<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Chee-to:<BR><B> <BR>Didn't they have the Ethnic Studies requirement back when you graduated? I guess not, 'cause you would know that this is an example of 'turning ascription into affirmation' and is therefore positive for the Black [note: racialized, capitalized!] community as a whole. Or whatever. I'll forget all of it ten minutes after the final, when I go back to the coursework of my entirely unrelated major and the winter wonderland of Blacks.</B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><BR>Actually, they didn't have this requirement. But I've read all about it.<P>You WERE right. That was my point.<P>When Mark Twain used the word in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in the 1870s, he used it with clever irony to show that any notion that African-Americans were inferior was ridiculous. Whenever whites use the word in the book, they look stupid; when Jim does, it sounds ironic and sad.<P>But, over the years, people forgot Mark Twain; the word regained power.<P>During the 1950s and 1960s, the word was clearly used by racist whites. It sounded intentionally menacing, and was generally accompanied by implied or stated physical threat.<P>By the 1970s, it was no longer so menacing, and sounded plain stupid again, except in some cultural enclaves in the US.<P>Around 1990, it became clear that the phenomenon you described had happened, with the street poetry of rappers like NWA becoming important parts of popular culture. If there was anything menacing about their use of the word, it had been turned completely around.<P>But, around that time, the movement to restrict free speech on college campuses had taken hold, with "fighting words" rules, etc.<P>It was at this time that well-meaning white academics and others did much to claim the word again in the name of white racists. They made damned SURE that black culture couldn't just appropriate the word and rob it of its old position and power. And this had been happening, through the work of comedians, musicians, and others who threw the word back in white middle class America's face. They ALMOST won. And I think it's really sad that they were undermined, even partially.