Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Niggerball

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the debate was KEEP, but with some other name that is not clear from the debate. -Splash^talk 00:42, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Niggerball

• Google only returns 81 unique results for this alleged candy, many of which are people referring to basketball. Is this apparent nickname of a candy deserving of an entire article? At any rate it needs a "niggerball" expert. Labia Ears 13:07, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
• weak keep. I have heard of this confectionary and of another from Sweden with the same name, only this was more of a cookie/cake. The Swedes I knew while studying in England would always stop themselves just short of saying the name to Anglophonic students and call them chocolate balls instead. But yes, this article could use some expansion and verification. youngamerican (talk) 13:46, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
  • Comment. Also should be renamed niggerballs if kept. youngamerican (talk) 18:05, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
• Keep, given the precedent of the other 199 confectionery stubs. Oh, these candies exist all right, but more commonly in the plural: niggerballs returns 1400 results on Google. It's apparently also a name for a Swedish chocolate pastry, but in South African culture is universally known from the popular song Ballad of the Southern Suburbs, by Jeremy Taylor (the Oxford Dictionary of South African English says that when the lyrics were reprinted for publication in the UK, the word acid-drops was substituted). Humansdorpie 14:07, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

• Note: This debate has been included in the list of Africa-related deletions. -- Humansdorpie 14:07, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

• Keep --Terence Ong 14:16, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
• Comment: The official name that the candy is marketed under (which doesn't seem to be mentioned) should be the article title. Colloquial names can be given in the article as trivia. Peter Grey 04:07, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
  • They appear to be also known as "Bull's-eyes," this search actually returns some product results. Perhaps the article could be moved to this much less offensive term? Labia Ears 05:58, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

• I happened across this article before and it didn't occur to be that anything should be done to it. I thought that the offensive name of the past would have been all that made this thing notable, but perhaps not. Either keep as is or rename as Bull's Eye, a redirect to something totally different right now. Grandmasterka 07:26, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

• The consensus seems to be to keep the article about this candy, perhaps I should simply move its contents to Bull's Eye and redirect Niggerball and Niggerballs there? And possibly make a disambiguation for the star and the candy? Labia Ears 08:28, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

• • I don't think that would be terribly helpful - bull's eyes are usually striped peppermint flavoured hard candy: niggerballs are much bigger, licorice or aniseed flavoured sweets. With the greatest respect, I don't agree that a foodstuff's offensive commercial name is enough of a reason to rename an article, particularly when - as in this case - renaming obscures the history, meaning and cultural significance of the subject. The examples of Coon cheese and Kaffir lime provide precedents. And surely nobody is suggesting that Cracker Jack should redirect to popcorn...? Humansdorpie 11:11, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
    • Nice clean up of the page. The subject matter is far less ambiguous now! I'm satisfied. Labia Ears 20:18, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.