Tess of the D’Urbervilles
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amazon wouldn't let me post my review until I removed the word "nigger"
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Tom
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rated it 5 stars
Feb 19, 2013 01:27PM
What prudes. They would love living in TH's Victorian utopia.
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Absurd. So what do they do in their mp3 download section where rap and hip hop tunes are available? Do they xxxxx out the word?
Why exactly do you need to use this particular word in your review?
Mocha Spresso wrote: "Why exactly do you need to use this particular word in your review?"Feliks wrote: "Absurd. So what do they do in their mp3 download section where rap and hip hop tunes are available? Do they xxxxx out the word?"
Feliks wrote: "Absurd. So what do they do in their mp3 download section where rap and hip hop tunes are available? Do they xxxxx out the word?"
Mocha, try reading my review before expressing your displeasure over this "particular word."
I have read your review and I am familiar with the song reference. Color me a prude because I think there are better and more effective ways to get a point across. You don't have to use that particular word or reference (which wasn't all that well received the first time around either, if I am to understand history correctly.)
If anybody is offended by the use of the word nigger to describe someone beaten down and discriminated against by society then they have a problem with free expression. Yes, you are a prude. Also, I didn't even know this was from a song. It is by now a common expression that has passed on from generation to generation in the English-speaking world--proof enough of its effectiveness.
It's not exactly a common expression passed on from generation to generation. Well, no more than the lyrics to "Imagine" or "Let It Be". The only effectiveness proven is the impact of The Beatles. Google John Lennon and Yoko Ono and that particular phrase.
You sure are spending a lot of time defending censorship. Don't you realize, the more you hate the work nigger the more powerful it is?
and what does any of this have to do with Tess of the D'Urbervilles?
Please tell me you didn't read my review, so I can believe I am talking to someone of some integrative capacity. I was merely using the well-known (OK, perhaps worn-out) phrase "Woman is the nigger of the world" to indicate the theme of abuse and degradation of women at the hand of hypocritical males in a society that condones it all. Did you read the book?
I was so confused........at first I thought the song reference was regarding a song from the Patti Smith Group's "Easter" album (I sometimes forget how small the Blank Generation is). Now I'm going to Amazon to look up the review.
Just because freedom of speech gives you the legal right to use whatever language you please does not mean that you should use certain words.It is not being a "prude" to say that there are other ways of getting that point across. It is also not polite to call people ignorant (nor poignant, when you yourself are unaware of the sources from which you are quoting).
I think, however, that Amazon probably has that word flagged automatically, because there are no instances in which that word can be used without giving offense. The fact that it adds shock value to your review does not take away from the fact that it is still referring to a group (well, actually, two groups) of people in a derogatory fashion.
Tom wrote: "Please tell me you didn't read my review, so I can believe I am talking to someone of some integrative capacity. I was merely using the well-known (OK, perhaps worn-out) phrase "Woman is the nigge..."I read your review and I have read the book. There are definitely more tasteful and eloquent ways for you to express your point given the connotation of the word.
I feel that there is nothing wrong with your review and yes it is pretty lame that Amazon wouldn't let you post your review. I think anyone who has an issue with the word nigger needs to get off their high horse and get over themselves, you were not being racist, your were stating a point.
Tom, I think you are missing the point. Amazon is a privately owned company and they are free to make any rules about the language used on the website that they wish. If you had posted your review on your own website and been censored then I would be behind you 100%.
Glad they did. Why do you people feel the need to use that word? It is not OK. In any environment.
Robin wrote: "I feel that there is nothing wrong with your review and yes it is pretty lame that Amazon wouldn't let you post your review. I think anyone who has an issue with the word nigger needs to get off th..."Yes, if you use that word, you are a racist. This is an easy concept to understand. Even for you and your ilk.
Lynn wrote: "Robin wrote: "I feel that there is nothing wrong with your review and yes it is pretty lame that Amazon wouldn't let you post your review. I think anyone who has an issue with the word nigger needs..."Coming from you that dont suprise me, But the original meaning of the word nigger is: an Ignorant person! Everyone wants to jump to, oh your a racist and blah blah blah. And yet we live in a society that black people call each other that, so let me ask you why is that okay but a white person says it and oh now your being racist! REDICULOUS!!!! I bet your the same type of person who would say that the Confederate Flag is 'Racist' too huh?
