NEWS: Damon Wayans Attempts to Trademark the N-Word

CULTURE: Damon Wayans Attempts to Trademark the N-Word

Wired News reveals actor Damon Wayans has spent the last 14 months attempting to trademark the word "Nigga." Apparently, Wayans dream is to see a population of people and other assorted items tagged with the aforementioned word. Thus far, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has declined his requests, based on the department policy of refusing marks considered "immoral or scandalous."

Indeed.

As a white boy I don't know that I can have a relevant opinion on either nigg-a or -er but I can teli you that if I'm remembering correctly there is/was a segment of the black community (Dick Gregory being one name I remember) that championed the use of the word "nigger" in order to take the power of the word away.

I don't know how effective that plan is/has been but I think that to write Damon Wayans off as "an ignorant shithead" might be a bit simplistic and quite possibly inaccurate.

I'm trademarking the word "cracker"! Take that!

Or maybe this is exactly what he was trying to do: get the word into the media, get people talking about it, remove the stigma, like that Lenny Bruce bit about niggers, wops, fags, etc.

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

NIGGARS!

[Edited on Feb 24, 2006 by Clov]

The word wasn't created by slave masters. It was around WAY before slaves even landed in america. It's original and CURRENT meaning is "an ignorant person".

A word is just a word. To continue to associate it with something bad MAKES it bad. If you associate it with something GOOD then it makes the word good. It's all the use.

Unless you believe the American Heritage Dictioanry:
[Alteration of dialectal neger, black person, from French nègre, from Spanish negro. See Negro.]

Or the Merriam-Webster dictionary:
Etymology: alteration of earlier neger, from Middle French negre, from Spanish or Portuguese negro, from negro black, from Latin niger

Or Encarta:
[Late 17th century. Alteration of Negro]

How do u suggest we make Nazi a happy word?

[Edited on Feb 23, 2006 by chevyblaze87]

Remember when schools would ban Huck Finn because it had "nigger" in it, despite the book practically screaming "HEY GUYS RACISM IS WRONG!"? Yeah. That was kinda stupid.

Ownership = control (in theory). He might be able to sell a few T-shirts, etc., but more importantly, he could prevent ANYONE ELSE from using the term by serving them with "cease and desist" papers. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he has something like this in mind. It will be interesting if he actually acquires the trademark...

how the hell can you trademark a word, anyway? most 'words' which get trademarked refer to some specific product. sounds like a get-rich scheme or an attempt to get his name in the media.

Ok, I just wanted wanted to agree with everyone that thought Damon is a shithead. You usually cannot force a change in the meaning of a word by just repeating it over and over again. Nor by making a profit from it.

The word by the way come from nay...not a word for Africans but from the Latin 'niger' meaning, well, black. The shade...not the person.

I remember a comedian (not Damon Wayans) once talking about making a snack food called "Niggas!", and making them available in all sorts of delicious flavors (except BBQ for obvious reasons) so that everyone would love them.

Urban myth.

The etymology of nigger is a derivative of nègre (french) and negro (spanish) and was used to refer to a black person. (African American for those keeping PC points.) It first started appearing in literature in the 19th century (when we had slaves) but was not originally derogative. Or at least historians think.

I've heard from a few people throughout my life the same thing you proclaimed, however that urban legend was swiftly shot down in one of my African American history classes.

if I take out the T would he still be 'Bitch'

I'm not disagreeing with you at all on this. However, I've always heard that the work fuck comes from a term in history kings would use when giving soldiers permission to go out and rape the woman of the village. So (if that's even true) why should it be any less terrible to use the word fuck then nigga/nigger.
Please don't assume I’m saying nigga/nigger is a totally ok word, or that fuck is or isn’t, I'm just kind of fueling this discussion because I think the psychology of language is pretty interesting.

that's actually an etymology rumour. The origins of "fuck" are actually unknown.

Well, then that just ruins my not-really-an-argument argument. Nevermind then.

Actually, you can trademark almost anything,.. whether it be a word, a phrase, a sound, or a color. For a list of words that have been trademarked, you can do a search on the www.uspto.gov site. A few of the more ridiculous trademarks off the top of my head are "Caution", "Sweetpea", and someone even trademarked the phrase "Whose Your Daddy?" so now they try to sue anyone that attempts to use these phrases on t-shirts or what have you.

Here's a website of people who are being sued for using the word "Sweetpea" on t-shirts.. www.sourpeas.com It's really a nasty practice, the people who trademark common words, just to turn around and sue anyone who uses them. There needs to be serious reform in the United States Patent and Trademark Office to stop this kind of nonsense.

Not unknown. http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_268b.html