-to-the-n-word/|title=Universities repeatedly discipline professors for referring to the n-word|first=Matthew|last=Stein|website=The College Fix|date=April 11, 2019|access-date=November 18, 2019|archive-date=September 29, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190929154736/https://www.thecollegefix.com/universities-repeatedly-discipline-professors-for-referring-to-the-n-word/|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2019/11/18/professor-wont-teach-more-classes-after-saying-n-word|title=Professor won't teach more classes after saying N-word|first=Colleen|last=Flaherty|work=Inside Higher Education|date=November 18, 2019|access-date=November 18, 2019}} In two other cases, a professor at Princeton decided to stop teaching a course on hate speech after students protested his utterance of "nigger" and a professor at DePaul had his law course cancelled after 80% of the enrolled students transferred out.{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/13/585386694/professor-cancels-course-on-hate-speech-amid-contention-over-his-use-of-slur|title=Professor cancels course on hate speech amid contention over his use of slur|first=Colin|last=Dwyer|work=NPR|date=February 13, 2018|access-date=November 19, 2019|archive-date=March 15, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200315090311/https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/13/585386694/professor-cancels-course-on-hate-speech-amid-contention-over-his-use-of-slur|url-status=live}}{{cite news|url=https://depauliaonline.com/42740/news/depaul-professor-formerly-under-fire-for-use-of-n-word-in-teaching-exercise-rehired/|title=Professor formerly under fire for use of 'N-word' in teaching exercise back at DePaul|first=Ella|last=Lee|work=The DePaulia|date=September 23, 2019|access-date=November 19, 2019|archive-date=September 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190924050400/https://depauliaonline.com/42740/news/depaul-professor-formerly-under-fire-for-use-of-n-word-in-teaching-exercise-rehired/|url-status=live}} Instead of pursuing disciplinary action, a student at the College of the Desert challenged his professor in a viral class presentation which argued that her use of the word in a lecture was not justified.{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/college-student-presentation-n-word-professor-maleek-eid-california-a8813186.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220620/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/college-student-presentation-n-word-professor-maleek-eid-california-a8813186.html |archive-date=June 20, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=College student delivers presentation to call out professor for using n-word in class|first=Sarah|last=Harvard|work=The Independent|date=March 7, 2019|access-date=November 18, 2019}}

In 2018, the head of the media company Netflix, Reed Hastings, fired his chief communications officer, Jonathan Friedland, for using the word twice during internal discussions about sensitive words.{{cite news |last1=Mele |first1=Christopher |title=Netflix Fires Chief Communications Officer Over Use of Racial Slur |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/22/business/media/jonathan-friedland-netflix-racial-slur.html |access-date=June 23, 2018 |work=The New York Times |date=June 23, 2018 |language=en |archive-date=June 23, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180623020342/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/22/business/media/jonathan-friedland-netflix-racial-slur.html |url-status=live }} In explaining why, Hastings wrote:

{{blockquote|[The word's use] in popular media like music and film have created some confusion as to whether or not there is ever a time when the use of the N-word is acceptable. For non-Black people, the word should not be spoken as there is almost no context in which it is appropriate or constructive (even when singing a song or reading a script). There is not a way to neutralize the emotion and history behind the word in any context. The use of the phrase 'N-word' was created as a euphemism, and the norm, with the intention of providing an acceptable replacement and moving people away from using the specific word. When a person violates this norm, it creates resentment, intense frustration, and great offense for many.{{cite news |last1=Landy |first1=Heather |title=Read the Netflix CEO's excellent memo about firing an executive who used the N-word |url=https://work.qz.com/1313072/read-netflix-ceo-reed-hastings-memo-about-the-firing-of-pr-chief-jonathan-friedland-for-using-the-n-word/ |access-date=June 23, 2018 |work=Quartz at Work |date=June 23, 2018 |archive-date=June 23, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180623162827/https://work.qz.com/1313072/read-netflix-ceo-reed-hastings-memo-about-the-firing-of-pr-chief-jonathan-friedland-for-using-the-n-word/ |url-status=live }}}}

The following year, screenwriter Walter Mosley turned down a job after his human resources department took issue with him using the word to describe racism that he experienced as a black man.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/06/opinion/sunday/walter-mosley.html |title=Why I quit the writer's room |first=Walter |last=Mosley |author-link=Walter Mosley |work=The New York Times |date=September 6, 2019 |access-date=September 19, 2019 |archive-date=September 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190921164048/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/06/opinion/sunday/walter-mosley.html |url-status=live }}

