The N Word!
The N Word, Nigga to be exact and clear is a very interesting subject I want to address in this blog. I hear the word Nigga all the time now a days. I hear it in music, TV, Movies, in the mouths of many comedians and most surprisingly in the mouths of every race and culture in the US. I really can’t speak for other countries although I would speculate that this is not an issue in other countries as the United States is the only majorly racially charged country out there. Let me bring clarity to that last statement by saying this does not mean that racial issues don’t occur in other countries but this country has a major issue with avoiding the way it was incepted. We (this country) were created on the basis of racial divisions and class. The black man to be exact was forbid by law to prosper in any way both financially and physically. We were held back emotionally and intellectually and basically bound by law to be a second class citizen. We were put through hard labor for no pay to then get low pay as our lives progressed. Most people don’t realize that the emancipation proclamation of the 1880’s had nothing to do with the financial advancement of black people. It wasn’t until the civil rights movement that we were even able to bring some of this to the light and conscious of this place we call “land of the free home of the brave!” In 2015 we are still dealing with some of the same stuff Dr. King was fighting for many years ago. I wanted to give some of the back drop of why repeating the word Nigga at its root puts us in that same place as if we have not made any progress. I won’t continue down this road as I wrote a book expressing my thoughts on the subject of race titled The Mentality of Man from an African American Perspective. Check it out on https://bit.ly/19k3fkw.
So as I write this blog I am coming off a very interesting situation on a college campus this past weekend. As I was sitting in a room with students playing cards another student entered the room laughing about a comedic set he attended earlier that evening. He began telling us about the dialog that was discussed by the comedian which included the word nigga being chanted in a nursery rhyme. So I waited to see if anyone would say something about this but no one uttered a word. So as the only black man in the room I felt not only a duty but an obligation to say something. Let me give a little background to what I have been able to accomplish over the years. I am a person who has fought for the ones who have been most mistreated while learning to deal with racial issues myself. I have been placed into very obscure situations over the years and been the only black in many of these situations. I have had to be the voice to and for many people who have not had the ability or courage to speak when issues of race or discrimination have come up. I have been discriminated against many times, and treated like I didn’t exist over and over again. So when I hear this come up in 2015 on a Christian college campus it deeply disturbs me. I don’t like the fact that this subject keeps being over looked as if it is over. Day after day we see issues of race on the news and we act like it is brand new each time it comes up. So in the room that night I took the opportunity to create dialog to see just why no one thought it was important enough to speak upon. I started off by asking them if they thought it was wrong to speak so freely using the N word. I then asked them if they thought it was ok for their fellow floor mate to laugh about the chant being used in the set. I then asked them how many of them listened to music that says nigga in it. As a hand full of them raised their hands I began to dialog with them. As I listened too many of them say that they felt like they did not have the right to say that it was wrong. I challenged them to understand the history, derogatory nature, and the sacrifices made so that black people would not be known as niggers.
So let’s kick it about the word Nigga. This word is one used on a daily basis by many people today. There was a time when you would only hear black folks use this word (I wonder why we started calling ourselves this in the first place), but today you hear every race use this word. Somehow some rap music has made it okay to utter the word nigga at every hand. People say it in many situations, places, inappropriately if this is possible and have no sense of how it was once used. I often say if you can utter the word nigga so freely it’s probably because you don’t know its history in this country. Here’s some history about this word…
Over time, racial slurs have victimized all racial and ethnic groups; but no American group has endured as many racial nicknames as Blacks: coon, tom, savage, pickaninny, mammy, buck, samba, jigaboo, and buckwheat are some. Many of these slurs became fully traditional pseudo-scientific, literary, cinematic, and everyday distortions of African Americans. These caricatures, whether spoken, written, or reproduced in media and material objects, reflect the extent, the vast network, of anti-Black prejudice.
