The N Word, in My Humble Point of View

This past semester, I was assigned a final position paper for my Exposition and Persuasion class, and I chose to write about the "N" word. It's something I've gained a weird passion for, and that I feel really strongly about. A few people have shown interest in reading it, so I decided to post it here for all to see! Feel free to let me know what you think.

Growing up, I knew little about this word other than that it was a relic of America’s intensely racist past, and at the time I was naïve enough to believe that it had been buried, dead and gone, long ago – just like racism. So one can imagine my surprise when, while standing with my friends on the playground during recess, one of them commented on the braided hairstyle of another girl who had just passed us by saying, “She looks like a nigger.”

I had never heard the word said aloud, and I never expected that I would hear it among a circle of so-called friends, and that those friends – who were all white, next to me, the sole black girl in the entire class – would say nothing in response to this. The few nanoseconds of awkward silence that followed the other girl’s laughter was enough to prompt me to turn on my heel and walk away in the opposite direction. I was lucky, I would later realize, that my first real-life encounter with the hateful world was not directed at me or hurled as an insult (although the sneer and laugh with which she spoke was clue enough that to look like a nigger was not a good thing). It’s very possible that other black students in a vastly white environment would not fare so well; some others at my school could testify to that.

It also did not take long until I discovered that, outside of my sheltered life in small-town Indiana, the word had not died with the Civil Rights Movement. It lives on not only in its original use and meaning, but also in the black community with its variant “nigga”. Usage in this context spans from blacks addressing one another as a term of endearment, to branding other blacks in the same negative light as its predecessor. Perfectly explained by TIME Ideas writer Touré, “Nigga is nigger with an ironic twist, but the venom is still in its fangs” (Touré, 2011). Today in 21^st century America, the word is used far too carelessly among blacks and whites alike, because so many are out-of-touch with the racial issues that face America today. Because the Civil Rights Movement is 40 years behind us, because an African-American president now leads our country, equality has been achieved – that’s how it might seem, anyway. But anyone with more than general understanding of America’s racial history knows that the enslavement and degradation of an entire race for centuries cannot be overturned with an act of legislation, or even in the years that follow it. Racism is far and well alive today, and because of that, the pain in which the N word was founded cannot be forgotten easily, if ever, and is only “just a word” to the people who lack an understanding of the deep and extensive history of racism, racial disparity, and white supremacy in America. My position is that only blacks have the authority to use the word for whatever purpose, and that the use of it by any other racial group should be discouraged as it is directly offensive to the centuries’ worth of blacks who suffered as second-class citizens in America.

The N word is thought to have originated as a deliberate slur of “Negro,” or the variations thereof (niger, neger, etc.) which early white American brandished blacks with to mark and remind them of their lower status (Kennedy, 2004). Randall Kennedy’s essay “A Note on the Word Nigger” (2004) quotes Hosea Easton who in 1837 wrote:

[Nigger] is an opprobrious term, employed to impose contempt upon [blacks] as an inferior race…The term itself would be perfectly harmless were it used only to distinguish one class from another; but it is not used with that intent…it flows from the fountain of purpose to injure (Kennedy, 2004).

To examine the word, there must be a thorough examination of race implications throughout American history, which is an admittedly overwhelming task. Jabari Asim’s book The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn’t, and Why (2007) is an excellent, while somewhat depressing, journey through the reality of black oppression in America. It turns on its head the notion that slavery was a sore spot of American history that merely happened, that black oppression was an unfortunate aspect of our journey as a nation, that the Civil Rights Movement resulted in equality, and that we have now moved on. What history tends to gloss over, perhaps in embarrassment, when it comes to matters of protest or rebellion is the wrongful system and governance which made that protest necessary. The N Word instead spells out history for what it is: a deliberate oppression of all people of color, especially blacks, in the name of the so-called natural superiority of the white race (Asim, 2007).

