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>>The N word is mainly a general term to describe a group of people and does not distinguish between types of people.<<

Au contraire, mon ami. Nope, nope, nope. The "N word"? You mean NIGGER. Well, that's fairly a revisionist and easy thing to say but it is untrue. What is going to follow (copyright 1995) is LONG (and I mean LONG) so sit down with a glass of Kool-Aid (or Snapple for those who prefer a stronger drink) if you plan on reading it in one sitting!

To borrow a term from Tomi Morrison's BELOVED, a bit form my own rememory: My adopted mother, Grace, ever the soul of gentleness and quiet wisdom was engaged in a verbal rigamarole with my father, Joel. They rarely argued but the day after my fifth birthday was quite extraodinary as it was the first and last time I ever heard her say the word "nigger."

Many of you are probably familar with the trappings: somewhere during the course of their argument, my father managaed to utter something stupid. Somthing so incredibly stupid, in fact, that even my five-year old ears picked up on it.And Mama, with a projectile poised in mid-air, stopped, placed her free hand on her hip and said with exasperation, "Nigguh, please."

You see, when my mother called my father a "nigguh" (the difference between that and "nigger" being a function of dialect, not definition) the word was indeed coddled in endearment but sharpened with a mild, but POWERFUL rebuke. What she said in so so few words was "My husband, I love you dearly, but you have tried my patience to the limit of what I as your wife, your friend and your other half is willing to take at this time, this moment, right now---which is why I'm trying my best to knock you upside your knuckled head. But what you just fixed your lips to say is too ridiculous for any colored man of reasonable intelligence and good sense to utter out loud in this world and expect to survive. And you need you need to know that as crazy as you are making me right this here minute, I still love you more and better than anyone else, not just because I am your wife, your friend and your companion, but because I, too, must share this world with you."

Grace reminded Joel of something he should have instinctively known. Something too many of us have seemed to have forgotten.

Disturbingly, we continue to call ourselves "nigger this" and "nigga that" at an alarming rate. Thanks to a generous dosage of historical disconnection, misinformation, disinformation and the influence of rappers and hip-hip-hippity hoppers seemingly addicted to some "bitch-nigga-ho" drug, "niggerism" has taken on a bold and dangerous life.

Let's cut through the pleasantries and tired excuses like "nigger is slang," "this is a reflection of the hood," and "it's just something I call my boyz/girlz." Whatever. Those reasons and others like them are no more than simple-minded excuses for people unwilling to take responsibility for their actions, words and consequences. Instead many offer flimsy explanations like the ones above or attempt to delve into some intellectually retarded nonsense about if we are able to call each other niggers, then we will become more "empowered" by its very [public] utterance a la Paul Mooney to the ridiculous assertion that Blacks, like homosexuals with the term "queer", are appropriating the word for their own purposes. In either case, the result is the same: on some collective subconcious level, we have accepted what the larger society always said we were. Otherwise, how else could we become so "empowered" by adressing each other with a racial epithet if we didn't believe it's true on some level? Leave the entymology aside and let academics wrestle with the question "nigger"'s origins. THE INDISPUTABLE FACT THAT IS STILL TOO DIFFICULT FOR MANY OF US TO GRASP is that Nigger and its variations has meant historically and in most cases presently Black folk in America.

Historically, nigger meant the WE were considered, treated and called lazy, ignorant, stupid, deserving enslavement and later disenfranchisement, not worthy of legal protection and less important than a household pet. But let's be brutally honest about it while we are at it: tens of thouands of US Black people---men, women, AND children---were beaten, raped, castrated and/or murdered with "nigger" being last word they heard. If you you think all that dried up when Martin Luther King had his dream, ask Michael Griffths who was chased onto a Queens expressway or Yusef Hawkins or the brother who was set on fire in Florida a few years ago or the brother who was killed after trying to "integrate" Tyler, Texas. This is not a list of isolated incidents, but examples of phenomena that continues to this day. Does anyone TRULY believe that the 450 year-old slate has been wiped clean by a 10 year-old multicultural eraser?

To twist an old question about a tree and a forest, if a white person calls you a nigger and you are nowhere around, aren't they still talking about you?

Many people counter my position by saying that Blacks, particularly our youth, are rejecting "classic" interpretations and applications of this word and redefining its meaning for their own purposes. That would be fine if they knew WHAT they were rejecting (which I belive the vast majority of those niggering it up do not). Reclamation implies previous ownership and ownership implies either that creation or we purchase. Yet the historical records show that we were the ones being purchased. And, in today's increasingly hostile political climate,we may be the ones who are reclaimed....if we are not vigilant and careful.

It is indeed curious that we are the ONLY group in this country who agressively uses oppressor-created labels of hatred and marginalization as "terms of endearment" when other groups eschew similar labels, including the majority of homosexuals who still view "faggot" as a term of scorn. ("Queer" or "gay" has never had the historical/social impact or legacy of "nigger" and are faulty comparisons. Indeed, no comparisons are valid, as this should never be posed as my-oppression-is-equal to/worse than-yours.) I believe this is a matter of personal choic and as a person and publisher, I hold freedom of speech paramount. Yet the embrace of personal liberty, devoid of personal responsibility and its larger ramifications and/or consequences, is anamolous to the positive historical legacy of Africans and their descendants in America. To put it another way, we have always needed each other for survival. And looking out for each other with the knowledge that survival is rooted in respect and that to have called another brother or sister a "nigger", "bitch" or "hoe" was more disgraceful for the caller than the called. But the popular use of these terms only means that too many of us have become mired in comfortable stupidity. And that is surely confirmed with the nearly blind forgiveness of the Mike Tysons of the world.

This is not about white people (the Southern Baptist congregation's "apology" for slavery and racism notwithstanding). I do not see the Klan around every corner or a hardcore racist in every face I see. This is about how we truly see ourselves. To adopt the slavemaster's labels and to make excuses for them is to, in effect, embrace the slavemaster's vision of the world and our place in it. If not, why would so many of us call each other a term rooted in slavery and oppression of our descendents and people not so far removed from us? Are we so screwed up that we have to use a euphemism to call each other "brotha" or "sista" instead of calling each other "brotha" or "sista"?

Be clear about it: too much blood--the red flowing blood of Black folk---has flowed as the price of admission to these American shores. "Nigger" was printed on the tickets called shackles and "Nigger" was the boarding call that forced our ancestors on the slaveships that brought them over here. No, we aren't slaves. But each time we call each other "nigger" or "nigga" or whatever as terms of so-called endearment, we desecrate and dishonor the memories and spirits of those who came before us. It is our duty and our call to accord our ancestors a better place in our collective memories than any money-hungry comedian, dimwitted rapper, or blind revisionist has accorded them thus far.

Your brother in the struggle, Bernard (who is winded and out of breath)

"Let us redefine progress: just because we can do a thing does not mean that we must do that thing."---President of Earth. played by Kurtwood Smith in Star Trek VI: the Undiscovered Country

"You cannot go through life dispensing garbage and then hand out air fresheners."--Anthony Bouvier to Suzanne Sugarbaker on Designing Women

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Last updated: 08 January 1996 by Chuck Tarver