Current Events > Do europeans really understand the n word?

(+) Yeah! (+)

In America, we learn the history of slavery. That black people were slaves treated like 3/5 of a person. We learn about segregation and jim crow.
So when an american says the n word, it is rightly that they know what they are doing and how evil the word is.

Europeans shouldn't be saying it either, but I am curious, how much do they know of that history?

For example, when pewdiepie say the n word in a heat of rage, did he just repeat a word dumb kids on cod spam or did he know what he was doing?

Like does sweden talk about jim crow? Probably not. Does sweden talk about american slavery? Maybe a little. I bet they don't cover segregation.

Any EU users have perspective on this?
To you is the word full of dark history or is it just something you are told makes americans flip out?
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Why would we talk about US laws and social changes if we are in different countries with our own histories?
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darkphoenix181 posted...

Like does sweden talk about jim crow? Probably not. Does sweden talk about american slavery? Maybe a little. I bet they don't cover segregation.

american history is not my expertise, i've heard of some Jim Crow guy, but never really cared enough to look up who it is.
slavery comes up now and then, but usually in the form of some political statement about "the evil white man" by women with pink hair and nose rings.

the topic of segregation is usually in the form of "it seems people are blowing shit up in Malm again, something something socioeconomic factors, something something Vulnerable areas, something evil white man"
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darkphoenix181 posted...

In America, we learn the history of slavery. That black people were slaves treated like 3/5 of a person.

not 3/5ths.

they were considered property.

holy shit
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nutella?
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In my experience, more so the latter

People throw it around a bit more freely here than they would in the US
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Hicks233 posted...

Why would we talk about US laws and social changes if we are in different countries with our own histories?

I wouldn't think you do.

Which is kinda eye opening.
Americans I think expect the whole world to understand their history.

So when Pewdiepue said the n word, a swedish man living in britain, Americans said he must absolutely be racist and it is unforgivable.
And yet, he likely at the time barely understood all this history.
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ROBANN_88 posted...

darkphoenix181 posted...

Like does sweden talk about jim crow? Probably not. Does sweden talk about american slavery? Maybe a little. I bet they don't cover segregation.

american history is not my expertise, i've heard of some Jim Crow guy, but never really cared enough to look up who it is.
slavery comes up now and then, but usually in the form of some political statement about "the evil white man" by women with pink hair and nose rings.

the topic of segregation is usually in the form of "it seems people are blowing shit up in Malm again, something something socioeconomic factors, something something Vulnerable areas, something evil white man"

it seems like history in general is not your expertise
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averagejoel posted...

ROBANN_88 posted...

darkphoenix181 posted...

Like does sweden talk about jim crow? Probably not. Does sweden talk about american slavery? Maybe a little. I bet they don't cover segregation.

american history is not my expertise, i've heard of some Jim Crow guy, but never really cared enough to look up who it is.
slavery comes up now and then, but usually in the form of some political statement about "the evil white man" by women with pink hair and nose rings.

the topic of segregation is usually in the form of "it seems people are blowing shit up in Malm again, something something socioeconomic factors, something something Vulnerable areas, something evil white man"

it seems like history in general is not your expertise

he asked the swedish perspective and i gave him the swedish perspective
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Yes saw it in that movie where Hitler comes back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiuesTpIPVQ" data-time="
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TheBlueMonk_ posted...

darkphoenix181 posted...

In America, we learn the history of slavery. That black people were slaves treated like 3/5 of a person.

not 3/5ths.

they were considered property.

holy shit

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-Fifths_Compromise

The compromise solution was to count three out of every five slaves as a person for this purpose.

I hope you aren't american blue monk. Yes they were treated as property though.
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ROBANN_88 posted...

he asked the swedish perspective and i gave him the swedish perspective

I am guessing Joel is american and expects the whole world to know usa history.
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ROBANN_88 posted...

averagejoel posted...

ROBANN_88 posted...

darkphoenix181 posted...

