White nigger


White nigger is a slur, with somewhat different meanings in different parts of the English-speaking world.

Uses

Certain white Americans

White nigger was a derogatory and offensive term, dating from the nineteenth century, for a black person who deferred to white people or a white person who did menial work. It was later used as a slur against white activists involved in the civil rights movement such as James Groppi of Milwaukee.
The term "white niggers" was uttered twice by Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia in an interview on national television in 2001.

Italian Americans

During all the 19th century until the early part of the 20th, Italian immigrants in the United States were often referred to as "white niggers".

French Canadians

In another use of the term, Pierre Vallières's work White Niggers of America refers to French Canadians.

Richard Burton

The White Nigger was a nickname given to the nineteenth-century English explorer Richard Burton by colleagues in the East India Company Army.

Irish peoples

Northern Ireland

"White nigger" was never widely used to refer to Irish Catholics, in the context of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, despite an example of this being found in the Elvis Costello song "Oliver's Army", which contains the lyric: "Only takes one itchy trigger. One more widow, one less white nigger."
In May 2016, Gerry Adams, the Leader of Sinn Féin, was criticised after writing on his Twitter account "Watching Django Unchained - A Ballymurphy Nigger!" Ballymurphy is an area of Belfast best known for an eponymous massacre. Adams deleted the comment, and subsequently wrote " who saw Django would know my tweets & N-word were ironic. Nationalists in were treated like African Americans."

United States

The term was applied to Irish immigrants to the United States and their descendants. The Irish were also nicknamed "Negroes turned inside-out", while African Americans would be described as "smoked Irish".