While defending Laurie Sheck, a professor who was cleared of ethical violations for quoting I Am Not Your Negro by James Baldwin, John McWhorter wrote that efforts to condemn racist language by white Americans had undergone mission creep.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/whites-refer-to-the-n-word/596872/|title=The idea that white's can't refer to the N-word|first=John|last=McWhorter|author-link=John McWhorter|magazine=The Atlantic|date=August 21, 2019|access-date=November 19, 2019|archive-date=November 11, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191111140215/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/whites-refer-to-the-n-word/596872/|url-status=live}} Similar controversies outside the United States have occurred at the University of Western Ontario in Canada and the Madrid campus of Syracuse University.{{cite web|url=https://globalnews.ca/news/6091885/western-university-andrew-wenaus-n-word/|title=Western University professor apologizes after student calls out his use of the n-word|first=Jacquelyn|last=Lebel|work=Global News|date=October 28, 2019|access-date=November 19, 2019|archive-date=November 5, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191105120520/https://globalnews.ca/news/6091885/western-university-andrew-wenaus-n-word/|url-status=live}}{{cite news|url=http://dailyorange.com/2019/03/students-professor-use-n-word-classes-sus-madrid-program/|title=Students, professor use 'N-word' during class at SU's Madrid program|first=Catherine|last=Leffert|work=The Daily Orange|date=March 13, 2019|access-date=November 19, 2019|archive-date=November 23, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191123085850/http://dailyorange.com/2019/03/students-professor-use-n-word-classes-sus-madrid-program|url-status=live}} In June 2020, Canadian news host Wendy Mesley was suspended and replaced with a guest host after she attended a meeting on racial justice and, in the process of quoting a journalist, used "a word that no-one like me should ever use".{{cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-cbc-host-wendy-mesley-apologizes-for-using-a-certain-word-in-2/|title=CBC host Wendy Mesley apologizes for using a certain word in discussion on race|first=Darren|last=Calabrese|work=The Canadian Press|date=June 9, 2020|access-date=June 13, 2020|archive-date=June 10, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200610161410/https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-cbc-host-wendy-mesley-apologizes-for-using-a-certain-word-in-2/|url-status=live}} In August 2020, BBC News, with the agreement of victim and family, mentioned the slur when reporting on a physical and verbal assault on the black NHS worker and musician K-Dogg. Within the week the BBC received over 18,600 complaints, the black radio host David Whitely resigned in protest, and the BBC apologized.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53715814/|title=BBC apologises over racial slur used in news report|work=BBC News|date=August 9, 2020|access-date=August 26, 2020|archive-date=August 31, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200831135252/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53715814|url-status=live}}

In 2021, in Tampa, Florida, a 27-year-old black employee at a Dunkin' Donuts punched a 77-year-old white customer after the customer had repeatedly called the employee a nigger.{{cite web |author=Dan Sullivan |url=https://www.tampabay.com/news/tampa/2022/03/07/tampa-dunkin-case-a-racial-slur-a-fatal-punch-and-2-years-of-house-arrest/ |title=Tampa Dunkin' case: A racial slur, a fatal punch and 2 years of house arrest |work=Tampa Bay Times |date= |accessdate=September 25, 2022 |archive-date=September 23, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220923063729/https://www.tampabay.com/news/tampa/2022/03/07/tampa-dunkin-case-a-racial-slur-a-fatal-punch-and-2-years-of-house-arrest/ |url-status=live }} The customer fell to the floor and hit his head. Three days later, he died, having suffered a skull fracture and brain contusions. The employee was arrested, and charged with manslaughter. In a plea bargain, the employee pled guilty to felony battery, and was sentenced to two years of house arrest. In 2022, in explaining why the employee did not receive any jail time, Grayson Kamm, a spokesman for Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren, said "Two of the primary factors were the aggressive approach the victim took toward the defendant and everyone working with the defendant, and that the victim repeatedly used possibly the most aggressive and offensive term in the English language."{{cite web|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/corey-pujols-dunkin-worker-sentenced-fatal-punch-vonelle-cook-slur/|title=Florida Dunkin' employee is sentenced for fatally punching customer who used racist slur|work=CBS News|date=March 9, 2022|access-date=August 14, 2022|archive-date=August 14, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220814130244/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/corey-pujols-dunkin-worker-sentenced-fatal-punch-vonelle-cook-slur/|url-status=live}}

{{Main|Nigga}}

{{See also|Ingroups and outgroups}}

Black listeners often react to the term differently, depending on whether it is used by white speakers or by black speakers. In the former case, it is regularly understood as insensitive or insulting; in the latter, it may carry notes of in-group disparagement, or it may be understood as neutral or affectionate, a possible instance of reappropriation.{{Cite journal|last=Brontsema|first=Robin|date=June 1, 2004|title=A Queer Revolution: Reconceptualizing the Debate Over Linguistic Reclamation|journal=Colorado Research in Linguistics|volume=17|issue=1|doi=10.25810/dky3-zq57|issn=1937-7029|quote=Linguistic reclamation, also known as linguistic resignification or reappropriation, refers to the appropriation of a pejorative epithet by its target(s).}}