Like does sweden talk about jim crow? Probably not. Does sweden talk about american slavery? Maybe a little. I bet they don't cover segregation.

american history is not my expertise, i've heard of some Jim Crow guy, but never really cared enough to look up who it is.
slavery comes up now and then, but usually in the form of some political statement about "the evil white man" by women with pink hair and nose rings.

the topic of segregation is usually in the form of "it seems people are blowing shit up in Malm again, something something socioeconomic factors, something something Vulnerable areas, something evil white man"

it seems like history in general is not your expertise

he asked the swedish perspective and i gave him the swedish perspective

I certainly hope that isn't the swedish perspective
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darkphoenix181 posted...

ROBANN_88 posted...

he asked the swedish perspective and i gave him the swedish perspective

I am guessing Joel is american and expects the whole world to know usa history.

I am not american, but I expect grown ass adults to know why saying the n word is wrong
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darkphoenix181 posted...

Hicks233 posted...

Why would we talk about US laws and social changes if we are in different countries with our own histories?

I wouldn't think you do.

Which is kinda eye opening.
Americans I think expect the whole world to understand their history.

So when Pewdiepue said the n word, a swedish man living in britain, Americans said he must absolutely be racist and it is unforgivable.
And yet, he likely at the time barely understood all this history.

There is also the part where many of us are sick of hearing things from the US perspective and really don't give a fuck if things upset it. To some extent I suspect that for some people, they will deliberately go out of their way to aggravate US commentators and audiences because that are so fed up of the US cultural extent.
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too bad we dont have a black european perspective on this huh
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Hicks233 posted...

There is also the part where many of us are sick of hearing things from the US perspective and really don't give a f*** if things upset it. To some extent I suspect that for some people, they will deliberately go out of their way to aggravate US commentators and audiences because that are so fed up of the US cultural extent.

That does make sense. Maybe not the smartest thing to do if you income relies on a us company but I get it.
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averagejoel posted...

ROBANN_88 posted...

averagejoel posted...

ROBANN_88 posted...

darkphoenix181 posted...

Like does sweden talk about jim crow? Probably not. Does sweden talk about american slavery? Maybe a little. I bet they don't cover segregation.

american history is not my expertise, i've heard of some Jim Crow guy, but never really cared enough to look up who it is.
slavery comes up now and then, but usually in the form of some political statement about "the evil white man" by women with pink hair and nose rings.

the topic of segregation is usually in the form of "it seems people are blowing shit up in Malm again, something something socioeconomic factors, something something Vulnerable areas, something evil white man"

it seems like history in general is not your expertise

he asked the swedish perspective and i gave him the swedish perspective

I certainly hope that isn't the swedish perspective

it's our relation to it.
if we talk about segregation, we're not gonna be talking about the probably complex history and culture of a hood in Detroit, it's gonna be about Rinkeby in Stockholm or Rosengrd in Malm
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averagejoel posted...

darkphoenix181 posted...

ROBANN_88 posted...

he asked the swedish perspective and i gave him the swedish perspective

I am guessing Joel is american and expects the whole world to know usa history.

I am not american, but I expect grown ass adults to know why saying the n word is wrong

if you look closely, you'll see i didn't mention anything about the N-word at all
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As a swede Roban, what do you make of when pewdiepie said the n word on stream?
Is he absolutely racist and closet says it? Like how would a swede perceive another swede saying that in cod?
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ROBANN_88 posted...

it's our relation to it.
if we talk about segregation, we're not gonna be talking about the probably complex history and culture of a hood in Detroit, it's gonna be about Rinkeby in Stockholm or Rosengrd in Malm

talking about "evil white man" like that screams "persecution complex" to me
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DuranOfForcena posted...

darkphoenix181 posted...

TheBlueMonk_ posted...

darkphoenix181 posted...

In America, we learn the history of slavery. That black people were slaves treated like 3/5 of a person.

not 3/5ths.

they were considered property.

holy shit

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-Fifths_Compromise

The compromise solution was to count three out of every five slaves as a person for this purpose.

I hope you aren't american blue monj.

no, he's right. it says it right there in the part of the page you quoted: "for this purpose", as in for the purpose of determining a state's total population for legislative representation and taxation. slaves were property and were not treated as any fraction of human for any other purpose besides that. you probably should have paid more attention in elementary school history if you want to go around telling people you hope they aren't american based on their understanding of american history.

Oh noes you got me
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didn't europeans coin the name when they started buying/stealing them from africa to ship to their american colonies?
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darkphoenix181 posted...

