Bill Maher Explains How The Word ‘Nigra’ Was Invented In The Sixties
HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher is shaping up to be a sort of Drunk Black History, with the host blithely explaining, last week, why black people love their Cadillacs, and this week, delving into the shockingly recent origin of the slur “nigra.” While Maher was dead wrong to the letter of history, he did somewhat manage to capture the spirit of it.
During the online “Overtime” segment, Bill Maher asked World War Z author Max Brooks (also son of comic legend Mel Brooks) if the reaction to President Obama is similar to that of the returning Harlem Hellfighters, a group of black World War I soldiers who are the subject of Brooks’ latest graphic novel.
“Of course,” Brooks said. ‘It’s a tremendous backlash whenever we take to or three steps forward as a country, there’s a;ways going to be a backlash. That’s why we call them reactionaries, because they react.”
He added that political correctness has forced them to use other terms, but “when you see bumper stickers that say ‘An African lion in the zoo, and a lyin’ African in the White House,’ it’s pretty clear there’s a backlash.”
Maher brought up rocker and Senior Fellow at the DefeCato Institute Ted Nugent’s “subhuman mongrel” remarks, and panelist Joy Ann Reid reminisced about the ugliness at McCain/Palin rallies, where attendees routinely likened then-Senator Obama to a monkey. Not to digress too much, but these people were not “caught on camera” at some dusty backwater barbecue, they were performing for the camera at McCain/Palin rallies in places like Colorado and Pennsylvania:
Note the acute absence of anyone not laughing hysterically along with them and joining in. Shockingly, the monkey theme reappeared with the emergence of the tea party, and was cheered on as enthusiastically as the Confederate flag was when it flew in front of the White House.
Maher then noted that “There’s one word that sticks in their throat, the n-word, they want to say it so bad,” and added…READ MORE
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By: Tommy Christopher
Tommy Christopher is The Daily Banter's White House Correspondent and Political Analyst. He's been a political reporter and liberal commentator since 2007, and has covered the White House since the beginning of the Obama administration, first for PoliticsDaily, and then for Mediaite. Christopher is a frequent guest on a variety of television, radio, and online programs, and was the villain in the documentaries The Audacity of Democracy and Hating Breitbart. He's also That Guy Who Live-Tweeted His Own Heart Attack, and the only person to have ever received public apologies from both Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.
14 responses to Bill Maher Explains How The Word ‘Nigra’ Was Invented In The Sixties
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fantagor June 29th, 2014 at 17:31
The election of Obama opened up a Pandora’s Box of racism that was just bleeding to escape. But that’s the American Way. We progress a little and then have to endure tremendous backlash, and then we wonder if we in fact have progressed at all.
Tom Ward June 29th, 2014 at 22:51
“But that’s the American Way.”
Actually… looks like that might be the Indian way:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/05/15/a-fascinating-map-of-the-worlds-most-and-least-racially-tolerant-countries/
http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2013/05/racial-tolerance-map-hk-fix.jpg
fahvel June 30th, 2014 at 04:10
sometimes stupid is so well expressed – your use of the map is one such piece of merde.
Tom Ward June 30th, 2014 at 11:46
Many Americans are racist but when fantagor says racism is the American way, well, look at the map.
fantagor June 29th, 2014 at 17:31
The election of Obama opened up a Pandora’s Box of racism that was just bleeding to escape. But that’s the American Way. We progress a little and then have to endure tremendous backlash, and then we wonder if we in fact have progressed at all.
Tom Ward June 29th, 2014 at 22:51
“But that’s the American Way.”
Actually… looks like that might be the Indian way:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/05/15/a-fascinating-map-of-the-worlds-most-and-least-racially-tolerant-countries/
http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2013/05/racial-tolerance-map-hk-fix.jpg
fahvel June 30th, 2014 at 04:10
sometimes stupid is so well expressed – your use of the map is one such piece of merde.
Tom Ward June 30th, 2014 at 11:46
Many Americans are racist but when fantagor says racism is the American way, well, look at the map.
JamesMMartin June 29th, 2014 at 21:26
“Nigra” was commonly heard in my house when I grew up in South Texas, but both my mother and maternal grandmother, who lived with us, spoke a kind of East Texas dialect that included such things as lazy “ing’s” and inflections turning “sister” into “sista,” for example. Luckily, my father did not join in; as an attorney with NAACP referrals, he did not believe African-Americans were any different than we were. But with my mom and grandmother, it was always “Nigra,” infrequently “Negro” but never, ever “N—-r.”
JamesMMartin June 29th, 2014 at 21:26
“Nigra” was commonly heard in my house when I grew up in South Texas, but both my mother and maternal grandmother, who lived with us, spoke a kind of East Texas dialect that included such things as lazy “ing’s” and inflections turning “sister” into “sista,” for example. Luckily, my father did not join in; as an attorney with NAACP referrals, he did not believe African-Americans were any different than we were. But with my mom and grandmother, it was always “Nigra,” infrequently “Negro” but never, ever “N—-r.”
bobby1122 June 30th, 2014 at 00:40
Racism at it’s best–Sept.28, 1868- 300 Afro- Americans slaughtered by Democrat KKK for defending a white Republican newspaper editor…http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/04/charlie-rangel-says-tea-party-does-not-believe-union-won-civil-war-heres-the-truth/
bobby1122 June 30th, 2014 at 00:40
Racism at it’s best–Sept.28, 1868- 300 Afro- Americans slaughtered by Democrat KKK for defending a white Republican newspaper editor…http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/04/charlie-rangel-says-tea-party-does-not-believe-union-won-civil-war-heres-the-truth/
R.J. Carter June 30th, 2014 at 09:34
Damn those Romans for not inventing the feminine form of the Latin for black soon enough! People thousands of years ago were wandering the empire in confusing, unsure of what to say to describe a feminine object as “black” until the 1960s.
R.J. Carter June 30th, 2014 at 09:34
Damn those Romans for not inventing the feminine form of the Latin for black soon enough! People thousands of years ago were wandering the empire in confusing, unsure of what to say to describe a feminine object as “black” until the 1960s.