*rubs temples*
There is no point in featuring young black British folk in debates of this nature when they clearly don’t know their history or much else when it comes to the subject matter of race/heritage.
The black man who speaks at the start and says the word ‘nigger’ “doesn’t mean what it used to mean and doesn’t have the same impact” needs a damn wake up call. The type of wake up call that will make it CRYSTAL CLEAR to him that the word has not changed its meaning and still has the SAME IMPACT.
And why does the young lady who admits to throwing around the racist slur ‘paki’ “in jest” with her Pakistani friends think that this behaviour is acceptable? When did this become acceptable? The host Mim should know better then to co-sign that rubbish.
Reader Jimmy Swagger, a fellow 70s baby who came up in 1980s/1990s summed up this sorry situation perfectly when he said:
We were raised by parents who faced aggressive racism, we then faced verbal racism. Something happened between us and this current lot in their early twenties.
The second black man who speaks at [mark 02:40] and ‘attempts’ to give a history lesson on the word “nigger” and slavery needs to explain this RIDICULOUS statement:
“The word ‘nigger’ is rooted in black people’s language from slavery. We are not Americans. I don’t have American slavery in my culture but it’s in my music culture so I use the word”.
WHAT???
Does he think that African slaves were just shipped to the United States of America? He does realise that coming from a Jamaican background that slavery is a part of his history?
If the young man lacks basic historical knowledge about the transatlantic slave trade then this website may enlighten him plus a trip to his local library.
Then the discussion about Hispanics followed by black people in Brazil just gave me a migraine. Nonsense! What is wrong with these people???
This is just embarrassing.
Your thoughts please….
MAD NEWS UK 
Where did they get these fools from? There seems to be a much needed EDUCATION for these young blacks in the UK. They seem to know absolutely nothing at all. Talking loud and saying nothing. What an embarrassment. Slavery is not just a part of American history. SMH.
It’s and awful …nasty word with an extremely nasty history.. I will never understand why so many are so happy to use it. And if you’re not black it bet no come off your lips… We have lost self respect for ourselves… It’s really sad. But thanks for this post….
“They seem to know absolutely nothing at all. Talking loud and saying nothing”
Spot on Moreno.
all I can say is wow, I was actually staring dumbfounded at the screen and thinking, bunch of kids.The person who annoyed me the most was the second black guy talking, what did they find this fool, what the hell is he talking about, he contradicts himself, he says he can say N**** because of the culture then tells an Asian who is in the culture that he can’t say it………….. and then falling alseep when they talking about Malcom X…………….. I just can’t with this fool and then the whole Hispanic thing, Tahiry is Dominican. Dominicans are just black people who talk Spanish. DJ Khaled an Arab says N**** because deep down he doesn’t respect black people and we let him get away with it.
I was actually gonna make a my first vlog upon seeing this! It was really upsetting to see that kids of today have no idea of the impact of the word. There was only one person in that debate that seemed to have her head screwed on, but to me to she didn’t express the point on a deeper level. Will give her her dues though, she seemed like the realest one in there.
@Chico-Rei
He probably has no idea who Malcolm X is.
I think the only education he has received is from watching 12 Years A Slave .
Yeah I think you’re right, and the worse thing about him is, he tries to act like he knows what he’s talking about lol
The mis-education of the negro is clearly alive. Now I know how the word came to be and how it evolved. Oprah says its best the last word many black people heard before being hung on a tree was the n-word. Since when do words original meanings ever change. The dictionary still says its a derogatory term. How can you endear someone with a curse. Every time they speak that word to their peers they are speaking a curse over them. (getting spiritual). But then these same folk want to act all wounded when someone from another race calls them that same term. I never knew that we had so many uneducated black folks in the uk concerning race.
I still cannot believe what I am hearing…
From the time i saw the subject i knew no good was going to come out of the debate from those guys, and i can see from the comments above that i will not bother.
But on the subject of this, i still think Black kids in England have been brainwashed by the Americans in the use of the word for entertainment. Saying n****a in a song or as the punchline to a joke is now so regular in america why wouldn’t people be saying it in every sentience, They even have white kids calling each other by the word. We all know kids are more influenced by the entertainment industry or social media more than what they learn in schools or by their parents. America is a messed up country and their number 1 priority is money above all.
Black adults in England (or any race of adults in England) have got to make up our minds, start to block your kids or your young relatives from listening to any music, film, magazine, social media or radio station from America if it is based on stupidity (which is 70% of it), which i know is not easy. We damn well know that Black people in England from the 80’s, 90′ and 00’s never used N**** so much nor did we have any rubbish excuse for it. We cannot solely blame this generation for being stupid if we are just as stupid for letting them live on American trash most their life.
First guy was bad enough, but the second brotha – WOOWW. I know that many young Black men and women are lost but it still leaves you speechless when you hear them chat this level of foolishness.
I love this poem from Julian Curry –
@Cameron
I totally agree kids have have been TOTALLY brainwashed by the American use of the term for ‘entertainment’ .