As a swede Roban, what do you make of when pewdiepie said the n word on stream?
Is he absolutely racist and closet says it? Like how would a swede perceive another swede saying that in cod?

personally i was out of the loop when it happened, and i don't know the details.
on one hand, that word does not have the same charge here as it does in the US.
but on the other hand it's completely unnatural to use as a random expletive remark.

though to be fair, i can't recall anyone using that word at all, except specifically in cases when they're trying to be an ass, so maybe it has gained some "power" in the past few years

i never liked Pewdiepie to begin with so maybe i'm biased, but i felt he was being an idiot.
whether or not he was actively being a racist, i can't tell for sure without doing a bit of research in the event, but an idiot absolutely
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why would the average swedish person know about jim crow lol

american sociopolitical history is irrelevant to other countries. it would take someone interested in reading up on american history to know something like that. it's like how I don't really know a ton about sweden's internal history cause I'm american and never read up on it. all I know about sweden's history is generalities and I'm sure it's mutual for them when it comes to american history
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darkphoenix181 posted...

Hicks233 posted...

There is also the part where many of us are sick of hearing things from the US perspective and really don't give a f*** if things upset it. To some extent I suspect that for some people, they will deliberately go out of their way to aggravate US commentators and audiences because that are so fed up of the US cultural extent.

That does make sense. Maybe not the smartest thing to do if you income relies on a us company but I get it.

It's also worth remembering that European nations are largely racially homogeneous. It's only over the past fifty or so years that there's been a significant non-white group migrating and settling.

If someone from the US were to raise issues of African-American identity, disparaging remarks and mistreatment here, there's no reason really for most of those European nations to give a shit, we're not American after all.

Exceptions would be Belgian actions in the Congo, Spanish, UK, French, German, Italian and Dutch colonial activity - in those cases though it's going to be about the actions of ancestors and how they behaved in other nations - makes for some really grim reading. That's our history.

Also, if you have people of African/Caribbean etc. ancestry who have migrated and settled in a country - particularly applicable for the UK and France given their colonial history and post independence relationships with those nations then there is going to be more awareness of issues of Black identity and treatment - it's just not going to be viewed through a US lens.

This is really apparent when it comes to the issue of slavery. The UK was one of the forerunners in ending the Trans-Atlantic slave trade so when there are attempts to push the "ebil white man" narrative here then it gets people's back up. We're certainly not perfect, the UK's actions around the world thoughout history have been pretty fucking dismal, check India and Ireland esspecially. We're not going to only be shit on though when we have also done some good things.

All it is going to come down to is frames of reference and the cultural lens things are viewed through.
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darkphoenix181 posted...

As a swede Roban, what do you make of when pewdiepie said the n word on stream?
Is he absolutely racist and closet says it? Like how would a swede perceive another swede saying that in cod?

As another swede: It's obviously something you shouldn't say out loud, but does that alone make him racist? No.
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I've heard it a lot in eastern Europe as a direct synonym for black people. Not to intentionally cause offence but rather their chief exposure to black people is through hip hop and Hollywood and so they don't know any better.

In western Europe it's not really part of the lexicon. It's seen as an American word and even someone trying to be inflammatory would probably use an alternative slur.

I have dozens of European friends. Everyone understands it completely.
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also, did Pewdiepie say the english language version with "gg" and "er" or did he say the swedish language version?
cause i feel like those are two very different things in intent

(is the TOS ok with writing out the real word when discussing the etymology of the word for simplicitys sake, or do we have to go around it?)
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I'm South Asian

My Turkish-German friend called me "my n****" once <_<
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Lebronwon posted...

Yes saw it in that movie where Hitler comes back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiuesTpIPVQ" data-time="

Hilarious scene, the thing that bothered me is that Hitler loved dogs so it didn't make sense when he decided to do what he did a scene prior to this.
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ROBANN_88 posted...

also, did Pewdiepie say the english language version with "gg" and "er" or did he say the swedish language version?
cause i feel like those are two very different things in intent

(is the TOS ok with writing out the real word when discussing the etymology of the word for simplicitys sake, or do we have to go around it?)

American ver ending in er

This was about a year ago and he apologized, but some say that don't matter, he must obviously be a racist since he said it.
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ROBANN_88 posted...

