Why do Blacks have to make up nicknames for everyone?
It seems like they never use their real names & are constantly using nicknames like Lil' Wayne, Lil Bow Wow, Nas, Puffy. P-Diddy,Lil' Kim, Mos Def, Common, etc. And even the regular every day people call each other nicknames like NayNay, etc. I never hear of Asians, Hispanics or Whites doing this, only Blacks. Why is this?
2010-08-20T07:58:05Z
pluton, see, that's sort of what I mean. They want to look/sound cool. So why not people of other races? Don't they want to look cool too?
GETitGIRL .2010-08-20T07:55:22Z
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It's a cultural thing.
Even though you used poor examples I think what you meant was, why is it more common amongst blacks (nicknames), and I honestly don’t know. It just is.
Let's calm down here and assume that Mario had a sincere reason for asking. Here is the answer: Many African-Americans are descended from slavery. As a way of breaking the will of their slaves, it became common practice for owners, (some black people owned slaves as well by the way), to re-name their slaves into either a name that was easier to pronounce, or depending upon the slaves age, by a distinguishing characteristic, e.g. 'Hairy', 'Slew-foot', (Slew for short), or even 'Booty'. The behavior was then learned by the slaves themselves, *most free black people had the kind of name we could possibly categorize as 'acceptable by modern standards'). Although it could be argued that it was one of the few remaining customs the 'First-generation' of slaves were able to keep from their specific 'tribe'. Just as it could be argued that directly following the slavery era, many black-men began to engage in what could be considered 'loitering' or 'slowing down', (the act of working as slowly as possible because the person, *slave*, was no longer considered property, and could now do so without fear of the whip. (Giving rise to 'hate groups' of the time. Again, there's nothing racist about the question asked. It was just phrased ignorantly. NO need to attack the person right?
I can't speak for all black people but everyone in my husbands family (who are black) have nicknames because their grandfather gave them one. It's a huge family the grandparents have 14 children about 30 grandchildren and lots of great grandchildren. He told me that as he got older he just couldn't remember every-ones name so he started giving all the kids nicknames that he could remember. I think it's cute and he has been really creative with the nicknames.
These answers are always the same. Reactionary. You people are retarded if you don t acknowledge that black folks have nicknames FAR more often. Why is it so wrong to ask why?
"you arent black, so you can t ask" and "white people do it too" is not an answer. Pathetic, butthurt, whiners are what keep people from finding out more about each-other.
Actually, not all blacks make up nicknames for everyonee. If you closely pay attention, you'll see we only do that for our friends. I'm called names that have to do with my name, just to shorten it up. Plus, those are their rap names and such. Second, my asian, hispanic, white, and native friends do it too. Yet I've notice we only do it if your name has more than one syllable.