Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Nigger: Clamnuts debates the use of the word.

Great post over on Bob Byrne's blog at Clamnuts.com. Bob produces excellent Irish comics, including a free one called The Shiznit. His current blog post is about a work in progress, based on old style newspaper comics.

Bob and his friend, Brian, came up with the idea of a comic strip which deals with the issue of racism in Irish society with regard to immigrants. I have a huge amount of respect for anyone who has the ability to deal with real issues in any shape or form in their chosen medium... especially a piece like this which is presented in a tongue in cheek fashion, rather than a preachy manner.
It is likely to offend mind you, it appears pretty racist at first glance, until you reach the end of the tale.

Bob's post shows the comic in it's entirety but is looking for feedback on which ending to use; they have two possible endings at the moment- one written by Bob and one written by Brian. Brian's ending includes the word 'nigger' which tends to be contentious...

I wouldn't have any problem with the use of the word Nigger for this purpose, however I think Bob's ending reads better and gets the message across more clearly.

See what you think and leave a comment - if you have an ending you think would work better than either, Bob is eager to hear that too!