I am a product of the hip-hop generation. I grew up with the music -- it told my story, played the soundtrack to my life experiences. I was in awe of the skill and talent it took to forge Busta Rhymes’ creative flow or Jay-Z’s punchlines or Chuck D.’s political verses.
Then corporate America got ahold of hip-hop, and the culture got corrupted into this caricature of brown people in general and the ‘hood specifically (because, unbeknownst to lots of folks, we don’t all live in the so-called ‘hood). Hip-hop became a money-maker, a spectacle of the black community. Suburban white kids who knew as much about living in the streets of Brooklyn or Compton as a Muslim knows about cooking pork roast were given what they thought was a bird’s eye view into true life. With their unofficial hip-hop ‘hood pass, people started to believe it was okay to start tossing around the N-word.
Ugh. That friggin’ N-word. No matter who says it, it's an embarrassment. I’m disgusted and humiliated down to my socks whenever someone brandishes it all loud out in public. Needless to say, I find myself peeved on the daily, given that I live in a neighborhood swimming with 1) old playas who can’t let go of their smooth-talking pimp daddy days, like they’re part of the cast of a continuously running blaxploitation flick, and 2) young knuckleheads who have no clue what a blaxploitation flick is because they have no connection to their history or culture, aside from what’s crammed down their throats during class trips to D.C. landmarks like Frederick Douglass’ home. Kids toss that term around with the same effortlessness that normal people might use for ‘weather’ or ‘lunch date.’
But when I hear white kids say it, it makes my blood boil even hotter.
A few days ago, I was praying my way through a ride on public transportation, which is always an adventure in wrong-ness. A cluster of teenagers, my arch nemeses in the tiny confinement of a subway car because they’re generally loud, brash, and disrespectful, were being — you guessed it — loud, brash, and disrespectful. One of them, the ringleader in the band of wolves, hollered some joke over to his friend two seats away that he punctuated with the N-word.
This kid throwing around that infamous epithet didn’t even qualify to be called one in the ol’ school kind of way. He was white. A white boy calling his black friend a nigga.
I leaned over, narrowed my eyes, and told him that that was the worst thing to come out of his mouth since he parked his rude rear end in the handicapped seat. Then I engaged him in an intense Q&A that had him scurrying off the train one stop ahead of his scheduled exit. What did that word mean to him? I asked. Why did he say it?
“Because my friends say it,” he mumbled into his collar.
“But you know that doesn’t make it right, don’t you? Just because you hear someone else say it doesn’t make it okay. It’s a hurtful word. It’s a trifling word. It’s a word you shouldn’t be saying, especially if you don’t know what it means,” I fired back.
I know the kid didn’t know any better. I also know he’s still saying it when he’s out of earshot of crazy ladies on the train and in the familiar easiness of his circle of black friends because they’re still saying it because they hear their parents and neighbors and most certainly their favorite rappers saying it. That word is so ingrained in some circles of black culture that you can’t go far without being accosted by it — the barbershop, the hair salon, the mechanic’s garage. And don’t go to a sporting event or a nightclub and think it won’t slap you across the back of the head. We’re dealing with centuries of conditioning that told us we’re niggers, and a whole heap of us have ever-so-happily embraced it in an effort to take power from the expression.
But for us conscious enough to know better, the N-word still flexes its mighty offensive muscle, particularly when it comes out of the mouths of kids who remind us where the word came from in the first place.
Do you think the N-word should still carry a social stigma in this day and age, or is it just another term that’s lost its impact, like “bitch”?
Image via salty_soul/Flickr
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Comments 92
I've heard arguments over the years that allowing the N word to become a part of popular culture desensitizes it--it takes the power of the word and hatred away. And I completely and totally disagree. Because no matter who uses it, whether it's a stupid teenager who doesn't know any better, or David Duke, it still means the same thing.
It's an ugly word, and should ALWAYS be treated as such.
i think that the "black" community has made the N word acceptable to eachother, but why should it be ok for some but not others. They took it out of a classic story (forget which one right now, pregnancy brain) because it was offesive but still. I think our society needs to accept it or band it. I believe it has lost any kind of meanning. If im not mistaken doesnt it mean uneducated....look at the true meaning of the word, just like b!tch means a female dog. its one of those things where no one wants to say anything because they dont want to offend anyone...i have nothing against anyone for their color, but i do have something against attitudes of people which sad enough effects more of some races than other, but not all
It's a terrible word that I wish could somehow be banned. I am white and I can't stand to hear anyone say it. I dont care what color you are, you will be treated how you act and display yourself. Unfortunately we live in a world where the race card will always have place to played. It all starts at home with our children. I have two daughters ages 5 & 3. My oldest is in pre-k. She knows there are kids in her class of different colors. She is being taught the color has nothing to do with the person, we all were made the same and deserve to be treated with the same respect and love. Don't judge a book by it's cover. It's not the color of your skin that should matter but how big your heart is.
i think that if the black community wants teh word to go away, they should stop using it themselves. why is it okay for a black kid to call anohter black kid the n word but if a white person says it that same black kid reacts like the white kid just spit on his mother? i don't use it. i dont' approve of it. i dont' allow my children to use it. but i can't seem to explain to them why when they hear the black kids use it. "if its so bad, why do they say it?" is the question i can't answer. And, so, the word will live on. the black community needs to do what most of the white community seems to have done and stop using it. i live in the south. i know maybe 3 people who use the word. and all of them live in the "ghetto."
I'm white, but I hate the N word too. I also hate it when women call each other "bitch" or the C word. The words are degrading and insulting. Why can't we all just treat each other with respect???