Our friend Phil's racist rant about Jay-Z's Nets raising eyebrows

Lemme see, how long will it take to read 874 comments?

 

At what age do people become out of touch? At what age do writers become irrelevant? At what age are a person's thoughts dismissed?

 

If you are white is it ok to sing the words of Niggas in Paris out loud?

 

Here's the only place I'd disagree. If HuffPost or anyone else wanted to go after Murdoch, they needn't do it by attacking Mushnick when far bigger, easier targets exist.

Beyond DD's interesting discussion about language and who can use what words -- I still cringe when I hear girls call each other "ho" -- he brings up a fair point about Nets ownership.

Also, Mushnick responds here:
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/05/phil_mushnick_o.php

 

Double: You make some good points, but I diagree with your last line.

In my opinion, he's not an "out of touch old man."

He speaks for a lot of us.

I know I look at it a little differently, because I taught for 16 years, but I fought the battle over that word for a long time, largely because once you have the black kids using it to each other, you get white kids using it, and then they either are accused of racism or attacked in one way or another.

 

I tuned out Muscnick for good about 20 years ago, after I had read one too many columns in which he wagged his finger about how Person A had no morals or Person B contributed to the downfall of society or Person C sold out for this or that reason ... and then almost without fail there would be ads for Times Square porno theaters underneath his column. Somehow his moral compass always veered just enough to be OK with taking a paycheck from people who ran smut ads.

 

Actually, she agrees with me, too.

 

I thought he called them Nuggets.

 

Mushnick isn't about to put a target on his back and then face away from Brighton Beach. Prokhorov is safe

 

Is he the one who lamented a couple weeks ago that the downfall of "This Week in Baseball" was that fathers and sons just don't sit down together any more and laze away the day like they used to?

 

So if "nigga is an artistic expression, isn't Mush using the same form of art? They would sell a hell of a lot of jerseys if the call the team the Brooklyn Niggas.

I bet a bunch of those illegal sweat shops are printing some up as we speak.

 

Yeah, but places like the HuffPo take advantage of every opportunity they have to go after Murdoch, or one of his properties. As far as they were concerned, Mushnick was some anonymous writer, not a guy with a 40 year track record.

It's not their whole plan to attack Murdoch, but it's a part of it.

And, while Jay-Z only owns only 1.5% of the team, he's probably the best known minority (share, not race) owner in sports. He's high profile at the games. He tried to recruit LeBron. He's a part of their marketing plan, and helps to design it. He's from Brooklyn, and he adds credibility, and authenticity to the team.

As for Niggas vs. niggers, I suppose it's a fair point, but it only goes so far.

Niggas derived/evolved from niggers. Was there any distinction at first? It was just a cool, hip way to say niggers. It was basic slang. Eventually, it took on it's own meaning, separate from niggers. A distinction between the two evolved.

But, their meanings and usage are still interchangeable in many circumstances. I'd venture to say that the usage of niggas increased, as the criticism of the word niggers, used by African-Americans themselves, increased. It was just substituted.