Racial Terminology in a Story

[R. Richard]

I spent some of my younger years in South Central Los Angeles. I heard Negroes use the word nigger, maybe a half dozen times a day. I head the word motherfucker used at least a dozen times each day.

I was called Whi' Boy and the name was frequently used with threats to my life and safety. I had no money and I was living in an abandoned building, so I had to cope. I made a good part of my living rolling drunks in the cheap bars in the neighborhood. I try to reduce the problem of alcoholism in the area and I get threats to my life, in return. (After a while, I earned the title Willie Green and my life got a bit easier.)

 

[ausfet]

I've used 'sand n-' and had someone complain. I really didn't give two shits. I try and keep people talking 'as they would if they were real people' and offensive words and terms are part of that. There is no point pretending that IRL nobody is sexist, racist, homophobic or just plain ignorant or insensitive.

 

[ausfet]

I wouldn't write a racist or other derogatory term casually into narrative - for example 'John was driving down the road and he saw some Chinamen' or 'Bill's brother Chris was a faggot' - but to set a scene, for character development or to show prejudice then I will use terms that aren't politically correct.

Absolutely agree.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

I spent some of my younger years in South Central Los Angeles. I heard Negroes use the word nigger, maybe a half dozen times a day. I head the word motherfucker used at least a dozen times each day.

I was called Whi' Boy and the name was frequently used with threats to my life and safety. I had no money and I was living in an abandoned building, so I had to cope. I made a good part of my living rolling drunks in the cheap bars in the neighborhood. I try to reduce the problem of alcoholism in the area and I get threats to my life, in return. (After a while, I earned the title Willie Green and my life got a bit easier.)

Really.... negroes...? Who sez that?

 

[Oblimo]

What do you think—is the use of this word ever okay in a Literotica story?

Thanks
IL

In the very unlikely scenario you are not trolling...

...Do you have any idea where you are?

https://media.giphy.com/media/uIp1flypeHaTu/giphy.gif

1500+ stories: https://search.literotica.com/?query=Nigger

Or, if you want your head to implode, try FinalStand’s WMD “satire.”

 

[R. Richard]

Really.... negroes...? Who sez that?

In the South of India there are people who are as dark as any African Negro. They liv e in the same climate type and dress in as little clothing as practical. I have been there and seen them. They are, for the most part, Caucasians (look it up in Wiki,) the same people who live in the northern areas of India.
In the islands to the South of Asia, there are what are called Negritos. Negritos are South Asians, not African Negroes, but they are as black as an African Negro.
To say that someone is black is different than to say that someone is Negro.

 

[KeithD]

You mean the Tamils? They are Dravidians, and, yes, ethnically Caucasian.

 

[SimonDoom]

In the South of India there are people who are as dark as any African Negro. They liv e in the same climate type and dress in as little clothing as practical. I have been there and seen them. They are, for the most part, Caucasians (look it up in Wiki,) the same people who live in the northern areas of India.
In the islands to the South of Asia, there are what are called Negritos. Negritos are South Asians, not African Negroes, but they are as black as an African Negro.
To say that someone is black is different than to say that someone is Negro.

This might be true in some sense, but in this day and age nobody calls a person of African origin Negro. You call such a person black or African-American. Regardless of skin color, you don't call an Indian person black, you call the person Indian.

In the USA, if you refer to a person as "black", people will assume you mean a person of African descent, not an Indian or Pacific Islander.

 

[KeithD]

you don't call an Indian person black, you call the person Indian.

Or South Asian. I've run into problems in both research and writing "Indian" for stories about India. You get a lot of stuff you don't want in research and little that you do want and you inevitably get readers who don't "get it" and comment off the mark.

 

[ilamont]

1500+ stories: https://search.literotica.com/?query=Nigger

Or, if you want your head to implode, try FinalStand’s WMD “satire.”

Wow...! I had no idea...! OK, I'll use it in mine knowing there is a 'ton' of precedent... Thanks

 

[Bramblethorn]

I have wondered many times, especially when a number of people are forced to stay in limited space for significant lengths of time, "wait, how did they deal with toilet there?" Disregard of bodily functions can take a heavy toll on disbelief suppression, especially when it should have been a pressing problem, not trivial to solve. Still it is often understood as simple convention not to be mentioned, although I do not fully understand why that would be preferable, actually.

It can be an interesting point in SF. I've read a couple of stories where "how do people deal with poop?" was a key element. But it only tends to come up when the author does have something to say about it. Plenty of authors decided that Pooping In Space is not something they need to write about, and plenty of readers are happy with that.

 

[ElectricBlue]

It can be an interesting point in SF. I've read a couple of stories where "how do people deal with poop?" was a key element. But it only tends to come up when the author does have something to say about it. Plenty of authors decided that Pooping In Space is not something they need to write about, and plenty of readers are happy with that.

Yep. In my Geek Anthology story I dropped in a geek-fan reference to Kubrick's zero-g toilet from 2001, by calling it a Clarke toilet. There's an often seen photo of Arthur C reading the instructions, which turns up in all the literature on the movie.

I also used the need for a minimal waste diet as a plot point in the same story, where the computer has bio-med monitoring probes a little close to the astronaut's... ah, core. No poo was released in the telling of the story, though.

 

[R. Richard]

This might be true in some sense, but in this day and age nobody calls a person of African origin Negro. You call such a person black or African-American. Regardless of skin color, you don't call an Indian person black, you call the person Indian.

In the USA, if you refer to a person as "black", people will assume you mean a person of African descent, not an Indian or Pacific Islander.

In high school I was a champion long jumper. Most long jumpers are Negroes, at least classified a s such. Many of the Negroes that I dealt with were straight razor toting hoodlums. I was not a straight razor toting guy, I carried a Bowie knife. I have nothing against Negroes and I don't feel superior to them, except in the area of armament.
Some time back a kid won a scholarship reserved for 'African-Americans.' The kid was born in Zimbabwe and was a USA citizen, he was also a Caucasian. Panic resulted.
I have heard black Indians referred to as 'niggers.' I don't use the term myself, but I have heard Negroes use the term among themselves. (I spent some younger years in South Central Los Angeles, where I be knowed as 'Whi' Boy.' I then won the title, 'Willie Green.' I am very familiar with racial terms.)

 

[joelafayette]

.....