zlacker

So -a is more polite than -er?

Really?

I mean rap songs and movies have both, as far as I can tell they are used interchangeably.

Any chance the distinction existed long time ago and now it does not anymore? (Im not from US)

>>earnes+(OP)
Say either on the streets of the US and you will find the intellectual distinction much softer than someone’s fist.

>>earnes+(OP)
It was explained to me that it was an attempt for some in the black culture to "take back," that word in an attempt to declaw it by swapping out the -er for an -a and using it colloqually rather than insultingly. Other people in the black culture think that word shouldn't be used at all, hard R or not, because it is so historically disparaging. I tend to agree with the latter.

I always wondered why that word had such negative connotation over other pejoratives. I believe it was Maya Angelou who said, paraphrasing, "it's so hurtful because it was the last word people heard before the noose tightened around their neck."

Some dark stuff.

>>earnes+(OP)
> as far as I can tell they are used interchangeably.

They are not.

> Any chance the distinction existed long time ago"

What is "long time ago"? This stuff isn't exactly gone.

You really need to realize that American slavery really wasn't that long ago. It was only 1975 when the last survivor of American slavery died. Generational effects last and the reverberations of years of oppression still reverb very, very loudly today.