[hoosiermama]

Had a wonderful English teacher in high school. Instead of scolding us for using bad language she made us look up the origin of the word. Damno is latin for stop, thus the damn stops water and people ask God to stop an action. The N word comes from the root word Niger that means black. As Nigeria is Land of the Black/Dark....The actual word was used by the slaves to differentiate the slaves who were fathered by the master...Therefore, were impure in their black linage....The term actually means Not pure black. It is comparable to the term used in the theater to describe a yellowish gel used in the spot lights called “bastard amber”: Not pure yellow.

[jdsteel]

It’s hard to know truth from revisionist history, but I’ve heard that the Niger connection wasn’t correct. The origins of the word remain in dispute. Regardless of it’s origins, it bothers me that in the last 20 years we have effectively created a word that can only be spoken by those of a certain skin color. That is so horrifically wrong it is a microcosm of many of the problems of our society.