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originally posted by: kaylaluv
I'm not "cool" enough to be hip to the current lingo, so I didn't know ninja was a word used to replace "ni**a". To me, it's more about intent, then the word itself. So I guess if you use the word as it was originally intended (Japanese assassin), then no problem, but if you are using it specifically to get away with saying "ni**a", then that is what is upsetting these people? The reason I don't really agree with those people is because Timberlake was addressing it to a white woman whom he greatly admires, so it wasn't meant as an insult or a derogatory term at all.
If, however, Timberlake used it towards a black guy, and the obvious intent was to insult them by using ninja as a code word for ni**a, then maybe I could see someone being upset by it.
Maybe it's kinda like the word trash. When that word is used for actual garbage that goes to the dump, no problem. But when you use the word to describe certain kinds of people, it can be used as an insult to someone. Words with innocent original meanings that have been hijacked to mean something else entirely.
which is viewed by many a still-troublesome substitute for the word "n****" "