Talk:House negro

Latest comment: 3 years ago by 74.88.72.238 in topic Osama thusly referred to Obama

Reference added, with comment edit

this is a fairly well known word, so i referenced an international use of the word to emphasize this. however, in the interest of peoples feelings, i am not in any way supporting the use by al-qaeda of this term. its just to indicate notability. Mercurywoodrose (talk) 08:17, 7 March 2009 (UTC)Reply


There must be a better description of the usage than "borrowed term for critiquing parallel situations".203.184.41.226 (talk) 07:34, 6 September 2012 (UTC)Reply

de orphaned edit

i have now linked other articles to this one. i am very new to wikipedia, and am not sure if im comfortable removing the tags. i suppose an argument can be made for merging this article with "uncle tom". i would appreciate comments on what i can do next, and i will research wiki policy to see what i can do to remove tags. Mercurywoodrose (talk) 08:40, 7 March 2009 (UTC)Reply

removed links to 2 living persons edit

two people were listed as "well known house negroes". since they are alive, this is in violation of WP:BLP (biographies of living persons). we cant have any potentially libellous material. of course, if the 2 people have been accused publicly of being "house negroes" by important sources (say, jesse jackson), and the controversy was very public, that could be discussed in neutral terms on the subjects article pages. but simply adding a link from this article to their names is not acceptable-especially if the main articles dont mention a public controversy. Mercurywoodrose (talk) 01:09, 3 April 2009 (UTC)Reply

fixup edit

this is my best shot at fixing up the article. i think it now adequately shows notability. i hesitate to add the alternate term, house nigger, to the body of the article, though some of the links use this term, but if its necessary to add it and is not excessive use of pejoratives, please do.Mercurywoodrose (talk) 17:31, 27 November 2009 (UTC)Reply

List of notable people edit

{{3O}}

  • There is NOTHING that this list violates on this site. It's sourced and it's related to the article. Personal opinions are not valid enough. Please discuss.--XLR8TION (talk) 00:09, 30 March 2010 (UTC)Reply
First, the section violates WP:BLP. Second, even if it didn't, almost none of the sources are reliable sources. I appreciate that you put a lot of effort into that list, but you can't violate Wikipedia policy. — Malik Shabazz Talk/Stalk 02:28, 30 March 2010 (UTC)Reply
I checked the page you mentioned, and there is nothing in the list that violates it. I have reverted the page back and have placed a request for third party assistance. Please wait for TPO before any changes are made.--XLR8TION (talk) 21:10, 30 March 2010 (UTC)Reply
I'm willing to hear a third opinion about whether the article should have such a section, but WP:BLP says that material is removed unless there are reliable sources. Which the current section doesn't have. — Malik Shabazz Talk/Stalk 21:45, 30 March 2010 (UTC)Reply
  • The section (a list of people who have been called "House Negroes") violates WP:BLP because it serves no purpose other than to disparage the people on it. Nobody has ever been called a "House Negro" as a sign of respect or admiration, and I doubt if anybody has ever referred to her- or himself as a "House Negro" (except for irony). — Malik Shabazz Talk/Stalk 22:03, 30 March 2010 (UTC)Reply
I would also note that there is no comparable section in Uncle Tom or Self-hating Jew. — Malik Shabazz Talk/Stalk 22:26, 30 March 2010 (UTC)Reply

Third opinion edit

In my opinion, the list of notable house negros should be removed. The list is not accompanied by reliable sources. For a label to be attached to a person we not only need to see a reliable source that 'person X is a Y' but we also need a reliable source that says, or at least indicates, that 'person X is generally accepted as being a Y'. The sources included here neither make the general claim nor are they reliable (they are mostly blogs of some sort). Secondarily, people are generally called all sorts of things, often derogatory things, but it does not follow that that derogatory label is attached to that person. For example, we wouldn't include Obama in a list of 'notable liars' because a congressman called him one. --RegentsPark (talk) 00:43, 31 March 2010 (UTC)Reply

^^ No, we'd include him in that list because he is a liar. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.189.70.67 (talk) 13:34, 31 January 2011 (UTC)Reply

Malcolm X, or Margaret Mitchell? edit

The term "house negro" goes a lot further back than Malcolm X; Margaret Mitchell used it repeatedly in "Gone With The Wind" (which is still under copyright, but plenty of representative material can be found at http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/place/Place_GWTWselect.pdf (warning: numerous racial pejoratives)), in which not only house negroes and field negroes (just "field hands" here) but "yard negroes" are also mentioned, albeit less often. Scutigera (talk) 12:51, 3 August 2012 (UTC)Reply

The differentiation of slaves into field slaves and house slaves dates to the slavery period, I'm sure. I don't know why this article says Malcolm X originated the phrase. His use of the metaphor may have popularized it, but he hardly invented it. — Malik Shabazz Talk/Stalk 13:13, 3 August 2012 (UTC)Reply

"house boy" edit

Surely the term "house boy" is much more widely used and older than "house negro". English-speaking colonies (e.g. US colonial presence in the Philippines) in poorer countries invariably utilized house boys. The term is applicable to a lowly paid house servant, being a native of the occupied country. It was normal for both husband and wife to be employed, and a small cottage to be provided, termed the "boy house". The wage paid was typically proportional to the level of skill, and desire to retain the servant. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.219.69.67 (talk) 05:38, 17 March 2014 (UTC)Reply

Bill Maher quote edit

There is apparently some disagreement among editors about whether Bill Maher said "house nigger" or "house nigga" on his television show. Despite some people finding the audio/video of the show to provide an obvious answer, Maher's New York accent makes it ambiguous. To settle the matter, one might look to the New York Times and The Washington Post, which both quote him as saying "nigger". The "nigga" claims seems to come from The Daily Beast. I believe it's better to take NYT and WP as authoritative. The subsequent discussion on Maher's program with Ice Cube also seems to negate any meaningful distinction between the two terms, as it is never brought up, and the word in question, while never spoken, is referred to as one of long historical significance, which "nigga" is not. In any case, I would strongly caution against this article going into the Maher topic in ways that are not illustrative of the term or informative about its current use; please stay on the article topic. --Stybn (talk) 02:31, 21 June 2017 (UTC)Reply

Picture of Ben Carson shows up on mobile app--needs to be removed edit

When you look up this page on the wikipedia mobile app, and when you search for the page before selecting in on the regular website, you see a big picture of Ben Carson at the top. But some reason I don't see the picture once I open the article. Obviously this needs to be removed but as a lowly noobie somtimes-editor this is above my pay grade and I can't figure out how. Can someone help with this?

Thanks,

Shmeebers (talk) 20:44, 15 December 2017 (UTC)Reply

Osama thusly referred to Obama edit

In the last communique Osama bin Laden made before his demise, he referred to President Obama using this phrase, but since it is in Arabic, I an unsure how offensive he was trying to be (but there surely is an Arabic slur equivalent to "nigger") so if anyone can further seek citations for this, thank you. 74.88.72.238 (talk) 09:42, 25 August 2020 (UTC)Reply