XPost: can.politics, soc.culture.quebec, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: soc.culture.african.american   
   From: invalid@invalid.ca   
      
   Byker wrote:   
   > The "N-word" is absolutely neutral in French.   
      
   I beg to differ. Just try to refer to a black man as "un Nègre".   
   "Nègre" as a noun is very, VERY, very derogratory in French. As an   
   adjective, it was used and is still O.K. to be used as such in e.g.   
   "l'art nègre", but that was at the turn of last century. Nowadays,   
   "l'art nègre" would be "l'art africain". Granted that Léopold Sédard   
   Senghor, first president of the Republic of Sénégal, put forward the   
   concept of "négritude" but that does not make the term "nègre" an   
   accepted concept in French.   
      
      
   Only in   
   > politically correct English does it have all that negative   
   > baggage. The word has it's origins   
      
   "it's origin" -- c'est du « petit nègre » en anglais ?   
      
      
   in the French language   
   > itself. Look it up yourself.   
      
      
      
   >   
   > "What 'multiculturalism' boils down to is that you can praise   
   > any culture in the world except Western culture - and you   
   > cannot blame any culture in the world except Western culture."   
   > -- Thomas Sowell   
      
   There is some truth in this, but I would not go as far as saying that   
   it's [j'espère que vous voyez la différence entre "it's" et "its"]   
   what "boils down to".   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)