Why I Don’t Bury the word Nigga?

If there is one word in the American vocabulary that can stir deep emotions on both sides of the issue it has to be nigga. But where does this word come from and what does it mean? More importantly why don’t people like me and others just stop using it? Won’t that be better for everyone?

Nigga is a word that began as an eye dialect from the word nigger and that word comes from the Latin word niger meaning the color black. Some have aligned the word with negro or the spanish word for black as well. To look at the word nigga forces you to look at the word nigger. This is a word that was created and pushed to oppress my people and make them less human. It is simple to the way that whites would at one time refer to grown men as boy. So if this word brings back such images of hate and pain why do many blacks continue to use it? Well the answer is that we have come to believe that the hurtful and painful word of nigger doesn’t align to the word of endearment nigga we use with each other. This view is opposed by many leading black politicians and civil rights activists and that is fine. However how some of us view it.

For decades in America some groups have sought to do all they could to demean our people and turn us against one another. Now I want to be clear from the start that nigga is not a word that I personally use in daily language. it is not something that I have made apart of my regular vocabulary. However in personal and some very private instances it is a word that I have and likely will use in the future. I view the way we use this word as empowering and a step towards overcoming some of the issues we face internally as a community. This word to me is a method that some use to show kinship and understanding with one another. Rarely do we use it towards each other in the demeaning and hateful tone that others have sought to in the past.

I am sad when Sen. Obama and Rev. Jesse Jackson are used as a method to explain away why this word needs to be banned from public use and regular use. It is true that if I am called this word by another person not of my race I will likely be offended. It is likely to anger me. That is because this word is a word that oppressors of our nations past used to break down my ancestors. Now it is a word that some of us use to build and lift each other up. A person of another background can’t understand how it is to be black in America, what it is to be an African American young man from the urban inner-city who hopes to have a better life than our forefathers. Some see that as stupid and it maybe so but look at it this way, I have a brother who we have called by his middle name for my entire life. Jamill knows that at home we will call him that but in the street, at work, at school, and other places his name his Lawrence. Jamill is what the family calls him. My younger cousin DeJohn has never been called that my me at all. I have always referred to him as Boogie but now that he gets older and moves on to school and work DeJohn is the name we use. For me nigga means the same.

I respect the NAACP, National Urban League, Sen. Obama, Jesse Jackson, Oprah, and others for not using the word. Step off when it comes to my usage.

Tha-Kid JK

tha-kid@revkitchen.com