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Do you agree with Dr. McWhorter's, a linguist at Columbia University, analysis of the word thug? Here is a quote from the NPR interview:
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Believe me, I do not watch Fox News - nor will I ever. However, I am wondering if others agree with that definition. I am not sure I do, though I agree that I can be culturally ignorant sometimes. I would see a Nazi or a white supremist as a thug, too, while clearly they wouldn't be black. | |||
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It's certainly not used like that here. Perhaps some people in the USA might be using it as code for black people, but not here. I suppose originally it could be used as a racist word, since it described a gang of murderers and robbers in India who strangled their victims. However it has been used in a more general sense of 'violent cutthroat' since the beginning of the 19th century. Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life. | |||
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I wasn't even aware of such a usage. To me it just means someone who is very violent, possibly with no particular reason. "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson. | |||
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I avoid them, too, but other commenters have pointed out the constant usage of the term to only describe black protestors on Fox. Many black leaders have also mentioned the increasing use of the word in such situations. After a while, it becomes blatantly obvious what it now refers to. | ||
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I think mainstream U.S. uses it like Bob and arnie do. With all this racist stuff going on, I think some have just ramped up the word. [BTW, every time I say Bob and arnie, I have to chuckle and little because it reminds me of Bert and Ernie.  ] | |||
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Marilyn Mosby [chief prosecutor of Baltimore, a 35-y.o. black woman] used the term herself during her election campaign in a special message to supporters at her website : "When thugs and murderers control our neighborhoods from jail and our mothers, grandmothers and children are afraid to walk down the streets in their own communities for fear of being robbed, hurt, and or intimidated by gangs, we are failing in every sense of the word." | |||
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Yes, Obama used it, too. But the point was that, like Nigger, it is okay for African-Americans to use it, but not for Caucasians. | |||
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I fail to see how this sentence says anything about the colour of the people involved. To suggest that it does simply because thugs in a black gang in a predominantly black neighbourhood are likely to be black seems ridiculous to me. Their ethnicity and their thugishness aren't connected. "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson. | |||
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'Nigger' is a general term for black people. 'Thug ' means a violent person. Even if we accept that some people are using it as code for a violent black person, surely Obama and others can't claim 'ownership' of the word simply by being black; they'd have to be violent as well, surely? Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life. | |||
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Yes. The description seems to be (at least by some - and surely not me) for a Black, violent person. I also agree with Bob that "thugishness" (love that word!) and ethnicity are not related. If they were, I wonder what a White or Latino violent person would be. Totally ridiculous. | |||
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