(is the TOS ok with writing out the real word when discussing the etymology of the word for simplicitys sake, or do we have to go around it?)

(Please call it the n word in discussions)

Also, as a European I think that despite knowing its meaning / origin, it doesn't carry the same connotations here and people usually don't really know "how much" it means if that makes sense.

I grew up in the UK and knew of Rosa Parks for sure
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TarElessar posted...

ROBANN_88 posted...

(is the TOS ok with writing out the real word when discussing the etymology of the word for simplicitys sake, or do we have to go around it?)

(Please call it the n word in discussions)

fair enough.
but since i was about to bring up the different versions, (in this case the english version and the swedish version) it makes it a bit difficult to make it clear which one i'm referring to without having to make a whole paragraph every time.
there should be a simpler way to get around it somehow.

though, i don't really care enough either way to continue this line of thought
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As a European, I think it would be quite weird for somebody of a 'millenial' age to not be at least vaguely aware of why the n word is bad and its usage frowned upon. To actively use it would push them into the realm of willfully ignorant.

Stop trying to take agency away from perfectly capable people to enable/allow their racism
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NinjaBreakfast posted...

somebody of a 'millenial' age

Interesting. What about people who are of older age?
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I feel like you are approaching that segment in extreme bad faith but I suppose I would suspect older people are in average far less exposed to American-centric and internet culture from which awareness of the context would flow from or allow for research on.

That said obviously an older person actively using that term kinda outweighs that presumption in the suspicion stakes
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Vicious_Dios posted...

Lebronwon posted...

Yes saw it in that movie where Hitler comes back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiuesTpIPVQ" data-time="

Hilarious scene, the thing that bothered me is that Hitler loved dogs so it didn't make sense when he decided to do what he did a scene prior to this.

How dare they mess up the character of Hitler
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prince_leo posted...

I grew up in the UK and knew of Rosa Parks for sure

Same. In my (Catholic if that makes any difference) secondary school in Scotland, we covered quite a bit of the Civil Rights era and the lead up to it. Slavery, Jim Crow laws, MLK, Malcolm X / Nation of Islam / Muhammad Ali, Rosa Parks, etc. I think we actually watched some of Spike Lee's Malcolm X movie. I particularly remember the Malcolm X stuff for some reason.

During the hostage crisis in Iran, the captors let Black Americans go first because they felt they had already suffered enough culturally.
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it's kinda funny because here we have our own version of the word(albeit without the long winded history) to describe people of middle-eastern origin and just like black people, middle eastern people throw it around freely from time to time while others that don't belong in the same group are immediately perceived with racist intentions behind the usage.

dunno if swedes have their own version of what i'm talking about but as i'm sure they would agree, the racial hot seat in this corner of the world are middle-easterners instead of blacks.

so my theory is that the n-word is much easier to say here because there are next to no people or black culture to be afraid of while "that word to describe middle-easterners" is treated as the n-word over there but again without the long history behind it.
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AsucaHayashi posted...

it's kinda funny because here we have our own version of the word

for context, where is "here"?
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ROBANN_88 posted...

AsucaHayashi posted...

it's kinda funny because here we have our own version of the word

for context, where is "here"?

denmark
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TheBlueMonk_ posted...

darkphoenix181 posted...

In America, we learn the history of slavery. That black people were slaves treated like 3/5 of a person.

not 3/5ths.

they were considered property.

holy shit

For the purposes of the census, we were considered 3/5ths of a person.
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Hicks233 posted...

Why would we talk about US laws and social changes if we are in different countries with our own histories?

I dunno man I took world history in HS.
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Every non-black person almost everywhere knows the N word is racist and that it shouldnt be used by them. Only black people are allowed to use it.
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NinjaBreakfast posted...

I feel like you are approaching that segment in extreme bad faith but I suppose I would suspect older people are in average far less exposed to American-centric and internet culture from which awareness of the context would flow from or allow for research on.

That said obviously an older person actively using that term kinda outweighs that presumption in the suspicion stakes

I will admit I would like pewdiepienl to not be racist, just stupid.
But I am open to the idea that he might be racist.
I just want to understand the european perspective becuase I am not european.

I just thought it interesting that you made a distinction between millennials and older people.
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