omega 616 said:
Here's a little something I typed up on this very thing roughly a year ago. I keep it on my PC just in instances like this. It's badly worded, has minor grammatical errors, but most people agree that it is on point. Now, I should start off by saying, I do not agree that racism would disappear if one group of people stopped saying one word. I believe that one issue would end if everyone understood the difference between the current use of that word, and hypocrites who use it, would stop being hypocrites. Ending racism would take more than just redefining a word.
Anyway onto the paper:
Let us take a look at a word I and a rather large amount of black people use. Of course I mean 'the N word'. I'm sure we all know how it was used aggressively back during the United States slavery years and how it can still cause a big stir to this day. But not a lot of people have looked at its evolution into a rather less offensive form. Now before I get into that, I need to clarify that ****** is not inherently offensive. In certain areas of the world people use ****** or words that sound close to it as a non-offensive descriptor. There is no racist connotation with it, it?s just another way of saying ?black person? or ?person with dark skin?. But in most if not all English speaking nations it is offensive. No one truly uses that word with good intention and no matter what the dictionary suggests it is ALWAYS directed at one race and to that race as a whole. Not saying the word is strictly evil in and of itself, but that it is almost never used for anything other than evil.
When people say or even think that word they think of a black person. Why? Because that is the race it was created to degrade. I see so many times -usually over the internet- that -mostly white- people try to justify their use of it with the dictionary's description, which states that it means ?someone of any race that is lazy and/or ignorant?. But then these people go on to use the word exclusively for black people. Not only are they contradicting themselves, but they are hiding behind that definition so they can have an excuse to use racist insults.
Now onto evolution, this word descended from the words negro (Spanish: black) and niger (Latin: color black). With that in mind it's easy to see how the word became wildly used a few hundred years ago. And since it was always used offensively it became a slur, but as time passed even the slaves started using it. However, the 'er' sound was dropped off the edge, replaced with an 'a' sound and the word was pronounced 'nig-uh'. This was done through constant mistranslation by the slaves themselves, due to English not being their first language and to a lack of education on proper pronunciation. This method changed the meaning for some. Others believe the changing of the 'er' doesn't affect the meaning: Brother- Brotha ; Sister- Sista; Mother- Motha etc.
But I think, like to, two, and too the words may look and sound the same, but they have different meanings and different uses. I live in an area where practically every black person I have met uses that word. And whenever we use it, it is used as a pronoun mostly for men or a group of people in general. It is also synonymous with other male pronouns like dude, brother, sir, guy etc. For example, you can replace that word in any rap song with a different male pronoun and it would not change the meaning of the song at all.
Example:
Niggas out here are crazy.-- People out here are crazy.
That nigga is crazy. -- That man is crazy.
I'm looking for that nigga, Jeff. -- I'm looking for that dude, Jeff.
It is used as a male pronoun, because even when women use it, they don't direct it to each other. They direct it towards men.
Example:
I'm looking for a real nigga.-- I'm looking for a real man.
It can even be used for males of different races, but it is usually accompanied with their race because, like the original term, when used people automatically think black. (That is due to the word itself being used largely by black people, to refer to black men.)
Example:
Where's that white nigga, Brandon?
Where's that white dude, Brandon?
This term is less offensive because, over the ages black people were able to remove a good amount of the hate from the word by dropping the 'er' and spreading it around as a regular pronoun for all races. I, myself, am comfortable with people of any race to using nigga around me if they understand the differences and can use it in non-offensive terms.
What most people of the... uhm... lighter skin tone seem to believe is that nigga is used as a term of endearment between black folk. Nope. Not true. No one every goes "OMG, he called me a nigga! That means we're best friends now!" Yes, the word can be used in a friendly way, but that is because the word isn't offensive between friends or between people who use the word themselves.
Example: That's my nigga.-- That's my man.-- That's my pal.-- That's my buddy.
But with all that you may think, ?Why can?t ****** have multiple meanings? Why can?t it evolve from only affecting black people to affecting everyone else as well??
That is because over the centuries since its inception it has always been exclusive and continues to remain so. Again, no one uses that slur for any race other than black. If the word began to change its meaning centuries ago, it may very well have become something that could be used for any race. But it didn?t change. It is continually used to target the people it was created to degrade. It can?t be used widely, because people never started using it widely.
You may also think, ?Why not just stop using ****** and nigga altogether? Since there is so much confusion over their proper use why not just get rid of them from the English language?? It is my firm belief that no words are inherently bad, but how we use them can add a negative social stigma to them. Just like how the harmless words negro and niger were transformed into something socially regarded as horrible.
But don't think because one person is okay with the term that the next person will be. Just because I allow my friends to do it around me doesn't mean the next black guy will like to see them using it. I know a large group of black people who use it daily, yet will jump at the chance to scream "racist" to a white person who uses it. I know black people who don't use it at all, just because they feel no need to. Hell, I know black people who'll go on a gigantic speech on why we shouldn't use it because of its past history. There are hypocrites everywhere, but most importantly of all, different people will take offense to different things.
