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The N Word

RUL

By RUL,
in The Pub

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RUL Veteran

RUL

Posted
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/04/man-cleared-racial-abuse-endearment

 

A court has cleared a man who shouted the word "nigger" at a black man of racial abuse, after he claimed he was a rap music fan who used the term as an endearment.

 

Christopher Jones was found by North Staffordshire magistrates to have used the term widely seen as one of racist abuse, but not to have used it in a hostile way.

 

He told magistrates he used the term regularly on the streets around his home in Blurton, Stoke-on-Trent.

 

Jones was charged by police and in court pleaded not guilty to using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour which was racially aggravated.

 

After his acquittal, Jones said he had more black friends than white ones and added: "I can be sat with a black friend and I will say 'What up, nigger?' and it's a term of endearment."

 

Jones told his local newspaper, the Sentinel: "I am not a racist, it was used as slang. For me it is a term of endearment, not something racist.

 

"I like hip-hop and it is a word that is used all the time in music."

 

Jones, whose Facebook page describes him as a "chief tokin futha mucka", was arrested in September after a row outside his home where the term was used, and during the incident his wife was injured. It was alleged he used the term while detained by the police.

 

In court, his lawyer, Rob Holt, said: "He is from an estate where the phrase is frequently used.

 

"This word has crept into the English language and is used on a regular basis.

 

"His use of the word is popular culture."

 

 

Peter Herbert, a part-time judge and chair of the Society of Black Lawyers, said: "Staffordshire is not known for its multiculturalism or hip-hop culture.

 

"The 'N' word is generally unacceptable in the UK, including in rap music circles and on the streets. It is much more common in the United States."

 

News of the Staffordshire case and acquittal on charges of uttering racist abuse, comes after magistrates last week cleared a police officer in London whose colleagues allegedly heard him saying that black people "look like monkeys". Another officer was cleared after asking a black colleague if they were going home to "cook bananas". Earlier this year Chelsea captain John Terry was cleared by a magistrate of racial abuse after uttering the words "black cunt", but was fined and banned by footballing authorities.

 

 

A Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson said: "Christopher Jones was charged with a racially aggravated public order offence after he repeatedly shouted from a window to a group on the street on 10 September 2012. Mr Jones accepted that he used the language alleged but denied it was motivated by hostility. This was accepted by the magistrates and Mr Jones was acquitted."

 

 

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tup Newbie

tup

Posted
Posted

I think folk should be allowed to call each other whatever they want without getting done for it.

 

You usually find they are hitting the nail right on the head with their observations.

 

Yet they find themselves in a court of law, wasting everyone's time, and achieving the square root of fuck all at the end of it.

 

What does the N in N-Dubz stand for?

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ChutneyLove Newbie

ChutneyLove

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My mate got done for racial something-or-the-other for calling someone a "chocolate" during a disagreement on Market Street. His argument to the law was that he calls everyone chocolates - which I can attest to. It just happened that the particular chocolate he was having his disagreement with happened to be a black bloke. A copper who was there (summer Sunday night, half-ten, top of Market Street - you can picture it) was not from Aberdeen and didn't understand that there are many chocolates around (regardless of their skin colour). Turns out my mate was going to get away with it until he started calling everyone "chocolates" as a kind of defence. The copper - having taken the racial abuse line to begin with - then took offence to perhaps having any type of association with our tanned brothers. Chocolate.

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ChutneyLove Newbie

ChutneyLove

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The argument kind of falls apart when white chocolate is mentioned though :/ can't believe a court entertained that.

It never reached court - his argument / defence was to the coppers on Market Street. He got lifted, cells 'til morning, discharged with charges dropped. My take on getting done is the night in the cell - he wasn't convicted of the offence.

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muttondressedaslamb Newbie

muttondressedaslamb

Posted
Posted

What up nigga?

 

Hey niggaz where we going?

 

Both allowed if it is said black on black as the er or ers has been replaced with a and az. It is a term of endearment and what blacks done to put a positive spin on nigger.

 

Load of shite if you ask me. If they had just left nigger as the offensive word it was then it would be used much much less but because nigga and niggaz is used in rap songs, films, society etc then people, esp children and teens adopt it and then find themselves in trouble when they use it.

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ChutneyLove Newbie

ChutneyLove

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Posted

Don't know if I'd be offended by being called a whitey - depends if I was surrounded by black folk I suppose. I know a darkie who gets called and introduces himself as "Darkie". He has lived a fair chunk of his life as the only black man in Bieldside though, so perhaps understandable. Anyway, we're mair peachy pink, and they're mair browny coffee, so whitey and darkie are wrong.

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