Research Paper on:
Race and the Use of the Term 'Nigger'

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
has to do with the same principle that makes it okay for an individual to rant and rave about a spouse but it is not okay for anyone else to  make negative or derogatory comments about that spouse. There is an unwritten code that makes it acceptable for a person to cast dispersions on someone they love but if someone  else were to make the same comments, a serious argument would occur, at best. At worst, fisticuffs would come into play. This is the same principle that makes it acceptable  for blacks to call each other nigger but not acceptable for whites to refer to a black person as a nigger. Most of the literature discussing the word nigger offer  a brief history of the word, which is a valid way to begin any discussion on a specific word and its uses. The Wikipedia Encyclopedia states: "Nigger is a pejorative  term used to refer to dark-skinned people, particularly those of African origin" (2002). The word is derived from Niger, a Latin word that means black and also from the Spanish  word Negro, also meaning black (Wikipedia Encyclopedia, 2002). This word was used in both the United States and the United Kingdom until about the 1960s to refer to  blacks. Clarence Major, who wrote Juba to Jive, noted that the term nigger has been a part of the culture of African-Americans since around 1620 (Thompson, 1994). Major believes that  the term nigger is actually a derivative of the word nick, "as in nicking a coin; a niggler clips and files gold coins; and niggling, which is cutting awkwardly; nig  is also a variant form of nick" (Thompson, 1994). Other authors believe the word came from Northern England and specifically from the Irish dialect as they attempted to pronounce the