Contemplations on the N-Word

I come from a place where “nigga” isn’t such a bad word. Spending most of my childhood days on… I come from a place where “nigga” isn’t such a bad word. Spending most of my childhood days on the Bronx’s Gun Hill Road in New York, my encounters with the word were benign. “What up, nigga!” or “Nigga, please!” and my personal favorite, “That’s my nigga,” were used often. Refusal to use a word that has been widely internalized as an empowering term meant putting your blackness up for questioning.

In addition to the word “nigga,” there were many things that established camaraderie in the community I lived in. People found a sense of kinship in their love of basketball, b-bop dancing, hip-hop and soul food. These activities are more than individual elements of inner-city living; together they are components of black identity.

When I moved out of the projects and into the Poconos and attended a school where I was the only black person in my class, everyone abided by an unspoken rule: Black people could use the words and white people couldn’t.

Many contend that a double standard between black and white people using the n-word should not exist. However, in order to fully comprehend why black people feel so strongly about white people not saying “nigger,” or “nigga” for that matter, one must explore not just the word, but the elements of black culture that have been usurped by white culture.

Evidence of white people usurping black culture for profit can be found in the music industry. Elvis and Eminem are examples of this phenomenon.

Eminem may have experienced some of the poverty black rappers discuss in their lyrics, but he represents a shift from the inherent blackness that is associated with hip-hop music. And white America loves him. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, Eminem, having sold 25 million albums, is rap’s second best-selling act, trailing the deceased Tupac Shakur by 11 million records. And with Shakur’s posthumous releases fewer and farther between, it is likely that he will soon be outpaced by his white counterpart.

Elvis Presley also profited from a sound and a look that drew largely from black culture. Elvis, in perfecting his craft, openly admitted to borrowing liberally from his black contemporaries. In January 2004, the RIAA confirmed that he had become the best-selling solo music artist in U.S. history.

To call this phenomenon cultural robbery is no understatement. And although we live in a melting pot where borrowing is accepted, the exploitation of elements unique to a specific culture is to be frowned upon.

Similarly, white people using “nigger” and its variations is tantamount to the usurpation of black culture; it is profiting from a tool created by blacks, out of necessity, to endure the hardships associated with living in a racist society.

Adding insult to injury, the word “nigger” was invented by white people to denigrate black people. It was used during a time when black people were thought to be inferior to white people, and the word “nigger” is a verbal expression of that inferiority. The word “nigga,” an adaptation of the word “nigger,” has been reclaimed to go against everything that the innovators of this word meant to establish.

The pioneers who meant for this reclamation of the word “nigger” to be an affirmation for black people did not intend for white people to use it. Today, when the word is used among white people, there is an overwhelming sense that resonates throughout the black community that all has been forgotten, that perhaps the racism that was an everyday occurrence before and during the days of Martin Luther King Jr. could possibly repeat itself.

In order for us to have hope in upholding his dream, we must never forget. We must use what we remember to bring about change in our everyday lives.

E-mail Rose at sba1@pitt.edu.