Note: this entry contains an uncensored a racial slur; discretion advised.

About

N-Word Cat refers to an image of a cute white cat which is often accompanied by a racial slur in posts on 4chan's /pol/ board. In addition to being used as a dogwhistle for the slur, the image has also been a popular exploitable on the board.

Origin

On July 31st, 2017, Chinese comic artist Ghost (郭斯特) posted five photographs of her cat yawning to her Weibo account.^[1] The post received over 24.000 likes and 2,100 shares in three years (photographs shown below).

In the following years, the images, particularly the first one in the set, were widely circulated on various websites, including posts on Facebook,^[2] Pikabu,^[3] 2ch,^[4] Twitter^[5] and other platforms.

Spread

Starting on July 29th, 2019, an anonymous 4chan user with an anarcho-capitalist flag has made a series of racists posts on /pol/^[6][7][8] board using the image. Starting on October 22nd, 2019, the user made posts containing the racial slur repeated three times in all caps in President Trump general threads on /pol/^[9][10] (shown below, left), with more users joining in on making similar posts in these threads in late October and November 2019.^[11][12] On November 2nd, 2019, a Hand Pointing a Gun edit of the image was posted by an anonymous user (shown below, right), marking the first derivative of the meme on /pol/.^[13]

On December 17th, 2019, an anonymous user posted Tuxedo edit of the cat (shown below, left).^[14] In the following more versions of the cat appeared on the board, including a Soy Boy^[15] edit and a Tucker Carlson^[16] edits (shown below, center and right).

Starting on December 17th, the photograph of the cat and its edits gained a significant presence on /pol/, with the cat being associated with the racial slur. On December 21st, an anonymous /pol/^[17] user posted the photograph of the cat writing "You may not like it but this is what peak racism looks like," with multiple edits of the photograph posted in the thread.

Various Examples

External References