Simms Jr. explains why the N-word has been revered in black communities, and why everyone else is now joining the party.
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You want to know the best defense mechanism black people have had, through the decades in America?
Turning turds to treasure.
Slave masters gave us leftover pig innards, we called it chitlins and ate them for Thanksgiving. (Ok, not a victory for ME, but my Mom loves them). America gave us crushing racism, and we responded with some of the most brilliant, powerful minds in human history (MLK, Malcolm X, Richard Pryor, etc.). The late 1970s and early 1980s gave inner city children no real money to buy musical instruments, so black kids made turntables into an instrument, started hip-hop, which birthed rap music…which gave the world Trinidad James. (Sorry America, our bad.)
Our (black people) biggest accomplishment/trick was to turn the N-word from a cosmic level putdown into a term of endearment. In fact, it’s probably the biggest “flip” in American history. (although I’ve heard the “queer” term/flip in the gay community is kind of close). Black people turned the most hideous word ever into a cool ass description of our closest friends.
It sucks. It makes little sense. But, hey…it’s what blacks have been doing for years. Taking the shit thrown at us and using it for fertilizer.
The problem, as of recently, is that not too many people in the black community/intelligentsia realized that the N-word would/could be used to sell shit. (Richard Pryor’s “That Ni**er’s Crazy” did in the 1970s, my bad). Between Jay-Z and Quentin Tarantino, the N-word has become the bedrock for billion dollar industries. And when anything really sells in America, it’s automatically public domain.
Thus, the confusion about who can actually say the N-word. Yeah, black folks have expressed outrage when non-blacks say it, but when two million people download Lil Wayne’s latest single, which has the N-word in its hook, how can we (black people) be mad when non-blacks scream the word in a nightclub, or a party? Or, if someone who isn’t black tweets the N-word on Twitter? Can black people be upset at a 17 year old white teenager who may post a tweet with the N-word in it…who listens to nothing but mainstream hip-hop? (And probably has a shitload of black friends, who probably call each other…you know what.)
The 21st century. Where everybody is my N-word.
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Photo Dplanet/Flickr
I agree with Jonston. I am a black African (born, raised, and residing in Africa) and I have never, at any point in my life, understood the use of “nigger/nigga” among black people, whether American or African. Yes, some Africans have decided that because some black Americans call each other “nigger/nigga”, then we should as well. Its ridiculous. It is not part of my vocabulary or my own specific history. As soon as I get wind that “nigger/nigga” is part of someone’s vocabulary I let them know up front that they should not refer to me as such, even if… Read more »
I still say that it means black, The word Nigger is from the Spanish word Negro which means ‘black’
So when ever someone says it they’re just calling the person black. Well that’s what I heard anyway
Sir, my hat’s off to you. I am a white man. I will be honest enough to admit that there have been times when I have used that name in anger. It was wrong of me. If I may be so bold as to press on further, I’d like to state for the record that men like Dr. King and others who fought tooth and nail for the equal rights of black Americans would probably haul off and slap the ever-livin’ crap out of these youngsters who revel in using that term. Several years back Bill Cosby blasted the black… Read more »
I have to say you seem all over the place on this one but I think it comes down to being deeply confused. I and many, *many* Black people do not find it “cool” or “revere” it. Over the course of centuries whites teach Black people to hate and despise themselves using an umbrella signifier like “nigger” then Black people turn around and use it on themselves. And you call this a great flip? It’s nothing more than colossal ignorance. Where are the Jews clamoring to be called “k!ke” or shylock?” Is Asian or Hispanic music replete with “g00k”, “yellow… Read more »
A fantastic reply, I agree with you completely.
I agree with the idea that “nigga” and “nigger” are six of one and half a dozen of the other. They are both contemptuous names and if the blacks insist on calling each other this epithet, then they have no right as far as I’m concerned to get “offended” when a white person or a person of any other ethnicity uses the term toward them.
I have to say you seem all over the place on this one but I think it comes down to being deeply confused. I and many, *many* Black people do not find it “cool” or “revere” it. Over the course of centuries whites teach Black people to hate and despise themselves signified with an umbrella term like “nigger” then Black people turn around and use it on themselves. And you call this a great flip? It’s nothing more than colossal ignorance. Where are the Jews clamoring to be called “kike” or shylock?” Is Asian or Hispanic music replete with “gook”,… Read more »