Let me just start out saying that I am black. I hate it when blacks use the word and call each other it. It is the most degrading word in the world. But, on Sanford and Son it was funny when it was used because it was a different time, and when it was used, it it wasn't offensive and the line came out of nowhere.

Episode "Here Comes the Bride, There Goes the Bride."
Fred: "It was her ol' uppity family. Bunch of jive ni ggas."

Episode "Jealousy"
Fred: "This ni gga's crazy!" (pointing to Donna's patient)

Episode "Sanford and Son and Sister Makes Three"
Fred: "Well, you better get your headlight fixed, because they're dead on a ni gga without a light!"

Episode "Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe"
Esther: "What did you say, ni gga!"

Episode "Legal Eagle"
Fred: "Look at all these ni ggas in here!" (In the courtroom)

Episode "The Surprise Party"
Fred: "Zip zam zoom, somebody get this ni gga out my room!"

[QUOTE=GARFIELDKOOL]Let me just start out saying that I am black. I hate it when blacks use the word and call each other it. It is the most degrading word in the world. But, on Sanford and Son it was funny when it was used because it was a different time, and when it was used, it it wasn't offensive and the line came out of nowhere.

I agree completely. A slur is a slur, regardless of who is using it. There should be no double standard.

I also agree with your point regarding its use on S&S. My favorite was in Legal Eagle:

"There's enough ni ggas in here to make a Tarzan movie."

Yep - we've discussed this topic on another thread and I totally agree.

I'm white, and hate hearing it from ANYBODY - black, white or in between, but I think even MORE SO from blacks themselves.

I don't understand why they would disrespect themselves like that.

The word cuts like a knife. Lead by example guys!!

I totally agree the N word and ANY racial slur that could offend even just the few shouldn't be used ..But there are the Mike Stivics of the world that only think African Americans can be offended and they would probably be the first to say that wasn't true. Offending any Race by slurs to me should cut like a knife... That said I never tire of Fred saying.." here I come Elizabeth" LOL

Yeah the N-Word was used on all Norman Lear shows except Maude and One Day at a Time. It was used on All in the Family once.

Gents and ladies-
I'm a white male, age 50 (hence the FredFan55 handle), born in 1955.

I offer one person's view of such language on television, and have offered it before here.

It wasn't long before S&S came on that unless you were watching a Tarzan movie, you simply wouldn't see black people on television. Racial bias and exclusion was rampant on network TV, and in my humble opinion, tended to perpetuate segregation in a sort of "out of sight, out of mind" fashion.

So, when black athletes became commonplace in professional, then finally, college sports, when Richard Pryor, Little Richard, and many, many soul and R&B performers recorded hits, and when Madison Avenue and the networks finally discovered that black people do, in fact, represent an economic force to cater to, we finally started seeing black people on network TV regularly, even whole shows focused on the black community, like S&S.

Were these sitcoms 100% accurate in portrayals of the life and times of black people in the 60s and 70s? Of course not. Neither was Ozzie & Harriet and the Dick Van Dyke show in the case of white suburbanites. But, for a kid who didn't even share a classroom with black kids until 9th grade (1968), shows like S&S represented the first glimpse ever into the mores, dress, behavior, and language--even the foul, insulting language, that was used in those times.

Like it or not, the word was used, and in my experience, was used in contexts exactly like S&S scripts used it. Hearing it used on S&S was an important link to some realities of life and outlook for some of the more underpriviledged blacks of the times, and I'd like to think it was helpful, not harmful, for us to have a more accurate depiction of their lives.

FredFan55

Gents and ladies-
I'm a white male, age 50 (hence the FredFan55 handle), born in 1955.

I offer one person's view of such language on television, and have offered it before here.

It wasn't long before S&S came on that unless you were watching a Tarzan movie, you simply wouldn't see black people on television. Racial bias and exclusion was rampant on network TV, and in my humble opinion, tended to perpetuate segregation in a sort of "out of sight, out of mind" fashion.

So, when black athletes became commonplace in professional, then finally, college sports, when Richard Pryor, Little Richard, and many, many soul and R&B performers recorded hits, and when Madison Avenue and the networks finally discovered that black people do, in fact, represent an economic force to cater to, we finally started seeing black people on network TV regularly, even whole shows focused on the black community, like S&S.

Were these sitcoms 100% accurate in portrayals of the life and times of black people in the 60s and 70s? Of course not. Neither was Ozzie & Harriet and the Dick Van Dyke show in the case of white suburbanites. But, for a kid who didn't even share a classroom with black kids until 9th grade (1968), shows like S&S represented the first glimpse ever into the mores, dress, behavior, and language--even the foul, insulting language, that was used in those times.

Like it or not, the word was used, and in my experience, was used in contexts exactly like S&S scripts used it. Hearing it used on S&S was an important link to some realities of life and outlook for some of the more underpriviledged blacks of the times, and I'd like to think it was helpful, not harmful, for us to have a more accurate depiction of their lives.

FredFan55

Most of the Norman Lear shows used it at sometime or other, mostly on Sanford and Son and the The Jeffersons. On Good Times, James only used it once and Willona had her own version of saying it with "Negro, please". I'm black and I wasn't necessarily offended by it, because these we're the relevance sitcoms and they we're trying to show reality. It is reality that blacks do use the word a lot, because one of my uncles uses it frequently. The word has the distinction of being an insult and a term of endearment.

Sammy said it on All in the Family, and he didnt call anyone a nigg r.

Fred Sanford also said something along the lines of, "...And take this fa ggity jacket with you."