The word, nigger, carries with it much of the hatred and disgust directed toward Black Africans and African Americans. Historically, nigger defined, limited, made fun of, and ridiculed all Blacks. It was a term of exclusion, a verbal reason for discrimination. Whether used as a noun, verb, or adjective, it strengthened the stereotype of the lazy, stupid, dirty, worthless nobody. No other American surname carries as much purposeful cruelty. The following
The reality is that many of these uses can be heard in present-day African-American society. Herein lies part of the difficulty: The word, nigger, endures because it is used over and over again, even by the people it insults. Writer Devorah Major said, "It's hard for me to say what someone can or can't say, because I work with language all the time, and I don't want to be limited." Poet and professor Opal Palmer Adisa claims that the use of nigger or nigga is "the same as young people's obsession with swearing. A lot of their use of such language is an internalization of negativity about themselves." Rappers, themselves poets, rap about niggers before mostly White audiences, some of whom see themselves as wiggers (White niggers) and refer to one another as "my niggah." Snoop Doggy Dogg’s single, "You Thought," raps, "Wanna grab a skinny nigga like Snoop Dogg/Cause you like it tall/and work it baby doll." Tupac Shakur’s "Crooked Ass Nigga" lyrics included, "Now I could be a crooked nigga too/When I'm rollin' with my crew." Also rap lyrics that degrade women and glamorize violence reinforce the historical Brute Caricature.
This final habit, as a kind word, is particularly challenging. "Zup Niggah" has become an almost universal greeting among young urban Blacks. When asked, Blacks who use nigger or its variants argue that it has to be understood in its situation; repeated use of the word by Blacks will make it less offensive. It’s not really the same word because Whites are saying nigger (and niggers) but Blacks are saying niggah (and niggaz). Also it is just a word and Blacks should not be prisoners of the past or the ugly words that originated in the past.
These arguments may not be true to the real world. Brother (Brotha) and Sister (Sistha or Sista) are terms of endearment. Nigger was and still is a word of disrespect. More to the point, the artificial dichotomy between Blacks or African Americans (respectable and middle-class) and niggers (disrespectable and lower class) ought to be challenged. Black is a nigger, regardless of behavior, earnings, goals, clothing, skills, ethics, or skin color. Finally, if continued use of the word lessened its damage, then nigger would not hurt or cause pain now. Blacks, from slavery until today, have internalized many negative images that White society cultivated and broadcast about Black skin and Black people. This is mirrored in cycles of self- and same-race hatred. The use of the word,nigger by Blacks reflects this hatred, even when the user is unaware of the psychological forces involved. Nigger is the ultimate expression of White racism and White superiority no matter how it is pronounced. It is linguistic corruption, an attack on civility.
So as a person called to challenge the ignorance in today’s world I thought it necessary to share just some commentary on the use of the word Nigga. When it is all said and done the root of this word has and always will be bad. There is no way to justify the use in the modern day lives of anyone. The nature of this word is inherently bad and carries with it a negative connotation. So my challenge to all who will read this blog is to stop using this word and find much more intelligent ways to express the beautiful creatures we were uniquely created to be. So the next time you hear the word nigga what will you do or say? Will you remember this conversation and say something about it or just let it ride? Remember that every time this word is spoken it is taking us to a place in history that helped to shape the negative image of blacks to this very day. So when you see your home boy or home girl and you say what’s up my nigga you are really saying hey you second class person let me keep reminding you of your horrible past. The next time you introduce your friend as this is my nigga so and so… remember you are saying I want you to meet my nasty, no good, lazy, friend. Finally the next time you want to say something like look at these niggas here you are really saying look at these people who were not even considered human by this country’s standards at one time.
I leave you with this challenge and hope that you will become more aware of how bad this reproduction really is. There is a saying if we know better than we will and can do better however, if we lack knowledge or refuse it then we can’t do better at all. So it’s now up to you to be about change and bring light to this very dark way of thinking.
As always God bless you and much love.
D