The racism blacks experienced went far beyond just enslavement; free blacks, of course, faced mounting discrimination, ridicule, and oftentimes fatal violence. After emancipation, racism suffered no casualties; it only transfigured itself, taking on new shapes and forms. Ferris State University’s “Nigger and Caricatures” (2001) highlights the demeaning portrayals of blacks beyond the Civil War, associating them with negative stereotypes and Jim Crow-type caricatures such as “Coon” and “Mammy” – as well as how “nigger” was integrated into them all, a continually-present reminder of black inferiority (Middleton & Pilgrim, 2001).

But the N word has never just been a tool used solely by whites to demean blacks. As early as the 1830s, there were reports of the word employed among blacks to refer to each other, not unlike how “nigga” has taken off in recent decades as a term of endearment. But back then, the N word was just as often used by blacks in the same vein as by whites: as a declaration of black inferiority, used in reference to lower-class blacks, especially dark blacks, and newly-arrived southern immigrants (Asim, 2007). This correlates with the many implications of the N word and its variants that were in no way directed toward blacks, but were always used with negative meanings: “nigger” as a verb meant “to wear out, spoil or destroy”; “nigger luck” was exceptionally good luck that was particularly undeserved; “nigger work” was a demeaning, menial task. Essentially, “nigger” could be tacked onto any word or phrase to lower its meaning or associate it with blacks (Middleton & Pilgrim, 2001). “Nigger is the ultimate American insult…Jews are called white-niggers; Arabs, sandniggers; or Japanese, yellow-niggers” (Middleton & Pilgrim, 2001). These are prime examples of the deep and pervasive racism that birthed this ugly slur.

Of course, the N word has evolved since the dawn of its usage. Blacks in America have made grand strides toward equality, especially in the latter half of the 20^th century with the Civil Rights Movement. In fact, America today has a much stranger relationship with the word. In its “true” form (“nigger,” as opposed to “nigga”), the word rarely appears in a racist context like it used to, with the exception of it being preserved in some literary works – Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a primary example. The N word appears throughout its pages a whopping 215 times (Asim, 2007). In recent years, controversy has arisen over copies of Huck Finn that replaced the racial epithet with “slave” to make them more suitable for classroom use. But what those who decide to censor books, like these, fail to see is that the word is used deliberately, and as in all literature and artwork, context is important. Removing such a word from a book set in a time where it was used regularly is, on a small scale, rewriting history. As stated in “Huck Finn and the N Word: Taking it out doesn’t educate,” from the Anniston Star, “Replace the N-word with ‘slave’ and you take the story out of its context, a time when casual conversation revealed how little the lives of black people were valued, beyond their labor.” (Anniston Star, 2011). Context is important regarding the N word – it essentially clarifies its meaning. In the 1800s and much of the 1900s, it would be no surprise to hear it scathingly directed at blacks, and it would not be out of the ordinary. This is what history and literature teaches us, and it defines how and why the N word is not acceptable today – it’s about us moving toward equality.

Today in America, not only is the N word least widespread in its racist usage, but it is most popular among blacks. As mentioned earlier, “nigga” is often employed within the black community casually as a term of endearment, favored over more neutral terms of past decades, like “brother.” It’s ironic among blacks, using a word that has caused them so much pain at the hands of whites and putting it in a positive context. This is the only use of the word that I can support – I feel it is the right of the black community to use or not use the word however they like. But that doesn’t erase the problematic implications that occur as the word has gained popularity, not just in the black community, but in mainstream society, through the vessel of hip-hop music.

