[skunkworks]

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In addition, im certain that you are well aware of the deconstructionist implications for the widespread (especially if amongst 20-something white boys) usage and self-application of the word nigga. The original term was a way for those of one skin color to highlight and essentialize the physical difference between themselves and the Other, and to reify the implicit assumptions that those who were "[censored]" were inferior to those who were not, and to justify the various forms of social stratification that were present. How does the term NIGGA becoming more accepted as an image of merely "my fellow man" do anything BUT attack the power structure created by the ideas of black/white difference?

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I've always thought this argument (and other academic arguments about how minorities "take back" an epithet to weaken its power) are a bunch of horse [censored]. Black people have been calling each other n-word for decades now but it still has as much power today as it did back then. Seeing black people throw that word around just makes other ignorant people confused as to what is okay and what is not.