Racial Epithets in Prison

Not your father’s denigrating slurs

William Mersey
Doing Time
Published in
3 min readOct 9, 2024

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Photo by Larry Farr on Unsplash

As you could probably guess, prison is not a place where woke people hang out and think about every word they speak before talking lest somebody might be offended. Guys simply say what comes to mind. Thus, in prison, there really are no racial epithets. All the shunned racial terms in the lexicon are used routinely and rarely with ill will. It’s just the context and attitude that determines whether the rhetoric is hate-filled.

Just for example: A caucasian happens up on a Black friend he hasn’t seen for a while. The Black guy, happy to see his homey, slaps hands with the white guy and smiles ear to ear: “Wassup, my nigga?”

Notwithstanding that the world is now programmed to hate the n-word, that right there is a supreme compliment to the white guy. He has passed through the hallowed portals of improved racial relations.

Another example: We’re watching football in the common area when a defensive back who’s blitzing is about to sack the quarterback.

“Get that nigger,” screams about every inmate who’s rooting for the team on defense. Nobody means anything racist by it.

So I’m standing on line for chow with a Black inmate in front of me and another Black inmate behind. The two guys are friends and having an animated…

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Doing Time
Doing Time

Published in Doing Time

Prison is an experience like no other. But with the right frame of mind, you can come out a better person. Stories of spiritual uplifting live here.

William Mersey
William Mersey

Written by William Mersey

Loser with a capital L. Convicted felon. Daily Beast, NY Daily News, Daily Mail, Independent contributor. I've been around the block.