New York City bans racial slur By Daniel Trotta
Wed Feb 28, 6:21 PM ET



New York City symbolically banned use of the word nigger on Wednesday, the latest step in a campaign that hopes to expunge the most vile of racial slurs from hip hop music and television.

The City Council unanimously declared a moratorium that carries no penalty but aims to stop youth from casually using the word, considered by most Americans to be the most offensive in the English language.

The New York City measure follows similar resolutions this month by the New York state assembly and state senate, and supporters of the ban are taking their campaign to The Recording Academy, asking it not to nominate musicians for Grammy awards if they use the word in their lyrics.

Many rap artists and young New Yorkers toss the word around as a term of endearment or as a substitute for black, angering some black leaders who consider those who use it as ignorant of the word's hate-filled history in slavery and segregation.

"This could be the beginning of a movement," councilman Albert Vann said.

Councilman Leroy Comrie, a sponsor of the moratorium, said the campaign against the word has gained strength since comedian Michael Richards spewed it in a racially charged tirade in Los Angeles.

The Laugh Factory club where Richards performed has since banned comedians from using the word there and the former "Seinfeld" television star has apologized.

"The Michael Richards incident really brought it to another level. It has forced people to express their outrage. Many people had been seething quietly," Comrie said.

Comrie also asked TV network Black Entertainment Television to stop using the word in its shows. Representatives of BET did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A Grammy spokesman said he doubted the academy's 11,000 voting members would support any measure that might censor artists.

"They are not going to be supportive of something that excludes someone simply because they are using a word that is offensive," said Ron Roecker, vice president of communication for the Recording Academy.

The city resolution calling for the moratorium traces the etymology of the word from the Latin "niger," meaning black, to its first documented written use in 1786 as a term slave masters used to label their African slaves.

Use of the word by blacks exploded with the rise of rap music in recent years, and some black comedians like Chris Rock continue to use it in their routines.

"What, is there a fine? Am I going to get a ticket?" Rock mocked in a Reuters interview when asked about the City Council move. "Do judges say, '10 years, nigger!"'

Rock said politicians were trying to divert attention from real problems: "Enough real bad things happen in this city to worry about how I am going to use the word."

(Additional reporting by Christine Kearney)

Now THIS is just fucking stupid

this concerns me

"Hey, you guys want to ban the N-word?"
"Naw man, freedom of speech."
"But dude! It's bad! And offensive!"
"I know"
"So let's just, like, symbolically ban it."
"I'm hip."
"Then it shall be done"
<choir of voices from the rest of the council>
"Unanimously!"

This thing practically writes itself!

I don't know why this concerns anyone. It's silly and nobody will remember it in five or ten years.

*fixed

i don't know why this doesn't concern you

sparkling wiggles.

Why don't they ban that new video game where the rappers beat each other up for respect?

shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits

seems to me a great man once said that words themselves are not offensive...but rather the ideas behind what the situation is at that given point and the motivation for using them

first, a lot of us don't live in new york city. we're not in the "affected area."

second, it's a touchy-feely, knee jerk reaction to the michael richards thing. ooooh, he said nigger. lock him up!

third, chris rock is right. how are they going to enforce it? i think they're going to have a hard time stopping anyone saying it in the privacy of their own homes. and truth be told, unless they post a word cop in every public place, they're going to have a hard time stopping the problem there. it seems to me that you could only stop it in movies, on television, and in music. but even then, since the ban is only in new york city, all that's going to happen is that those movies and shows and songs would be edited to have a big bleep over the offending word. people could still have access to the "offensive material" anywhere outside the city.

fourth, how far does this go? is it just for nigger, or are all variations, like "nigga" included, too? and when does new york city start sticking up for the gays and ban the use of the words "faggot" and "dyke," and women and ban the use of the word "cunt" and the other races and ban all their racial slurs, too?

is the word "cunt" only offensive to women?

no, i'm sure it offends men, too. but it's a vulgar and slang term for a woman's genitalia. and when it's used towards a man, it seems to imply that he has negative womanly traits, which must be bad. therefore, it's probably more offensive to women than it is men, which is why i used it as an example.

if this were a real 'ban' i don't suppose it would have had any chance at passing.

and the answer is no, it's nonbinding legislation that carries no teeth. it is only a ceremonial move to get on paper that the lawmakers in new york city don't like the word and let everyone know that.

The more blacks people take offense to the word "nigger", the more power it puts in the hands of those that want to use the word for derogatory purposes.

I say the word "nigger" more than I should, Of course, I'm smart about it.

The way I heard it from women in college is: if it refers to the genitalia, it's OK; if it refers to the woman, it's not OK.

But I could be completely wrong.

What a joke.

can i say nigger if i put sand before it?