Nigger. The debate surrounding who can say it, when, why, and in what circumstances rages on as it has for decades. The argument, we all know, is not centering on first amendment considerations, but on social boundaries and history.
Chris Rock, who obviously has few qualms with using the epithet himself, attempted to tackle the issue in his HBO special, “Kill the Messenger”.
As for white people, Rock advises:
“The only time a white person can say nigga is if it’s Christmas Eve between 4:30 and 4:49 am, and you’re on your way to get your kid the last Transformer doll and right before you walk in, some black person pushes you, smacks you in the head, Riverdances on your head, takes your money, pisses on you, and runs away. If you’re white, THEN you can say, ’somebody STOP that nigga!!’”
Obviously we all won’t view his humor the same way (I laughed), but it can’t be denied that Rock is pointing at the complicated unspoken social rules that surround the word. Though some may find it surprising, rules regarding who is “allowed” to say the “n-word” aren’t always agreed upon along racial lines. The debate in the black community has even broken down to the micro-level with the differences between “nigga” and “nigger” being examined. Cornel West, a black American philosopher, author, critic, pastor, and civil rights activist (a man renowned for being “one of the world’s most influential intellectuals”) states,
“I hope that rap musicians and hip-hop artists become more sensitive to the vicious history of the “N word.” That I know…that “nigga” as opposed to “nigger” is a term of endearment for some young people. But the history of “nigger” with its connotation of self-hatred and self-disrespect needs to be acknowledged.”
Many other black Americans argue strongly in favor of the word’s continued use with a growing number of white Americans itching to join the nigger-spouting bandwagon. If not arguing for future personal use, many white people argue with a focus on the principles of the matter: their right to say whatever they please….especially when black people do.
Mr. Rock views this as a matter of trade-offs and bennies:
“See the way I see it, the people with the most shit, get to say the least shit. And the people with the least shit, get to say the most shit. So if you want to say more shit, get rid of some of your shit…You scream nigga and I’ll raise interest rates”
Take that for what you will.
A Professor I had my freshman year viewed this, instead, as a matter of labeling rights. She subscribed to the belief that every individual has the right to label themselves. That self-labeling, she suggested, does not need to be consistent in the eyes of others, does not need justification, and does not only apply to words that are socially acceptable. Obviously such a right is not without consequence, especially in the case of race and with the use of the word “Nigger”. The bottleneck question Americans on both sides of the argument always seem to focus on is why is it “ok” for black people to use this word and not white people. Bruce Jacobs, author of Race Manners, addresses the issue by first making the point that it is inherently risky to make any pronouncement about how people should and should not refer to themselves. Such judgment, he argues “implies an ability to read people’s minds and understand what they *mean* when they embrace a certain word. He likens playing with one’s own stereotypes to playing with knives; whether you emerge cut or unscathed has to do with much more than words.
The complexities behind the use of “Nigger/a” in the black community over time, Jacobs points out, are worth considering. In the 1980’s rap stylings of NWA and early Ice-T, “nigga” emerged as a word that signified being the ultimate outlaw, “being an armed desperado with the power to destroy oneself before white society could do the
job.” As Jacobs words it, for a black man to proclaim himself a nigger in this way is to declare to disapproving mainstream society, “You can’t fire me. I quit”. Others, such as black academic and novelist Gloria Naylor, disagree with the argument that the use of the word nigger is an internalization of racism or is a signification of identity-suicide. In her experience, the exact opposite was true. Her family, she wrote, “transformed ‘nigger’ to signify the varied and complex humans they knew themselves to be. “If the word was to disappear totally from the mouths of even the most racist of white society,” she wrote, “no one was naive enough to believe it would disappear from white minds. Meeting the word head-on, they proved it had absolutely nothing to do with the way they were determined to live their lives.”
Others have their own reasons for using the word that outsiders could never begin to know.
Keep in mind that the aforementioned descriptions address black usage of the word. Irrespective of the motives behind black use, Jacobs stands strongly behind his views considering white Americans uttering the epithet.
“If you are white, it is much simpler: use of the word nigger is off limits, unless you happen to be one of the few whites so deeply assimilated into black life that it is not an issue. If you have to ask yourself whether using “Nigger” is ok, it is not. An African American who cries nigger is playing with fire, but it is own property, his identity, that he places at risk. A white American who cries nigger is lighting a blaze in someone else’s house – and will likely be treated as an arsonist”.
The same applies, Jacobs is sure to mention, with white epithets. These things are a matter of property rights, he argues; “No one, black or white, can define the terms of your racial self-respect…if you are white, blackness was never yours to abuse in the first place”, and vice versa.
It should be noted that these property rights don’t start and stop with racial identity.Though the use of the “n-word” by black people is often made out to be a particularly heinous double standard in the scheme of all social interactions, such “double standards” can be seen in most every human exchange. A person may refer to themselves differently with a group of friends than they would with strangers. They may allow their friends to refer to them by their chosen label also. A particularly classy trend among some adolescent girls is to refer to oneself and one’s friends as “bitches”. Whether this is a reflection of some identity struggle is just as much up for debate as the black use of “nigger”, but their right to label themselves as they please should not be in question. It seems reasonable to assume that few of these young women would be pleased to have a stranger (or man) approach them and take the liberty to label them a “bitch”; this man would be treated as an arsonist, as he should be. The tendency to separate racial matters from our every day notions of social rules or human interaction clouds this glaring parallel.
