Reclaimed slurs retain traces of the struggle that resignified them

Evidence

That’s when we adopted the word negre, as a term of defiance. It was a defiant name. To some extent it was a reaction of enraged youth. Since there was shame about the word negre, we chose the word negre. I must say that when we founded L’Etudiant noir, I really wanted to call it L’Etudiant negre, but there was a great resistance to that among the Antilleans. — Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, 333 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Reclaiming a slur as a defiant identity label emerges from colonized shame — Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, 333; Oppressed groups reclaim power by rearticulating their own stigmatized signifiers.; Contested signs retain force while settled ones decay into allegory (+3 more)

Related

• Reclaiming a slur as a defiant identity label emerges from colonized shame (similarity 0.90)
• Racial identity arises as a negative product of oppression (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Oppressed groups reclaim power by rearticulating their own stigmatized signifiers. #corroborates (0.90)
• Reclaiming a slur as a defiant identity label emerges from colonized shame #expands (0.85) — Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, 333
• Ideological signs carry opposing class accents and become sites of struggle #complicates (0.80)
• Contested signs retain force while settled ones decay into allegory #complicates (0.75)