The N word broke into the mainstream media when gangsta rap group N.W.A. (Niggas Wit Attitude) released “Straight Outta Compton.” Among lyrical appearances of violence and drugs, N.W.A. employed a generous application of the N word – it was counted on the record 46 times (Asim, 2007). N.W.A.’s “Niggaz for Life” begins “Why do I call myself a nigger, you ask me?” In The N Word, Asim writes about their answer to this question: “In their [N.W.A.’s] view, blacks will be called ‘nigger’ by the larger society no matter what they accomplish … so there’s little purpose in trying to shake off the word” (Asim, 2007). Even while not agreeing with this view, the sentiment is understandable. Fighting with the word, distancing oneself from it, seems impossible and unnecessary when considering one can instead grab hold of it, like N.W.A. and many modern hip-hop artists have, and shape it into something new. Reclaiming the N word – “nigga” – is precisely what some African Americans have done. And with the word appearing on the tracks of hip-hop artists more often than not, the spread of “nigga” has easily crossed over ethnic and color lines.

I have personally encountered many people who hold the opinion that it is unfair that “blacks can use the word, and whites can’t.” But this view, again, suffers from a lack of contextual understanding. The difference between whites and non-blacks saying “nigga” is that blacks use it in an ironic sense, since the word is something that has scarred them for centuries. Even the newest generations know of the disparity of blacks vs. whites; our place in society is instilled in us and is not easy to ignore, even without a full knowledge of the history of our struggle – because racism and discrimination is still very much something blacks experience in the present day. The irony immediately disappears when “nigga” is used by whites or non-blacks, regardless of its friendly context. The irony is in blacks using it positively. American society is not yet at a place where racial tension is so eased and racial inequality is irrelevant that use by whites is non-offensive or can be treated the same as when it is spoken by blacks, regardless of how “positively-intended” it is. This often results in the claim that, ‘If we want equality, we should treat everyone the same way.’ However noble this ideology, it undermines the extensive pursuit of equality by African-Americans for centuries. It also somewhat offensively disregards the differences between races and cultures, especially differences between African-American culture and the broader, “white” American culture. We are equal, but we are different. Employing the same code of conduct across the racial spectrum certainly undermines those differences – and blinding oneself to those differences does not eliminate them.

Finally, the only way to ensure a proper understanding of the N word among all people is to open intelligent discourse about it. That is precisely what Neal A. Lester of Arizona University did. He has taught two college courses on the N word in order to delve into the complexities of it, to examine and discuss how one word came to be the most painful in the American lexicon. In an interview, “Straight Talk about the N Word” for Tolerance Magazine (2011), Lester talks about how the ignorance of much of the history fosters the spread of the word, most especially among youth, and how important it is that discussion and teaching about the word occurs: “There’s no way to know all of its nuances because it’s such a complicated word, a word with a particular racialized American history,” Lester says. “But one way of getting at it is to have some critical and historical discussions about it and not pretend that it doesn’t exist” (Price, 2011).

To conclude, I think that one single, standard rule about the usage of the N word among all people – something I formerly believed in – is inefficient. I do, however, believe that the widespread use of it in modern society, most of which is triggered by the continually-rising popularity of hip-hop music, is far too gratuitous in nature. Even if the music is created to mirror reality, it is only the reality of black Americans that is portrayed, but black Americans are by far not the sole audience. The complexities of the word and its implications are ignored far and wide, and I have personally encountered many white teenagers calling each other “niggas,” which is disconcerting. Most of them were not racist, they were simply ignorant. Having likely heard the word more often in the music they listen to than in a racist context, they lack the depth of understanding of what this word really means. Because no matter how hard one may try, there is no word that equals the power of “nigger”, and it did not achieve that power overnight.

“Nigger” is the permanent stamp of the hatred, degradation, enslavement, pain, torture, suffering, and more that African Americans have faced from the moment they were first shipped to North America and sold into slavery. Even over two hundred years later, the remnants of the racial hierarchy upon which this country was founded have yet to fade; therefore, when a white person utters “nigger,” regardless of how they say it or what they intend by it, the damage is done. The word is an automatic reminder of the endless and continual pain experienced by the people who suffered at the very bottom of society and were forced to crawl their way up to reach the threshold of equality. There has been no greater insult to anyone than to call them a nigger, which exemplifies how deep racial disparity goes – reminding us that the worst thing you can be in this country is black.