The “nigger” debate points to something so much larger than white and black double standards. This argument is a struggle over who was the right to labels that craft our social identities. When it comes to a word so deeply connected to black American culture, we know whose identity is at stake.
When we find ourselves returning to the “n-word” debate… pondering who owns the volatile label – the who, what, when, where, and why of its utterance – and we face the question resounding in so many of our minds, “Can white people say Nigger?”
We should, perhaps, return to Mr. Rock one last time and listen when he says with his signature grin,
“Not Really.”
Nigger. The debate surrounding who can say it, when, why, and in what circumstances rages on as it has for decades.The argument, we all know, is not centering on first amendment considerations, but on social boundaries and history.
Chris Rock, who obviously has few qualms with using the epithet himself, attempted to tackle the issue in his HBO special, “Kill the Messenger”.
As for white people, Rock advises:
“The only time a white person can say nigga is if it’s Christmas Eve between 4:30 and 4:49 am, and you’re on your way to get your kid the last Transformer doll and right before you walk in, some black person pushes you, smacks you in the head, Riverdances on your head, takes your money, pisses on you, and runs away. If you’re white, THEN you can say, ’somebody STOP that nigga!!’”
Obviously we all won’t view his humor the same way (I laughed), but it can’t be denied that Rock is pointing at the
complicated unspoken social rules that surround the word. Though some may find it surprising, rules regarding who is “allowed” to say the “n-word” aren’t always agreed upon along racial lines. The debate in the black community has even broken down to the micro level with the differences between ni**a and ni**er being examined. Cornel West, a black American philosopher, author, critic, pastor, and civil rights activist (a man renowned for being “one of the world’s most influential intellectuals”) states,
“I hope that rap musicians and hip-hop artists become more sensitive to the vicious history of the “N word.” That I know…that “nigga” as opposed to “nigger” is a term of endearment for some young people. But the history of “nigger” with its connotation of self-hatred and self-disrespect needs to be acknowledged.”
Many other black Americans argue strongly in *favor* of the word’s continued use with a growing number of white Americans itching to join the nigger-spouting bandwagon. If not arguing for future personal use, many white people
argue with a focus on the principles of the matter: their right to say whatever they please….especially when black people do.
Chris views this as a matter of trade-offs and bennies:
“See the way I see it, the people with the most shit, get to say the least shit. And the people with the least shit, get to say the most shit. So if you want to say more shit, get rid of some of your shit…You scream nigga and I’ll raise interest rates”
Take that for what you will.
A Professor I had my freshman year views this, instead, as a matter of labeling rights. She subscribed to the belief that every individual has the right to label themselves. That self-labeling, she suggested, does not need to be consistent in the eyes of others, does not need justification, and does not only apply to words that are socially acceptable. Obviously such a right is not without consequence, especially in the case of race and with the use of the word “Nigger”. The bottleneck question Americans on both sides of the argument always seem to focus on is why is it “ok” for black people to use this word and not white people. Bruce Jacob’s, author of Race Manners, addresses the issue by first making the point that it is *inherently* risky to make any pronouncement about how people should and should not refer to themselves. Such judgment, he argues “implies an ability to read people’s minds and understand what they *mean* when they embrace a certain word. He likens playing with one’s own stereotypes to playing with knives; whether you emerge cut or unscathed has to do with much more than words.
The complexities behind the use of “Nigger/a” in the black community over time, Jacobs points out, are worth
considering. In the 1980’s rap stylings of NWA and early Ice-T, “nigga” emerged as a word that signified being the
ultimate outlaw, “being an armed desperado with the power to destroy oneself before white society could do the
job.” As Jacobs words it, for a black man to proclaim himself a nigger in this way is to declare to disapproving
mainstream society, “You can’t fire me. I quit”. Others, such as black academic and novelist Gloria Naylor,
disagree with the argument that the use of the word nigger is an internalization of racism or is a signification of
identity-suicide. In her experience, the exact opposite was true. Her family, she wrote, “transformed ‘nigger’ to
signify the varied and complex humans they knew themselves to be. If the word was to disappear totally from the
mouths of even the most racist of white society, no one was naive enough to believe it would disappear from white
minds. Meeting the word head-on, they proved it had absolutely nothing to do with the way they were determined to
live their lives.”
Others have their own reasons for using the word that outsiders could never begin to know.
Keep in mind that the aforementioned descriptions address black use of the word. Irrespective of the motives behind black usage, Jacobs stands strongly behind his views considering white Americans uttering the epithet.
“If you are white, it is much simpler: use of the word nigger is off limits, unless you happen to be one of the few whites so deeply assimilated into black life that it is not an issue. If you have to ask yourself whether using “Nigger” is ok, it is not. An African American who cries nigger is playing with fire, but it is own property, his identity, that he places at
risk. A white American who cries nigger is lighting a blaze in someone else’s house – and will likely be treated as an arsonist”.
The same applies, Jacobs is sure to mention, with white epithets. These things are a matter of property rights, he argues; “No one, black or white, can define the terms of your racial self-respect…if you are white, blackness was never yours to abuse in the first place”, and vice versa.
So when we find ourselves pondering who owns this volatile label – the who, what, when, where, and why of its utterance – and we come face to face with the question resounding in so many of our minds,
“Can white people say Nigger?”
We should, perhaps, for once, take Mr. Rock seriously when he says with his signature grin,
“Not Really”.