In the black community, nigger is often rendered as nigga. This usage has been popularized by the rap and hip-hop music cultures and is used as part of an in-group lexicon and speech. It is not necessarily derogatory and is often used to mean homie or friend.{{cite dictionary |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nigga |title=Nigga Usage Alert |dictionary=Dictionary.com |access-date=July 23, 2015}}

Acceptance of intra-group usage of the word nigga is still debated, although it has established a foothold amongst younger generations. The NAACP denounces the use of both nigga and nigger. Usage of nigga by mixed-race individuals is still largely considered taboo,{{Efn|Whether this usage is considered acceptable may depend on a sense of the speaker's in-group belonging, as judged by the speaker him- or herself, the listener(s), or others.}} albeit not as inflammatory as nigger. As of 2001, trends indicated that usage of the term in intragroup settings is increasing even amongst white youth, due to the popularity of rap and hip hop culture.{{cite news |last1=Aldridge |first1=Kevin |last2=Thompson |first2=Richelle |last3=Winston |first3=Earnest |url=http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2001/08/05/loc_1the_n-word.html |title=The evolving N-word |work=The Cincinnati Enquirer |date=August 5, 2001 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130110202405/http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2001/08/05/loc_1the_n-word.html |archive-date=January 10, 2013 |url-status=dead |access-date=October 14, 2011 }} Linguist Keith Allan rejects the view that nigger is always a slur, arguing that it is also used as a marker of camaraderie and friendship, comparable to the British and Australian term "mate" or the American "buddy".{{cite journal|last=Allan|first=Keith |title=When is a slur not a slur? The use of nigger in 'Pulp Fiction'|journal=Language Sciences |volume=52 |date=November 2015|pages=187–199|doi=10.1016/j.langsci.2015.03.001}}

According to Arthur K. Spears in Diverse Issues in Higher Education, 2006:

{{blockquote|In many African-American neighborhoods, nigga is simply the most common term used to refer to any male, of any race or ethnicity. Increasingly, the term has been applied to any person, male or female. "Where y'all niggas goin?" is said with no self-consciousness or animosity to a group of women, for the routine purpose of obtaining information. The point: nigga is evaluatively neutral in terms of its inherent meaning; it may express positive, neutral, or negative attitudes;{{cite journal |title=Perspectives: A View of the 'N-Word' from Sociolinguistics |url=http://diverseeducation.com/article/6114/ |last=Spears |first=Arthur K. |journal=Diverse Issues in Higher Education |date=July 12, 2006 |access-date=July 13, 2013 |archive-date=September 27, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140927014836/http://diverseeducation.com/article/6114/ |url-status=live }}}}

Kevin Cato, meanwhile, observes:

{{blockquote|For instance, a show on Black Entertainment Television, a cable network aimed at a Black audience, described the word nigger as a "term of endearment". "In the African American community, the word nigga (not nigger) brings out feelings of pride." (Davis{{nbs}}1.) Here the word evokes a sense of community and oneness among Black people. Many teens I interviewed felt the word had no power when used amongst friends, but when used among white people the word took on a completely different meaning. In fact, comedian Alex Thomas on BET stated, "I still better not hear no white boy say that to me{{nbs}}... I hear a white boy say that to me, it means 'White boy, you gonna get your ass beat.{{'"}}{{cite web |url=http://wrt-intertext.syr.edu/XI/Nigger.html |title=Nigger: Language, History, and Modern Day Discourse |work=Intertext |publisher=Syracuse University |access-date=January 23, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110517143530/http://wrt-intertext.syr.edu/XI/Nigger.html |archive-date=May 17, 2011}}}}

Addressing the use of nigger by black people, philosopher and public intellectual Cornel West said in 2007:

{{blockquote|There's a certain rhythmic seduction to the word. If you speak in a sentence, and you have to say cat, companion, or friend, as opposed to nigger, then the rhythmic presentation is off. That rhythmic language is a form of historical memory for Black people{{nbs}}... When Richard Pryor came back from Africa, and decided to stop using the word onstage, he would sometimes start to slip up, because he was so used to speaking that way. It was the right word at the moment to keep the rhythm together in his sentence making.{{cite magazine |last=Mohr |first=Tim |author-link=Tim Mohr |title=Cornel West Talks Rhymes and Race |magazine=Playboy |volume=54 |issue=11 |page=44 |date=November 2007}}}}

