dago & the n-word

[Tom]

I notice from recent games that both 'dago' and 'nigger' are considered to be acceptable mainline words but the word 'negro' is considered rare. I should have thought that the former two, being derogatory, would be put into a lesser category. I understand that under normal circumstances the word 'negro' would be capitalised.

[rogue_mother]

The official policy of Chihuahua is, as I understand it, that offensiveness does not govern whether a word is considered common. Nigger is used far more commonly than negro and is not necessarily considered offensive, depending on who is saying it. Its use by non-blacks is certainly considered offensive. Use of the word negro, while not downright offensive, is at a minimum not considered polite in the United States; it was discarded a generation ago in preference to black, African American, or person of color. I am uncertain of the commonality of dago, because I have never actually heard anybody say that word. I have heard it used in movies once or twice and seen it used in literature, though rarely. I have no real clue about how often it is used here in the U. S. or elsewhere in the world.

[birdy]

Now that political incorrectness is less tolerated, I hear fewer and fewer of the derogatory words like dago.  But I think something else is in play too:  immigrants of past European generations who are now assimilated are no longer as likely to be labeled.  They blend in well and are not as easily identified.  So dagos, wops, polacks, micks, frogs (though I'm not sure that was commonly used in the U.S.), kikes, yids, and similar words are not used as often.

Blacks, though most have been here much longer than some of the European immigrant groups, are still visibly identifiable, as are Asians, some Hispanics, and more recently Middle Easterners, especially those who wear identifiable traditional "trademarks".  I still hear some of those derogatory words.

Derogatory words are used for WASPs too, of course.  It seems like every group can find some way to label "the other" in a condescending or unfavorable way.  Us against Them seems to be a human characteristic.

I haven't studied this - just an impression.  I'd be interested in what others think.

[mkenuk]

'Nigger' was a perfectly acceptable word in UK until fairly recently.

The original performances of 'The Mikado' had the Lord High Executioner's Song ('I've got a little list') referring (among all the others who 'never would be missed') to 'the nigger banjo minstrels'. That lyric is never sung now, it goes without saying. The tradition now is for whoever is playing Ko-Ko to put his own (contemporary) nuisances on the list.

More recently  I can remember buying tins of  'Nigger Black' (and, I think, 'Nigger Brown') shoe polish in the 1960s-1970s. There was a phrase 'working like a nigger' which was actually a compliment - it meant working very hard indeed. None of this is acceptable now of course.

Agatha Christie's novel 'Ten Little Niggers' was first published in UK under that title in 1939 - it wasn't until the mid 1980s that it was felt to be inappropriate and the publishers changed it to 'Ten Little Indians'. That, too, was soon considered possibly offensive and the title 'And Then There Were None' (the novel's original US title) was adopted.

It's a very long time since I read the novel, but I seem to remember that it all took place on 'Nigger Island'. I wonder if that was changed too?

Joseph Conrad's short story 'Nigger of the Narcissus' is still available as a free download from Gutenberg, but I gather from Wikipedia that a few years ago some US publisher brought out an edition with the ludicrous title of 'The N- word of the Narcissus'!!!

What next? 'The J- word of Malta', a play by Christopher Marlowe, perhaps?

MK

[a non-amos]

I find the word "nigger" offensive, no matter who is using it.  That's just my opinion.

I fully understand that other wording, such as "black", "person of color", "African American", etc. are just window dressing; all too often these have been used as bowdlerisms.

Given the choice, I would prefer the word "person".  On rare occasion I might use "person with unalienable rights".  Again, that's just my opinion.

I do support Alan's decision to include objectionable words.  These words are still in our lexicon.  I hope these particular words eventually become rare.  I look forward to that day.

- A

[Alan W]

These issues were raised by Tom again in 2018. Ultimately I decided to make dago a rare word.

In that later thread I discussed some of the issues raised by "the N-word", but without reaching a definite conclusion.

[Calilasseia]

The issues in question have even led to the naming of butterflies.

There are a brace of butterflies, most of them Nymphalids, that were given common names reflecting the concerns of Empire, such as the Commodore, the Colour Sergeant and the Nawab native to the Indian Subcontinent, and the majority of these names persist. Here, for example, is the Gaudy Commodore:



Here is the Colour Sergeant:



Meanwhile, here is the Jewelled Nawab:



Then we have this little beastie, Orsotriaena medus:



That butterfly was originally saddled with the name of "nigger", but has since been re-named to "Smooth-Eyed Bush-Brown". Given its appearance in the photo, I'd have called it the Mahogany Owl-Eye, which I commend as a far better choice than any of its past or present names.

[les303]

Beautiful photos

[Alan W]

I've taken the liberty of changing the Subject line of this topic, so that the forum summary alongside the puzzle will show the euphemism n-word, rather than the actual word, which seemed unnecessarily confronting to casual visitors to the site.