Affection Expression or Racial Slur?

Close your eyes and imagine a nigga.  Now look it up on the internet.  Whether you use Google, Bing, Mozilla Firefox, or Yahoo—I dare you.  What do you see?  Are the images on your screen similar to the ones you pictured in your head?  Most of us will think of a low class African American.  Why is it that we do not think of a high class Caucasian?  Believe it or not, nigga was created in the purpose of negatively describing black people.  Dating back to as early as the seventeenth century, it is rooted from malicious hatred and horrid pain.  However, our modern day generation of the black community has put a debatable spin to nigga.  According to some of the black community, nigga is a term of endearment; it means friend, buddy, or pal.  Boy have things changed!  My grandfather would have never in a million years thought of referring to his dearest friend as a nigga.  Today, it is popular to greet a person as “my nigga” and is considered “cool”.  Nicki Minaj, Kanye West, and Jay Z, are all guilty of using nigga throughout their songs.  This results to other races saying nigga not just as a song lyric but as a term of endearment as well.  This then results to the black community becoming upset because nigga is “our” word.  This unnecessary domino effect can be eliminated if we all stop using nigga.  First, the black community needs to lead by example and stop calling each other niggas.  Nigga is not slang, it is a derogatory word that demeans the integrity of our black community. 

 

In order to completely transform the meaning of nigga, it is necessary that the black community finds a different word to express our love for one another.  This modern idea of taking away the power does not take away the pain.  Nigga has had so many different definitions over the years.  If we all come to a common understanding that nigga is derogative, we will eradicate all confusion.  This will end the hurt feelings and anger from cultural appropriation.  The late hip-hop rapper Tupac Shakur once said, “Nigger is a black man with a slavery chain around his neck and a nigga is a black man with a gold chain around his neck” Is there even a difference? You tell me. 

Check out this video about the double standard behind the N word.