CAGEPOTATO.COM: First of all, who gave you the nickname “Thug”?
Rose Namajunas: My neighborhood friends. When I was little, I was the only white girl, I was smaller than everyone else, and for some reason I just acted harder than everybody else — just fearless, you know? So they kind of dubbed me that because of the intimidating scowl I always had on my face. That’s what gave me that name.
http://www.cagepotato.com/interview...charm-and-her-invicta-fc-5-fight-this-friday/
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So if it was Rose's black neighborhood friends that originally gave her the nickname "Thug", it seems to me that blacks would not have a good case with regard to calling the nickname racist. (Plus, it may perhaps be relevant that Pat Barry's mother is African-American.)
On the other hand, people from India may have a better case with regard to not liking the nickname...
CODE SWITCH: WORD WATCH
What A Thug's Life Looked Like In 19th Century India
November 18, 2013
LAKSHMI GANDHI
https://www.npr.org/sections/codesw...-life-looked-like-in-nineteenth-century-india
"Some historians now argue that the Thuggee Cult was in many ways an invention of the British colonizers as a way to better control India."