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Some of my ‘brothers’ in England will tell you that Hip-hop and Rap music have legitimized use of the term “Nigger” among large sways of Black and non-Black people in America, and that we, too, in England should get with the program and throw off our shackles from the past.
I am, apparently, old-fashioned because I still get offended by use of the N-word. I don’t care who you are or how you say it. I am still likely to smack you in the mouth at a mere whisper of the word. I certainly wouldn’t be teaching my children to use a term that still holds currency as a mark of their supposed inferiority. Maybe it has something to do with class - not to mention respect for self and others - that Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama, and others I admire, refuse to engage with the word or those who use it.
Selective amnesia is no indication of social advancement in my book. Adoption of a horrible word by certain segments of “street corner society” does not prevent neo-Nazis from wanting to kill Barack Obama and other African-Americans because they see us as the “niggers” we call ourselves.
If Jewish people can rightly campaign against “Holocaust denial” in the twenty-first century, it must be more than appropriate for us to still be offended by a word that has lost none of its potency simply because some Black people use it to address each other. History is not that long ago, and we’re still obviously reeling from the remnants of it, even if some of us refuse to see it or prefer to wear blinkers.
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7 comments ↓
I thank God for intelligent people like you. The sting has not left that word for those of us old enough to remember the potency in it. It always strikes me as odd that many others think they can reclaim the word.
The term is steeped in ignorance and hatred, and those who I know outside of the black community are always bemused by the term being used in music, comedy, and general rapport between people of African descent.
Thank you for a timely reminder of an intelligent approach to this matter.
Thanks for having the courage and fortitude to stand up for common decency, self-respect, pride and dignity. Here is more on the n-word:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP2U0jmZjec
The use of this word by people of African descent has long confused me. It seems to be part of a cultural library of language and myth that continues to perpetuate inferiority complexes and anger. I think I can understand why the anger may exist - history is not that long ago, as you say - but why is that anger directed within? Paul, big thanks for your insight and generous provision of food for thought.
I’ll never understand the reasoning to, in one conversation, call my friend “nigger”, and in another, be angry at some skinhead in the street shouting it at me. Whenever I hear the word, in any form, I draw a sharp breath, as though I just got jabbed with a needle. Thank you for pointing this out clearly, and I may just subscribe to this blog…hmmm
As the expression goes: “You are preaching to the choir”. I spend a great deal of time intervening in the use of the word by young African-Americans, males in particular. In the case of adult males, I simply ask with a muted horror, “Aren’t you a little bit old for the word ‘nigger’.
But I know that it is a forgetfulness borne of lost legacy, leaving the mind as devoid of history as is the desert the sea. Nothing short of an epiphany brought on by an overt confrontation that wounds the body and sensibility in the way that reality spawned the creation of ‘nigger’.
I recall two young African-American males who playfully greeted each other
“Hey, nigger. Wha’zup muh nigger?
“Do you know his name?”, I asked? “Yeh, I know his name”, he replied.
“Try substituting his name in each place that you used the word nigger. “Go ahead. Try it”, I urged as he seemed suddenly too bashful to do such a thing. He blushed, the awkwardness made him squirm and flap his long, adolescent limbs across his school work, almost unable to lift his eyes to speak to his friend in such terms. Finally, he spoke, but the clarity with which he spoke the word nigger, now sounded garbled against the biblical name that the mother had given his friend.
I took comfort in his awkwardness, feeling that maybe the shade of forgetfulnees may have been slightly raised and as he peeked through that fleeting, awkward moment, he would ask himself, “Why is it so hard to call him by his name?”
“I wanna stop saying it”, he said, giggling awkwardly, confirming to himself that he had not done so well on his mini-test.
“But it’s hard”, he adds as he turns away from his friend.
I think he’s thinking.
Trying not to say the word had become as hard as trying not to blink. It had become an unconscious act of mutual-degradation that had morphed itself deep, deep in his psychic. “Greeting, my friend”, had now become nigger.
It was hip-hop and youth culture that inspired many young black Americans to vote and it will be those same things that help stop them using that word.
If someone like Mobb Deep suddenly admonished the using of the word, then the youth would follow.
I absolutely agree. I am bi-racial and BLACK and I ain’t nobody’s nigga or anybody’s honkey for that matter. However, since the US glorifies the word nigga in rap, in greetings and generally in popular culture even white Americans think it is Ok to greet each other this way.
I think it is anti-intellectual, offensive and has no place in any society. I was born in the Uk in the 60’s and remember my Dad talking about Enoch Powell and his “river of blood” speech. Back then nig-nog was the word, “wog” and all the rest of it. I will not be anybody’s anything. I stand up for my rights as a woman of colour, nice smooth black skin, black and proud and saying it loud.
The word Nigga as you rightly pointed out carries with it every relic of colonialism and every shackle of slavery and I will not tolerate it and my child never said it and I certainly will admonish anyone who does.
I agree that if someone with some sort of “clout” admonishes its use and makes it hugely unpopular, then the youth will follow.
Great Paul. Keep up the good work! I will remain old fashioned and educated on this issue.
Kim
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