In the 2010s, "nigger" in its various forms saw use with increasing frequency by African Americans amongst themselves or in self-expression, the most common swear word in hip hop music lyrics.{{cite news |last1=Sheinin |first1=Dave |last2=Thompson |first2=Krissah |author-link2=Krissah Thompson |title=Redefining the Word |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2014/11/09/the-n-word-an-entrenched-racial-slur-now-more-prevalent-than-ever/ |access-date=May 24, 2019 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=November 9, 2014 |archive-date=May 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190512104225/https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2014/11/09/the-n-word-an-entrenched-racial-slur-now-more-prevalent-than-ever/ |url-status=live }}{{cite news |title=Profanity in lyrics: most used swear words and their usage by popular genres |work=Musixmatch |url=https://blog.musixmatch.com/profanity-in-lyrics-most-used-swear-words-and-their-usage-by-popular-genres-d8a12c776713 |access-date=May 24, 2019 |date=December 16, 2015}} Ta-Nehisi Coates suggested that it continues to be unacceptable for non-blacks to utter while singing or rapping along to hip-hop, and that by being so restrained it gives white Americans (specifically) an impression of what it is like to not be entitled to "do anything they please, anywhere". A concern often raised is whether frequent exposure will inevitably lead to a dilution of the extremely negative perception of the word among the majority of non-black Americans who currently consider its use unacceptable and shocking.{{cite news |last1=Bain |first1=Marc |title=Ta-Nehisi Coates Gently Explains Why White People Can't Rap the N-Word |url=https://qz.com/quartzy/1127824/ta-nehisi-coates-explains-why-white-hip-hop-fans-cant-use-the-n-word/ |access-date=May 24, 2019 |work=Quartz |date=November 13, 2017 |archive-date=May 24, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190524183923/https://qz.com/quartzy/1127824/ta-nehisi-coates-explains-why-white-hip-hop-fans-cant-use-the-n-word/ |url-status=live }}

File:The Nigger in the Woodpile.jpg"]]

In several English-speaking countries, "Niggerhead" or "nigger head" was used as a name for many sorts of things, including commercial products, places, plants and animals, as a descriptive term (lit. 'black person's head'). It also is or was a colloquial technical term in industry, mining, and seafaring. Nigger as "defect" (a hidden problem) derives from "nigger in the woodpile", a US slave-era phrase denoting escaped slaves hiding in train-transported woodpiles.{{cite book |title=The Oxford English Reference Dictionary |edition=2nd |year=1996|page=981}} In the 1840s, the Morning Chronicle newspaper report series London Labour and the London Poor, by Henry Mayhew, records the usages of both "nigger" and the similar-sounding word "niggard" denoting a false bottom for a grate.vol 2 p6

{{anchor|nigger lover}}In American English, "nigger lover" initially applied to abolitionists, then to white people sympathetic towards black Americans.{{cite book |last1=Herbst |first1=Philip |title=The Color of Words: An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Ethnic Bias in the United States |date=1997 |publisher=Intercultural Press |isbn=978-1-877864-97-1 |page=166 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UiZQH5gHuggC |via=Google Books |access-date=September 24, 2016 |archive-date=September 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915130531/https://books.google.com/books?id=UiZQH5gHuggC |url-status=live }} The portmanteau word wigger ('White' + 'nigger') denotes a white person emulating "street Black behavior", hoping to gain acceptance to the hip hop, thug, and gangsta sub-cultures. Norman Mailer wrote of the antecedents of this phenomenon in 1957 in his essay The White Negro.

In Ukraine, the word "zigger" (Ukrainian: 'зіггер') is sometimes used as a derogatory term by Ukrainians to refer to Russian soldiers and those who follow the Russian government's propaganda. The word comes from replacing the first letter of "nigger" with a Z, which is a reference to the "Z" tactical symbol used by Russian troops and Russian nationalists.{{Citation |title=zigger |date=2025-02-04 |work=Wiktionary, the free dictionary |url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/zigger |access-date=2025-02-06 |language=en}} It is used as a more offensive alternative to calling someone a "vatnik."

{{Quote box|width=376px|border=0px|salign=right|tstyle=font-size:100%|title=Notable usage{{cite book |title=Huckleberry Finn as idol and target |first=Jonathan |last=Arac |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=twfLrDgYRlUC&pg=PA29 |access-date=August 18, 2010 |date=November 1997 |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |location=Madison, Wisconsin |isbn=978-0-299-15534-6 |page=29 |archive-date=September 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915130940/https://books.google.com/books?id=twfLrDgYRlUC&pg=PA29#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}|source=— Kenneth B. Noble, January 14, 1995 The New York Times{{cite news |work=The New York Times |title=Issue of Racism Erupts in Simpson Trial |first=Kenneth B. |last=Noble |date=January 14, 1995 |access-date=February 2, 2021 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/14/us/issue-of-racism-erupts-in-simpson-trial.html |archive-date=March 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308142922/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/14/us/issue-of-racism-erupts-in-simpson-trial.html |url-status=live }}|quote=The prosecutor {{bracket|Christopher Darden}}, his voice trembling, added that the "N-word" was so vile he would not utter it. "It's the filthiest, dirtiest, nastiest word in the English language."}}

