call on soccer chief to step down `` It 's about questions of translation or context , '' said Mark Sawyer , director of the Center for the Study of Race , Ethnicity and Politics at the University of California Los Angeles . The word 's literal translation is `` little black man . '' But generally , negrito is not considered a racial slur in Latin America , Sawyer said . In fact , it frequently has a positive meaning . `` It 's often a term of endearment , '' he said . But what the word means also depends on where -- and how -- it 's said . `` In Puerto Rico , it has one meaning . In Cuba it has a slightly different connotation and in the Dominican Republic it has a slightly different connotation , '' said Jorge Chinea , director of the Center for Chicano-Boricua Studies at Wayne State University in Detroit . Blatter a controversial figure Chinea said his mother and stepfather , both of whom were light-skinned , frequently used the word . `` When they talked as a couple , my mother would say , ` negrito , I
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- A racially-charged word with many meanings may be at the root of a dispute between two sports rivals that reaches far beyond the soccer field , analysts say . Manchester United 's Patrice Evra , who is black , says the word Uruguayan Luis Suarez shouted repeatedly during a match last month was a racial slur . Evra demanded that Suarez be held accountable for the controversial exchange , which erupted as authorities investigate other accusations of racism in soccer . Suarez , a striker for Liverpool , has n't specified what he said , but he argues that it was n't offensive . `` I did n't insult him . It was only a form of expressing myself . I called him something his own teammates from Manchester call him , '' Suarez said , according to the Uruguayan newspaper El Pais . British media reports have suggested Suarez used the Spanish word `` negrito . '' If that 's the case , whether Suarez 's remark was racist is a complicated question that does n't have a black-and-white answer , according to scholars who 've studied race issues in Latin America . Leading figures