White nigger

White nigger is a slur, with somewhat different meanings in different parts of the English-speaking world.

Uses

Certain white Americans

White nigger was a derogatory and offensive term, dating from the nineteenth century, for a black person who deferred to white people or a white person who did menial work.[1] It was later used as a slur against white activists involved in the civil rights movement such as James Groppi of Milwaukee.[2]

The term "white niggers" was uttered twice by Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia in an interview on national television in 2001.[3]

Italian Americans

During all the 19th century until the early part of the 20th, Italian immigrants in the United States were often referred to as "white niggers".[4]

French Canadians

In another use of the term, Pierre Vallières's work White Niggers of America refers to French Canadians.[5]

Richard Burton

The White Nigger was a nickname given to the nineteenth-century English explorer Richard Burton by colleagues in the East India Company Army.[6]

Irish people

Northern Ireland

"White nigger" was never widely used to refer to Irish Catholics, in the context of The Troubles in Northern Ireland,[7] despite an example of this being found in the Elvis Costello song "Oliver's Army", which contains the lyric: "Only takes one itchy trigger. One more widow, one less white nigger."[8]

In May 2016, Gerry Adams, the Leader of Sinn Féin, was criticised after writing on his Twitter account "Watching Django Unchained - A Ballymurphy Nigger!" Ballymurphy is an area of Belfast best known for an eponymous massacre. Adams deleted the comment, and subsequently wrote "[Anyone] who saw Django would know my tweets & N-word were ironic. Nationalists in [the North] were treated like African Americans."[9]

United States

The term was applied to Irish immigrants to the United States and their descendants. The Irish were also nicknamed "Negroes turned inside-out", while African Americans would be described as "smoked Irish".[10]

See also

References
  1. The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang, 2nd edn, ed. John Ayto and John Simpson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
  2. Frank A. Aukofer, City with a Chance: A Case History of Civil Rights Revolution, 2nd edn (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2007), 114.
  3. Andrew D. Todd, What Is a "White Nigger" Anyway?, History News Network (March 20, 2001).
  4. How Italians Became ‘White’, New York Times
  5. DePalma, Anthony (26 December 1998). "Pierre Vallieres, 60, Angry Voice of Quebec Separatism, Dies". New York Times. New York. Retrieved 21 September 2014.
  6. David Shribman, "'That Devil Burton,' the Great Adventurer", The Wall Street Journal (6 June 1990), A14.
  7. The IRA 12th impression, Tim Pat Coogan, page 448, William Collins, Sons & Co., Glasgow, 1987
  8. "The Elvis Costello Home Page". Elviscostello.info. Retrieved 2015-06-18.
  9. McDonald, Henry (2 May 2016). "Gerry Adams defends N-word tweet". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
  10. McKenna, Patrick (12 February 2013). "When the Irish became white: immigrants in mid-19th century US". Generation Emigration. The Irish Times. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
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