One of the first uses of the N-word euphemism by a major public figure came during the racially contentious O. J. Simpson murder case in 1995. Key prosecution witness Detective Mark Fuhrman, of the Los Angeles Police Department—who denied using racist language on duty—impeached himself with his prolific use of nigger in tape recordings about his police work. Co-prosecutor Christopher Darden refused to say the actual word, calling it "the filthiest, dirtiest, nastiest word in the English language". Media personnel who reported on Fuhrman's testimony substituted the N-word for nigger.{{Cite news |last=McWhorter |first=John |date=April 30, 2021 |title=How the N-Word Became Unsayable |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/30/opinion/john-mcwhorter-n-word-unsayable.html |access-date=May 27, 2023 |issn=0362-4331 |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 }}{{Cite news |last=Wilson |first=Cherry |date=October 4, 2020 |title=N-word: The troubled history of the racial slur |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-53749800 |access-date=May 27, 2023 |archive-date=February 10, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210210121239/https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-53749800 |url-status=live }}

{{lang|la|Niger}} (Latin for "black") occurs in Latinate scientific nomenclature and is the root word for some homophones of nigger; sellers of niger seed (used as bird feed), sometimes use the spelling Nyjer seed. The classical Latin pronunciation {{IPA|/ˈniɡeɾ/}} sounds similar to the English {{IPA|/ˈnɪɡər/}}, occurring in biologic and anatomic names, such as Hyoscyamus niger (black henbane), and even for animals that are in fact not black, such as Sciurus niger (fox squirrel).

{{lang|la|Nigra}} is the Latin feminine form of {{lang|la|niger}} (black), used in biologic and anatomic names such as substantia nigra (black substance).

The word niggardly (miserly) is etymologically unrelated to nigger, derived from the Old Norse word {{lang|non|nig}} (stingy) and the Middle English word {{lang|enm|nigon}}. In the US, this word has been misinterpreted as related to nigger and taken as offensive. In January 1999, David Howard, a white Washington, D.C., city employee, was compelled to resign after using niggardly—in a financial context—while speaking with black colleagues, who took umbrage. After reviewing the misunderstanding, Mayor Anthony A. Williams offered to reinstate Howard to his former position. Howard refused reinstatement but took a job elsewhere in the mayor's government.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/williams/williams020499.htm |title=D.C. Mayor Acted 'Hastily', Will Rehire Aide |last=Woodlee |first=Yolanda |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=February 4, 1999 |access-date=August 17, 2007 |archive-date=August 20, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080820112736/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/williams/williams020499.htm |url-status=live }}

{{lang|es|Negro}} {{IPA|[ˈne.ɣ̞ɾo]}} is the Spanish word for 'black', and is commonly a part of place names and proper names, particularly in the Southwest of the United States.

{{Anchor|Sand nigger}}

File:02 05 03 Die Arab Sand.jpg activists on a Palestinian home in Hebron in 2002{{Cite web |date=2002-08-22 |title=CPTnet May Releases: HEBRON UPDATE: April 29-May 3, 2002 |url=http://www.prairienet.org/cpt/archives/2002/may02/0009.html |access-date=2024-11-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020822104737/http://www.prairienet.org/cpt/archives/2002/may02/0009.html |archive-date=August 22, 2002 }}]]

The denotations of nigger also include non-black/non-white and other disadvantaged people. Some of these terms are self-chosen, to identify with the oppression and resistance of black Americans; others are ethnic slurs used by outsiders.

Jerry Farber's 1967 essay collection, The Student as Nigger, used the word as a metaphor for what he saw as the role forced on students. Farber had been, at the time, frequently arrested as a civil rights activist while beginning his career as a literature professor.

In his 1968 autobiography White Niggers of America: The Precocious Autobiography of a Quebec "Terrorist", Pierre Vallières, a {{lang|fr|italic=no|Front de libération du Québec}} leader, refers to the oppression of the Québécois people in North America.

In 1969, in the course of being interviewed by the British magazine Nova, artist Yoko Ono said "woman is the nigger of the world"; three years later, her husband, John Lennon, published the song of the same name—about the worldwide phenomenon of discrimination against women—which was socially and politically controversial to US sensibilities.

Sand nigger, an ethnic slur against Arabs, and timber nigger and prairie nigger, ethnic slurs against Native Americans, are examples of the racist extension of nigger upon other non-white peoples.{{Cite journal |title=Who Can Say 'Nigger'? And Other Considerations |first=Randall L. |last=Kennedy |author-link=Randall Kennedy |journal=The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education |issue=26 |date=Winter 1999–2000 |pages=86–96 [87] |jstor=2999172 |doi=10.2307/2999172}}

In 1978, singer Patti Smith used the word in "Rock N Roll Nigger". One year later in 1979, English singer Elvis Costello used the phrase "white nigger" in his song "Oliver's Army". The slur usually remains uncensored on radio stations, but Costello's usage of the word came under scrutiny, particularly after he used racial slurs during a drunken argument with Stephen Stills and Bonnie Bramlett in 1979. In the same year, Costello's father published a letter in Rolling Stone defending his son against accusations of racism, stating "Nothing could be further from the truth. My own background has meant that I am passionately opposed to any form of prejudice based on religion or race ... His mother comes from the tough multiracial area of Liverpool, and I think she would still beat the tar out of him if his orthodoxy were in doubt".{{cite magazine |last=McManus |first=Ross |date=June 14, 1979 |title=Elvis Costello |magazine=Rolling Stone |location=New York City}}

Historian Eugene Genovese, noted for bringing a Marxist perspective to the study of power, class and relations between planters and slaves in the South, uses the word pointedly in The World the Slaveholders Made (1988).

