MONDAY RANT: LET'S TALK ABOUT THE N-WORD!

THE N WORD

A word who’s meaning changes depending on whom calls its name.  A word that when spoken can get you hugged or mugged, kissed or dissed.  It’s a black word, we own it whether we like it or not.  It is a “family” word.  If you are a member of the family through birth, initiation, or invitation, you have a license to say it aloud. 

The word used to belong to the master.  He used the word to identify an entire people who were whipped, raped, and denied justice, for being born of a different skin color than the master.  Those acts of de-humanization were (and in some forms are) prevalent through much of our history in America.

Although the players in the first act have exited the stage their legacies endure.  The whipping, raping, and denial are now as much self-inflicted wounds as not.  However, in the master’s community the word is still spoken in whispers behind closed doors, at the office, over martinis, and yes even in church.  The only difference between then and now is that it is not said face to face.

On the other side of town it can be a greeting or a curse.  It might be said to people you care for and those you don’t.  I wonder if all the times the word has been spoken, by black and white, that we have become numb to the its’ impact.  Instead, we have embraced the word with all of its bitter fruit. In its repetitiveness, we ignore its legacy of blood, sweat, and tears.

The current debate over the whether the word is politically correct is a dialog that could not have taken place in the past without violence or the threat of violence.  We are at a point in black/white relations and indeed black/black relations where the discussion can only lead to an enlightened generation that we have struggled to nurture.  

-Lee Pulliam

"(White folks upset at blacks for saying Nigga) Nigger stop saying Nigger, Im getting a Nigger headache, Stop it! White folks ya shouldn't have made up Nigga. I didn't make it up, its too bad, I say NIGGA a hundred times every morning, it makes my teeth white, Nigga, Nigga, Nigga, Nigga, Nigga, I aint scared of that word "

-Paul Mooney, Legendary Comedian 

I use the word Nigga.

I say it when I rap along to my favorite song...Jay-Z's "Jigga my Nigga."

I say it when I'm watching sports..."BLOCK for that nigga man!!!!  HELP him!"

Above all else, I try to avoid using it in public places because sometimes calling the wrong person nigga can get you punched in the mouth.

So what does it mean when I call someone nigga?

Could just be a replacement for "dude" or it can refer to my friends, my crew, my brothers, part of my extended family.

Speaking of my friends,  I also say it when I crack jokes in the comfort of my home around my close ones.  

Some of them say it too...none of the white ones though. 

If they did, probably wouldn't be too upset.  I know there's no malice or hate in THEIR hearts if they were to say it.  But again, they DON'T say it.  None of them do.

These are people I trust with my secrets, ask for advice, hold me up when I'm down or lend me a dollar to buy some potato chips if I don't want to break the twenty in my pocket.  

They're my niggas.

That said, the word isn't always used in a friendly context...

Saturday night, Kentucky's Andrew Harrison said "fuck that nigga” in response to a reporter's question about Wisconsin star Frank Kaminsky and my honest first reaction?  

Laughter.

It didn't bother me a bit.  In fact, That's some pretty real shit right there. Not very smart but real.

Media asked him how he felt about the guy who ended his season and he said exactly what was on his mind at the moment.

Should he have policed himself better considering the setting and circumstance?  Without a doubt.  

But he's 20 year-old kid and he'll learn from it.

However, my second reaction, was "shit, watch people flip this on him..."

For the record, there's few things I find funnier than calling a white guy nigga...

Frankly, I find it amusing when any race outside of black people call each other niggas.

True story, I had dinner a few months ago and hear, "love you niggas man!"

Turned around to see a group of teenage Chinese kids.

Want another example?  Saw a group of Arab men getting ready to fight each other outside a bar this past weekend.  

First words out of the instigator's mouth?  "Fuck you bitch-ass niggas!"

Nigga has hit the mainstream(or has it always been?) and everyone wants to be a nigga!  

Until it's actually time to really be a nigga anyway…ahem…Ferguson.

Nigga, of course, has an original, much more sinister meaning too...

So the question remains...why do black people get upset when white people say it?

It's quite simple...

First off, caucasians created the word with the intent of using it to degrade someone for well over 300 years.   

 If you were a "nigger," you were less-than-human and your life wasn't worth the value of someone who wasn't. 

If you were a nigger, you weren't allowed to eat at the same lunch counters, drink the same water, use the same bathrooms or even love the same people as a caucasian.

If you were a nigger, you were ugly, a blemish, a mistake of god.

If you were a nigger, you were dumb, inferior, not good enough.

Secondly, many caucasians still use the word with that very same intent and meaning behind closed doors.

I know because there’s too many scenarios where I walked the campus of my alma mater or office and was greeted with a handshake and grin, only to later find out, it was all a well-played performance that would make an Oscar nominee blush.

If there were a video game called "NIGGAS" at the arcade, white folks wouldn't be able to play cause they used all their quarters up on it's prequel, "NIGGERS."

It's not their word anymore, it belongs to black people.  

Is it "fair?"  Nope.

Is it a double standard? Definitely.  Don't know what a double standard is?  Ask a nigga, they'll tell you.

Do white folks have a right to be outraged because they can't call niggas niggas anymore?  I wish a nigga would...

Should the word be disposed of?  

Sure, but it's not realistic.  Nigga was here when I came into this world and it will be around long after I leave it.

In my world, when I look at the things needed in order to bring African-Americans to prominence, the word nigga comes in last behind eradication of poverty, crime, job discrimination, unhealthy habits, disease, lack of educational institutions and the systematic murder and incarceration of black men.

When white, black AND others all come together to handle those issues, then we can talk about removing the word.

 Until then, Love and Peace my niggas.

-WST