The N word

I use the so called “N-word” a lot.  I try not to use it around people that I know are offended by it and people I would be offend by if they used it (White people).  I know it’s sort of controversial to blurting out “nigga” all of the time but for me, that’s just the way I talk.

There’s been a bit of a movement to get people to stop using the word.  Of all the things that are wrong with the Black community, I don’t know who decided this was a good place to start.  Black men have been calling each other “niggas” for a long time but we’ve never meant any harm in it.  I know the word comes from “nigger”, a term that was meant to dehumanize me and mine but you can’t say that black people are trying to make each other feel bad when we use it now.

You could argue that using the word subconsciously plays enough on Black people to warrant its censorship but honestly, aren’t there more overt attacks on out humanity that should be addressed first?  We won’t take on gun violence, a failing education system and the prison industrial complex but we can jump on people about how they address each other?  Makes no sense.

What’s worse, we can chastise people for using the word “nigger” but have no problem getting treated like niggers.  A third of us go to jail.  Our jobless rate is more than twice the White average.  We make 75 cents on the dollar for White people doing the same fucking jobs and all we can do is get upset about how we talk to each other.

The attack on Black people that use the “N-word” is nothing more than a case of us attacking us because we know we are a beatable opponent.

I know White people think that it is unfair that we can use the word and they can’t but they are missing a couple of key points.  First of all, there is no power in any single word.  It is how a word is used that gives it meaning.  When I call someone “my nigga”, they know that I am addressing them as one of my tribe.  By calling another black man a nigga, I am acknowledging that I’m his/her nigga too.  It puts us on the same plane.  When a white person does it, you usually don’t have the understood feeling that we are equals.  When it is used outside of the circle, directed inwards, it has been so often used as an insult, it is natural to assume that it being used in that way.  However, inside the circle, there is a necessity to maintain the bonds of equality and there will always be some name or another that Black people will use to keep this tradition alive.  Who cares where the word is derived.

Secondly, and just as importantly, I can say the word and not get my ass whipped.  There are few “fighting words” left in America but if you yell a racial or gay slur, you have to take the responsibility for it.  It might not be fair but what really is in America?

Would I hit somebody for calling me a nigger?  Depending on my mood it’s a real possibility but it isn’t the word’s fault.  It’s a reawakening of the assumed inferiority that plagues the American vision of Blackness.  How people manifest that old sentiment isn’t limited to that one word.  If we banned the word today, it wouldn’t do me one bit of good the next time I get pulled over by the police.

I suppose that I could find other words to substitute for “nigga” but what would be the point.  I have a perfectly useful word already.  What trips me out is when White guys try to act like that they can’t stand when Black people use the word.  They don’t seem to understand that acting like that they are in a position to censor our speech is to treat us as if they have some sort of moral superiority.  In essence, by not letting us talk the way we wish to, they are treating us like niggers.

I know, this all heavy stuff so let me end this by telling a short, funny story about the “n-word”.  A bunch of years ago, the NCAAP decided to have a mock funeral for the “n-word”.  They blocked off a street, rented a horse drawn carriage and a coffin and everything.  For some strange reason, they didn’t manage to get this fake funeral going until 2 hours after it was scheduled.  This inspired two jokes in me when I heard the story.  1) Isn’t that just like a nigga to be late for his own funeral?  And 2)  Them niggas should have buried “CP time” first.