{{blockquote|For reasons common to the slave condition all slave classes displayed a lack of industrial initiative and produced the famous Lazy Nigger, who under Russian serfdom and elsewhere was white. Just as not all Blacks, even under the most degrading forms of slavery, consented to become niggers, so by no means all or even most of the niggers in history have been Black.}}

The editor of Green Egg, a magazine described in The Encyclopedia of American Religions as a significant periodical, published an essay entitled "Niggers of the New Age". This argued that Neo-Pagans were treated badly by other parts of the New Age movement.{{cite book |last1=G'Zell |first1=Otter |title=Green Egg Omelette: An Anthology of Art and Articles from the Legendary Pagan Journal |date=2009 |page=209 |publisher=New Page Books |isbn=978-1601630469}}

{{refimprove section|date=December 2023}}

Other languages, particularly Romance languages, have words that sound similar to or share etymological roots with nigger but do not necessarily mean the same. In some of these languages, the words refer to the color black in general and are not specifically used to refer to black people. When used to refer to black people, these words have acquired varying degrees of offensiveness, ranging from completely neutral (as in Spanish {{lang|es|negro}}) to highly racist (as in Finnish {{lang|fi|Neekeri}}). Examples of related words in other languages include:

• Bulgarian: {{lang|bg|Негър}} ({{lang|bg-Latn|negar}}), loaned from French {{lang|fr|nègre}}, is considered a neutral word for black people in Bulgaria. Some publications and institutions use {{lang|bg|чернокож}} or {{lang|bg|тъмнокож}}, but the use of {{lang|bg|негър}} is more widespread.
• Dutch: {{lang|nl|Neger}} ('negro') used to be neutral, but many now consider it to be avoided in favor of {{lang|nl|zwarte}} ('black').{{Cite web|title=Waarom wil je ons zo graag neger noemen?|lang=nl|url=http://www.joop.nl/opinies/waarom-wil-je-ons-zo-graag-neger-noemen|url-status=live|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160220220515/http://www.joop.nl/opinies/waarom-wil-je-ons-zo-graag-neger-noemen|archivedate=2016-02-20|work=joop.nl|first=Mitchell|last=Esajas|date=2014-05-25}}[http://taaltelefoon.vlaanderen.be/nlapps/docs/default.asp?id=2047 "Neger/zwarte"]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130612182420/http://taaltelefoon.vlaanderen.be/nlapps/docs/default.asp?id=2047 |date=June 12, 2013 }}, Taaltelefoon.{{cite web |title=Volkskrant stijlboek |language=nl |trans-title=Volkskrant style book |url=http://www.volkskrant.nl/media/stijlboek~a4255465/ |website=Volkskrant |access-date=December 14, 2016 |archive-date=December 2, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161202235128/http://www.volkskrant.nl/media/stijlboek~a4255465/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=Stijlboek |language=nl |trans-title=Style book |url=https://apps.nrc.nl/stijlboek/search/node/neger |website=NRC handelsblad |access-date=December 14, 2016 |archive-date=December 20, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220144116/https://apps.nrc.nl/stijlboek/search/node/neger |url-status=live }} {{lang|nl|Zwartje}} ('little black one') can be amicably or offensively used. {{lang|nl|Nikker}} is always pejorative.Van Dale, Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse taal, 2010
• Finnish: {{lang|fi|Neekeri}} ('negro/nigger'), as a loan word ('Neger') from the Swedish language, appeared for the first time in a book published in 1771.{{cite book |last=Jussila |first=Raimo |title=Vanhat sanat: Vanhan kirjasuomen ensiesiintymiä |year=1998 |pages=170, 365 |location=Helsinki |publisher=Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura / Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus |isbn=951-746-008-2 |language=fi}} The use of the Finnish equivalent ({{lang|fi|neekeri}}) began in the late 19th century. Until the 1980s, it was commonly used and generally not yet considered derogatory, although a few instances of it being considered to be so have been documented since the 1950s; by the mid-1990s the word was considered racist, especially in the metropolitan area and among the younger population.{{cite book |last=Rastas |first=Anna |chapter=Neutraalisti rasistinen? Erään sanan politiikkaa |title=Rasismi lasten ja nuorten arjessa: Transnationaalit juuret ja monikulttuuristuva Suomi |location=Tampere |publisher=Tampere University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-951-44-6946-6 |url=http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:978-951-44-6964-0 |language=fi |access-date=December 26, 2020 |archive-date=September 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915130944/https://trepo.tuni.fi/handle/10024/67726 |url-status=live }} It has since then usually been replaced by the metonym {{lang|fi|musta}} ('black [person]').{{cite book |editor-last=Raittila |editor-first=Pentti |title=Etnisyys ja rasismi journalismissa |year=2002 |chapter=Etniset vähemmistöt uutisissa |pages=25–26 |last=Pietikäinen |first=Sari |location=Tampere |publisher=Tampere University Press |isbn=951-44-5486-3 |url=https://trepo.tuni.fi/handle/10024/65640 |access-date=December 26, 2020 |archive-date=April 17, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417183905/https://trepo.tuni.fi/handle/10024/65640 |url-status=live }} In a survey conducted in 2000, Finnish respondents considered the term {{lang|fi|Neekeri}} to be among the most offensive of minority designations.{{cite journal| last=Tervonen| first=Satu| title=Etnisten nimitysten eri sävyt| journal=Kielikello| year=2001| number=1/2001| publisher=Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus| url=https://www.kielikello.fi/-/etnisten-nimitysten-eri-savyt| language=fi| access-date=December 26, 2020| archive-date=December 4, 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191204104134/https://www.kielikello.fi/-/etnisten-nimitysten-eri-savyt| url-status=live}}
