And so you've done it, Charles! You've waded into an "analytic discussion" of the word.
That intra-racial use spreading to (almost always young) whites, Hispanics, and Asians is interesting. I remember it too (although I was too sensitive and already too old to use it myself). This suggested that meanings were spreading that would water down the earlier disparaging senses of the word, but as you mention, something happened in the 2010s and 2020s that changed that--one hundred percent in the opposite direction, to the point that the word cannot now even be uttered "in reference", as Glenn puts it.
But we've hardly even begun to scratch the surface here about this fascinating word. Long dissertations could be written.
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Notes:
1. These would be weird dissertations, because they would be littered with a euphemism ("the N-word") for what they were actually talking about. And if the dissertation touched on the social issues surrounding saying the word or writing it out "in reference", the dissertation itself would have some sort of strange self-referential aspect to it. And down the rabbit hole we go.
2. It's time that this topic appears on the Glenn Show, because when I think of scholarly study of the history and uses of this word, John McWhorter always comes to mind--both because he's the only linguist I know of (besides Chomsky) and because he's constantly engaged in race issues.
And so you've done it, Charles! You've waded into an "analytic discussion" of the word.
That intra-racial use spreading to (almost always young) whites, Hispanics, and Asians is interesting. I remember it too (although I was too sensitive and already too old to use it myself). This suggested that meanings were spreading that would water down the earlier disparaging senses of the word, but as you mention, something happened in the 2010s and 2020s that changed that--one hundred percent in the opposite direction, to the point that the word cannot now even be uttered "in reference", as Glenn puts it.
But we've hardly even begun to scratch the surface here about this fascinating word. Long dissertations could be written.
---
Notes:
1. These would be weird dissertations, because they would be littered with a euphemism ("the N-word") for what they were actually talking about. And if the dissertation touched on the social issues surrounding saying the word or writing it out "in reference", the dissertation itself would have some sort of strange self-referential aspect to it. And down the rabbit hole we go.
2. It's time that this topic appears on the Glenn Show, because when I think of scholarly study of the history and uses of this word, John McWhorter always comes to mind--both because he's the only linguist I know of (besides Chomsky) and because he's constantly engaged in race issues.