PSA: When it comes to debating semantics, context is everything.
Just ask this woman, who was dubbed racist by some Twitter folk because she named her dog Negro for his black fur.
The user, who goes by the handle @rebeca_macias18, tweeted about her missing dog:
negro is missing? please if anyone sees him message me!!! pic.twitter.com/mo2l760hLi
— becky. (@rebeca_macias18) January 20, 2018
Sharing a simple plea alongside two photographs of her pet, Rebeca wrote:
negro is missing please if anyone sees him message me!!!
Where you might imagine the replies would be ones of support for the evidently upset pet owner, instead, the top tweet criticises the Hispanic woman for her choice of dog name, Negro.
@Luyanda_D__ said she was ‘stating the obvious’ by calling Rebeca out:
You definitely ain’t gonna find that dog now with a name like that…..
It is what it is and I said what I said…. It’s racist :)
You definitely ain't gonna find that dog now with a name like that…..
— Luna Lovegood⚜️ (@Luyanda_D__) January 20, 2018
You're touched that I'm stating the obvious??? It is what it is and I said what I said…. It's racist :)
— Luna Lovegood⚜️ (@Luyanda_D__) January 20, 2018
Quickly, the debate gained traction.
Some people called out the entire Spanish language for racially aggravating, even though the modern racist slur was taken from the original Spanish word, which was not intended to be used to describe people or the colour of an individual’s skin.
@BeautiFul_JaA said it’s ‘racist asf’:
First of all the fact that negro is used in Spanish as a color is racist asf. The end https://t.co/JSZhtkqWAx
— HER (@BeautiFul_JaA) January 22, 2018
Other observers were quick to defend Rebeca. Pretty much everyone noted ‘negro’ is the Spanish word for the colour black and not a racist slur in this particular context.
While some even pointed out the pronunciations vary and the anthropological meaning of the word ‘negro’ in Spanish is no longer in common use, others added the commentator was too ‘quick to pull the race card’.
One even said the original critic was ‘too dam fake woke’ [sic]:
in spanish negro means black. she named her dog after the dogs color. not after what afro Americans were called circa 1950s. its 2018 babygirl.
— champayne (@ogmarauder) January 20, 2018
Y’all too dam fake woke
— ?? (@stussymayo) January 21, 2018
You and everyone who retweeted this shit are dumb af negro literally means the color black in Spanish and the dog is all black as seen in the pictures above for us Hispanics negro for us just a color I'm sorry that it's a derogatory word for you get a mf grip pussies
— Dieguito (@Gomez_Diego96) January 21, 2018
Lol first of all educate yourself before you look stupid on social media. “Negro” is Spanish for the color black in English. This has NOTHING to do with black people ?? she’s simply naming her dog a color not a racial slur. Smh so quick to bring the race card ???♀️
— Vannia (@XoxoVannia) January 22, 2018
Its not pronounced knee-grow
Its neh-grow
In spanish its pronounced different— woah its edith (@PABLObunny) January 22, 2018
I'll just leave this here pic.twitter.com/cpmF6Eft2L
— bella (@izabelela) January 22, 2018
it doesn’t mean the same. the word in spanish means the color. if someone speaking spanish wanted to say the equivalence of the n word, they would say prieto, not negro
— ley (@judithlaleyenda) January 22, 2018
Gomez_Diego96 heatedly wrote:
You and everyone who retweeted this shit are dumb af negro literally means the color black in Spanish and the dog is all black as seen in the pictures above for us Hispanics negro for us just a color I’m sorry that it’s a derogatory word for you get a mf grip p*ssies [sic].
Other people defended Rebeca, saying their dogs were also named after the colour of their fur:
my dogs name is negrita ???♀️
— ailinn (@63leenin) January 21, 2018
lmao i have a black pit & i call her Negrita too!!! this people doing to muchh
— ??♀️ (@ohhmiriam_) January 22, 2018
Rebeca’s original tweet went viral on Saturday 20 January, garnering 1,190 Retweets and 1,622 Likes, as well as the onslaught of debate in the comments section.
Just 10 hours ago, Rebeca tweeted this statement:
I am so fed up with all this
— becky. (@rebeca_macias18) January 22, 2018
She wrote; ‘I am so fed up with all of this’.
Meanwhile, the young woman has received lots of support and well wishes from fellow animal lovers.
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It’s unclear whether her dog has been found at this stage.
UNILAD has contacted Rebeca for comment.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.