• French: {{lang|fr|Nègre}} is now considered derogatory. Although {{lang|fr|Nègre littéraire}} was the standard term for a ghostwriter, it has largely been supplanted by {{lang|fr|prête-plume}}. Some white Frenchmen have the surname Nègre. The word can still be used as a synonym of "sweetheart" in some traditional Louisiana French creole songs.
• German: {{lang|de|Neger}} is dated and now considered offensive. {{lang|de|Schwarze/-r}} ('black [person]') or {{lang|de|Farbige/-r}} ("colored [person]") is more neutral.
• Haitian Creole: {{lang|ht|nèg}} is used for any man in general, regardless of skin color (like dude in American English). Haitian Creole derives predominantly from French.
• Italian has three variants: {{lang|it|negro}}, {{lang|it|nero}} and {{lang|it|di colore}}. The first one is the most historically attested and was the most commonly used until the 1960s as an equivalent of the English word "negro". It was gradually felt as offensive during the 1970s and replaced with {{lang|it|nero}} and {{lang|it|di colore}}. {{lang|it|Nero}} was considered a better translation of the English word black, while {{lang|it|di colore}} is a loan translation of the English word colored.{{cite web |url=http://www.accademiadellacrusca.it/it/lingua-italiana/consulenza-linguistica/domande-risposte/nero-negro-colore |publisher=Accademia della Crusca |title=Nero, negro e di colore |date=12 October 2012 |language=it |access-date=September 30, 2019 |archive-date=September 30, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190930063932/http://www.accademiadellacrusca.it/it/lingua-italiana/consulenza-linguistica/domande-risposte/nero-negro-colore |url-status=dead }}
• Portuguese: {{lang|pt-BR|Negro}} (as well as {{lang|pt-BR|preto}}) is neutral;{{cite web |url=http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/trabalhoerendimento/pnad2009/tabelas_pdf/brasil_1_2.pdf |title=Tabela 1.2 – População residente, por cor ou raça, segundo a situação do domicílio e o sexo – Brasil – 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924122330/http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/trabalhoerendimento/pnad2009/tabelas_pdf/brasil_1_2.pdf |archive-date=September 24, 2015}}{{cite web |url=http://www.ibge.gov.br/ibgeteen/povoamento/negros/popnegra.html |title=Evolutio da populaco brasileira, segundo a cor – 1872/1991|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101221233359/http://www.ibge.gov.br/ibgeteen/povoamento/negros/popnegra.html |archive-date=December 21, 2010 }} nevertheless {{lang|pt-BR|preto}} can be offensive or at least "politically incorrect" and is almost never proudly used by Afro-Brazilians. {{lang|pt-BR|Crioulo}} and {{lang|pt-BR|macaco}} are always extremely pejorative.{{cite web |url=http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Rio/0,,MUL58456-5606,00-SOU+INCAPAZ+DE+QUALQUER+ATITUDE+RACISTA+DIZ+PROCURADOR.html |title=G1 > Edição Rio de Janeiro – NOTÍCIAS – Sou incapaz de qualquer atitude racista, diz procurador |website=G1 |publisher=Grupo Globo |access-date=October 9, 2019 |archive-date=September 12, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220912031132/https://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Rio/0,,MUL58456-5606,00-SOU+INCAPAZ+DE+QUALQUER+ATITUDE+RACISTA+DIZ+PROCURADOR.html |url-status=live }}
• Romanian: {{lang|ro|Negrotei}} is derogatory;{{cite web|title=negrotei - definiție Argou și paradigmă |url=https://dexonline.ro/definitie/negrotei|access-date=June 12, 2023|website=Dicționar explicativ al limbii române|language=ro|archive-date=June 12, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230612194233/https://dexonline.ro/definitie/negrotei|url-status=live}}
• Russian: the word {{lang|ru|негр}} ({{lang|ru-Latn|negr}}) has been commonly used as neutral word to describe black people until recent years. It can also be used as a synonym for underpaid worker; "{{lang|ru|литературный негр}}" ({{lang|ru-Latn|literaturny negr}}) means ghostwriter.{{Cite book|last1=Ozhegov |first=Sergeĭ Ivanovich|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1041202243|script-title=ru:Толковый словарь русского языка : около 100 000 слови |last2=Skvortsov |first2=Lev Ivanovich |year=2014|isbn=978-5-94666-678-7|edition=28th |location=Moscow|oclc=1041202243|access-date=December 9, 2020|archive-date=September 15, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240915130943/https://search.worldcat.org/title/1041202243|url-status=live}}{{cite web|date=August 29, 2000|script-title=ru:Латыши и гости столицы|url=https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/17514|access-date=March 8, 2021|website=Kommersant|language=ru|archive-date=August 18, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220818214659/https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/17514|url-status=live}}{{cite web|script-title=ru:Писатели-призраки|url=https://newizv.ru/news/culture/29-06-2007/71864-pisateli-prizraki|access-date=March 8, 2021|website=Noviye Izvestiya |archive-date=April 17, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417202405/https://newizv.ru/news/culture/29-06-2007/71864-pisateli-prizraki|url-status=live}} Nowadays, a black person would often be described neutrally as "{{lang|ru|чернокожий}}" ({{lang|ru-Latn|chernokozhiy}}, 'black-skinned'), though the organization Help Needed instead recommends "{{lang|ru|темнокожий}}" ({{lang|ru-Latn|temnokozhiy}}, 'dark-skinned').{{cite web | script-title=ru:Почему плохо говорить «негр»? | website=Takiye Dela | date=April 8, 2019 | url=https://takiedela.ru/dictionary-words/negr/ | language=ru | access-date=July 25, 2023 | archive-date=January 3, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230103145526/https://takiedela.ru/dictionary-words/negr/ | url-status=live }}
• Spanish: {{lang|es|Negro}} is the word for "black" and is the only way to refer to that color.{{cite dictionary |title=negro, gra |url=https://dle.rae.es/negro |access-date=February 1, 2023 |publisher=Diccionario de la lengua española |edition=tricentenary |language=es |archive-date=December 7, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221207211744/https://dle.rae.es/negro |url-status=live }}

