The N Word
I have a feeling that this topic is going to cause a pretty heated debate. I can feel it in my loins.
I expect fireworks based on the title alone, and once we get into the meat of this topic, I believe disagreement and debate will commence once I decide to state my opinion, which won’t take long. All I’mma say is, y’all be nice, and come with some good material. Since I’m supplying the bulk of it, I’ll set this off properly.
AAANNNNDDDD…
First things first, let’s briefly discuss where the word actually comes from, and for that we’ll have to travel back to a language long considered dead: Latin.
Latin is the mother language of all the world’s major conquerers, from Juan Ponce de León, Vasco Núñez de Balboa and Spain, to Christopher Columbus (who was Italian, but sailed for Spain, since they had that bag to give him), and Amerigo Vespucci and Italy. People often believe that this is the true beginning of the word, and that the interpretation of it comes directly from the Latin descendant speaking countries, but it does not. The origin actually stretches back even further than that.
Enter Egypt, and how the word actually came about.
There’s a lot more on that page, but the N word, which had become so synonymous with a negative description of black people originally meant “God” in Egyptian, widely considered to be the starting point of any type of modern civilization.
Wait, so how did a word that meant, quite literally, “God,” become so derogatory?
White people, that’s how.
Moving on..
The real reason why we’re here, now that we have all that history out the way, I want to get to why I’m actually here. Now that black people have “reclaimed” the word “nigga” (and ask your grandparents, because I’m positive they will disagree with that premise, opting not to say the word at all, but that’s another conversation,)
WHO GETS TO SAY IT??
This is a great question to ask anyone remotely in tune with the culture of black people, because there are plenty of people who will interject at the asking of this question and say things like:
“Why can’t everybody say it?”
“It’s just a word, so why does it have so much power?”
“Why do only black people get to say the word? If everyone can’t use the word, then nobody should be using the word.”
“If you don’t let everyone say it, then you’re doing the same thing as white people.”
Well, all of those questions are bullshit, in my opinion. My feeling about the word nigga is, firstly, black people, and black people alone, get to make the call on whether or not they want anyone else to use the word. Due to it being stolen from black people to begin with, and it being a term of extreme degradation that American society as we know it was built upon (and if you don’t believe me, go watch documentaries like “The 13th” ), as we “reclaimed” nigga, we get to determine whether or not we get to use the word or not. If you are verifiably black, then it is your choice to say the word, verifiable meaning someone in your recent family tree is black (going back no further than your grandparents), then feel free to make a decision on whether or not you wanna use the word. Otherwise, you get no say at all, period.
People like Fat Joe (who is Puerto Rican and Cuban) clearly doesn’t say that he’s black (he has said he is Boricua to the core) do not have the ability to speak on black people and what they should they do, nor do they actually get to say the word nigga. He has made some good points, such as stating that Caribbean countries are more in tune with their African roots than Black Americans are (which is absolutely true, due to the fact that those countries had slaves from specific countries that they could name. American Black people, however, do not know offhand where their ancestors are from, which causes us to be disconnected from the motherland,) but the point that because he is a part of the culture means that he gets to say nigga is absolutely wrong. African blood is not the deciding factor, because we ALL have African blood coursing through our veins, because we all are descendants of the Motherland. If that was the deciding factor, then everyone could say it, and they can’t. They like to say that people from the islands are the same as black people because slaves landed on those islands, but they conveniently forget that those islands were inhabited by people before the slaves got there. The presence of slaves does not mean that bloodlines were directly intermixed with the slaves, leading to them actually having black in their blood. With that in mind, there are people from the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean Islands that are not black, even though there was a large contingent of slaves there, meaning they don’t get to say the word as well.
Part of saying the word “nigga” is simply being black. The other part is buying into the black experience as a black person. Some black people just don’t “feel” black, and some outwardly reject the black experience. Taye Diggs is someone that comes to mind as someone who is black, but does not accept his blackness. So, how can you comment on what black people should be doing, and how black people move, when it’s clear that you don’t even want to be black? If you heard someone like Taye Diggs say nigga, wouldn’t it feel awkward? Wouldn’t you look to see who said that, and wonder why he said it? Or Candace Owens, for example. As black as she is, because she sides with those who are actively trying to harm the very black people she claims to love, if she was to say it, I know I would look at her sideways, because how are you actively engaging in black things, and not want to be a part of the black experience? It’s not just about the color of your skin, but whether or not you actually want to buy into your blackness, and accept that you are a part of it.
Done with the that one, finally. That was a lot, and it took a lot to get that out. I am passionate about the things that I do (especially stuff like this), and I wanted to start this off with something that would really get us talking.