You just do not use the word "nigger" because of its history. It's disrespectful.(To the ones who says it's just a word.)
Lakyn wrote: "Lynn wrote: "Robin wrote: "I feel that there is nothing wrong with your review and yes it is pretty lame that Amazon wouldn't let you post your review. I think anyone who has an issue with the word..."Actually, it comes from the word Negro, and was used as an insult.
We can't talk about history without censorship. Orwell, is that you?
Marte wrote: "You just do not use the word "nigger" because of its history..."Kenneth nails it. Seriously, wtf? Embracing history's lessons is doing the best justice to anyone who's ever been oppressed. Turning things into "-isms" (as if they're diseases which anyone can 'be infected by' thus making the rest of us on our guard against them) is the surest way to make certain a phenomenon never goes away. If you make it into a hobgoblin, the hobgoblin is here to stay. Never be afraid of words!
Yes indeed. When we assign something a taboo, it just lingers. Consider the "war on drugs" or "war on terror" for a change of subject, but same concept: here you've got politicians trying to turn something ideological into something physical that can be defeated. It does not work that way. In the same way, suppressing discussion about the N word or any other racial, sexual, etc. slur is just grounds to continue its use.
I believe Comedian (and history buff) Bill Burr said it thus, to paraphrase: Real racism isn't people yelling racist stuff as loud as they can in public. Real racism, in today's world, is prefaced by "I'm not racist or anything, but..." and accompanied by looking to see if the coast is clear before it's uttered. It's always hush hush, and this sort of "You can't say that!" attitude does not make it go away. It just makes it go behind your back.
Odd that you couldn't put that word in a review. Maybe you should just write a book, and give it the proper title:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
For those of you who don't understand the power of that word, I'm sorry for you. If you'd been called that most of your life because of your skin color, you would know the true power it has. And the meaning it places on your under trodden, lazy ass, etc life.I'm white, but grew up in the projects, poor in money but rich in brown skinned friends. I hadn't heard that word until I was older and moved to white cities, towns. It's ugly and using it continues the ugly; it also has a nasty backlash on those who use it, white OR black, in my opinion.
We don't use a LOT of words now considered archaic... This word could go into that dumpster and the world would be a better place...
Don't be ignorant. It's not censorship to not use an ugly word to describe other people who aren't the skin color of the majority (of any skin color... I've heard that word used against poor whites and anyone of Arabic blood). Please, use your kindness and sense of rightness, and learn a better way to say all the meanings behind that ugly word when writing a book review. There are SO many other words that would not reflect such *possibly* unmeant nastiness.
ABOVE ALL, BE KIND. Make it your new motto. The New Year is coming up. It IS the Golden Rule, after all. ;)
Meran wrote: "For those of you who don't understand the power of that word, I'm sorry for you. If you'd been called that most of your life because of your skin color, you would know the true power it has. And th..."I can't agree. It is not the word that is the problem, it is the tone it is used in. There are many derogative names within the history of mankind and every one of them can be used as an endearment as well as an insult. That's why African Americans use it to refer to each other; in a form of friendly banter, saying " we are one". We need Caucasian people to be able to use this term in the same manner with our black friends so it says " we are one".
It would take the steam out of those who try to make it an insult.
Meran, the problem is not the use of the word as a whole. The problem, as Laureen says, is the connotation it carries when used as an epithet. Globally censoring it appears to be the only recourse for media outlets like Amazon's comments system because screening user-generated content for context would not be possible given the large volume of traffic to be scanned. So, we've got a cost effective but stifling over-response to a problem which exists only as a subset of the solution proffered. The issue some of us here are raising is, use of the word in reference to history is not naming anyone negatively. Use of the word in reference to history helps to discuss and understand the mistakes of the past so that we do not repeat them, and to reconcile past wrongs. Discussion OF a thing is not approval of the thing. We as a society discuss rape, a horrible experience. We don't call it the r-word.
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