• List of ethnic slurs
• List of ethnic group names used as insults
• Kaffir (ethnic slur)
• Blackfella
• Guilty or Innocent of Using the N Word, a 2006 documentary
• List of topics related to the African diaspora
• "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson", an episode of South Park with a plot revolving around the word's extreme offensiveness
• Golliwog
• Profanity

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=The Oxford English Dictionary |edition=2nd |year=1989 |article=nigger}}
• {{cite book |last=Fuller |first=Neely Jr. |year=1984 |title=The United Independent Compensatory Code/System/Concept: A Textbook/Workbook for Thought, Speech, and/or Action, for Victims of Racism (white supremacy) |id=ASIN B000BVZW38}}
• {{cite book |last=Kennedy |first=Randall |author-link=Randall Kennedy |year=2002 |title=Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word |publisher=Pantheon Books |location=New York |isbn=978-0-375-42172-3|title-link=Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word}}
• {{cite book |last=Smith |first=Stephanie |year=2005 |title=Household Words: Bloomers, Sucker, Bombshell, Scab, Nigger, Cyber |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |location=Minneapolis |isbn=978-0-8166-4552-7}}
• {{cite book |last=Swan |first=Robert J. |year=2003 |title=New Amsterdam Gehenna: Segregated Death in New York City, 1630–1801 |publisher=Noir Verite Press |location=Brooklyn |isbn=978-0-9722813-0-0}}
• {{cite journal |last=Worth |first=Robert F. |title=Nigger Heaven and the Harlem Renaissance |journal=African American Review |date=Fall 1995 |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=461–473 |doi=10.2307/3042395 |jstor=3042395}}

{{Wiktionary|nigger|N-word}}

{{commons category|Nigger}}

• {{cite book |last=Asim |first=Jabari |title=The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't, and Why |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company |date=2007 |location=Boston |isbn=978-0-618-19717-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/nword00jaba}}

{{Ethnic slurs}}

Category:1775 neologisms

Category:African-American-related controversies

Category:African-American society

Category:American English words

Category:Anti-African and anti-black slurs

Category:English profanity

Category:English words

Category:Ethnonyms of African Americans

Category:Ethnonyms of dark-skinned Africans

Category:Historical ethnonyms