MALCOLM X ” EDUCATION IS OUR PASSPORT TO THE FUTURE, FOR TOMORROW BELONGS TO THOSE WHO PREPARE FOR IT TODAY. ”
A few issues i would like to address.1) The debate showed me there is a serious lack of knowledge with our children. At the end of the day these children have parents , family and I hope a community. If elders , parents , family members in the black community -though some may argue there is no black community do not sit down with their children and have a one to one discussion with them about black history then we as elders have or are failing them. We elders need to equip ourselves with knowledge and pass it on to our black children. Each one teach one and it takes a village to raise a child. 2) regarding the use of the n -word in the nicki minaj’s video . Again the debaters were clueless about the historical legacy of Malcolm X and the historical context of the n word. Now if we taught our children the n word originates from Niger( Latin ‘black ) then later changed to Negro (Spanish black) .Niger was used by the Romans when they invaded ancient Egypt to describe black people. Before the n word was used to degrade us the white British people called us moors, blackamoores. It was only when they started doing their slave trade that they decided in order to degrade us they would switch it to the n word. So to the debater who said it’s rooted in black peoples language .not factually correct.
Big Youth said it best.
Ok the first guy was stupid, but when I heard the second guy talk and how intellectual and right he thought he was about “American Slavery is not a part of my culture/It’s rooted in Black people’s language from slavery” I had to stop. My word.
Did they even grow up being taught an ounce of their history? As much as I love Hip-Hop I hate the word and it makes me cringe when other Black people think it’s ok and come up with ridiculously lame excuses like those in the video. Also, the allowance of Non-Blacks to say it makes my blood boil. Why would you think it’s cool to be called a word that was used to describe you as worthless, lowly, evil, monstrous and uncivilized? Best believe it’s over if I get called that.
Wow. Just Wow.
Words have become interchangeable over history. After civil rights black Americans demanded to be called blacks and then African American. So Niger to Negro to the n word. We have been having debates about the potency of this word for decades and 2014 we no better off economically and politically than blacks using it in the 70′s. If nicki never disrespected Malcolm X by using his image and entitling it looking ass n****g i doubt we would be talking about her as much as we are. This is a wake up call to our people – everything our ancestors fought for is in danger of being erased and forgotten by future generations. Now I ask this question aside from the n word debate as anyone watched the nicki minaj video?
What I got from it was a more serious issue. The state of affairs between black men and women. Or the media’s agenda to stir up a resentment. This is destructive to our children . If a black woman(nicki) can get two machine guns and start shooting at a black man
without us even discussing it then we are in serious trouble. If our daughters and sons are watching this what message do you think it’s giving them about the worthiness or lack of worthiness of black men. ?
just to add to my comments am all about finding solutions. If the debaters seem to lack knowledge or are ignorant.it’s too simplistic to denounce them and shake our heads. Their ignorance can be dealt with by us having a discussion with them. why don’t we all get together with these young people and have a discussion. Jump off part two .?How often do you see an event with young black people chilling and engaging with adults. I will use myself as an example am in my early thirties and have been fortunate to talk to my elders who have passed on great wisdom to me over the years. I couldn’t get this from anywhere else . It’s what we use to do passing on oral tradition so that the next generation will take us further.each one teach one!
The misguided remarks about Hispanics etc not being black etc are clearly influenced by some Americans who have no clue about the history of the Spanish speaking world in the Americas. The debaters have been exposed to too much ignorant nonsense.
As for Nicki Minaj I didn’t even focus on that situation. I don’t expect much from these rappers especially if they ride with the biggest fool of them all Lil Wayne.
@djelmo
I agree but the problem is with the people who run “the jump off”, i don’t think they are interested in that at all, not from what i have seen from their you-tube videos. They seem to have their core viewers and know what they want and don’t want. Don’t get me wrong i guess its okay when they talk/debate the current music scene to which some of the host are apart off so they have some decent knowledge, but when they venture into these subjects they really don’t seem to get anywhere with it except for a cheap laugh. Not sure but i think it is based off an American version which seems to also be on that ignorant trash point of view.
I am sure there are events where young people can engage with the elders but not sure if there are any that has been put on a platform that is popular which can drown out the rubbish.
@djelmo that’s a really good idea about sitting down with the youth because I think too many of them are lost.
I think the topic opened up two subjects where black people in the US and now the UK really get dumb, the N word and who is black.
Too many black people are confused about what black actually is and think that if you’re black and your heritage isn’t from an English speaking country then somehow you’re not black, when more black slaves went to non English speaking countries and that if you’re not the black sterotype then you’re not black, it’s dumbness.
I think the problem is if black people actually learn black history it’s always African American based, the average black person in the UK doesn’t even realise there was a black community in London in the 18th century, that’s embarassing, and that’s also why they don’t realise that black slaves were taken to the whole of South America and the Carib Islands like Haiti because African Americans don’t really focus on things outside of their country.
and then the N word, if you are calling yourself a N**** you really don’t have a leg to stand on when a white person calls you it, that’s like saying My nickname is Paul but white people can’t call me that.If you don’t want white people to call you it, don’t call yourself it.