If you google the word “nigger” these are the first three items to pop up:
- a contemptuous term for a black or dark-skinned person.
- The word was first included in a Merriam-Webster dictionary in 1864, at which time it was defined as a synonym of Negro, with a note indicating that it was used “in derision or depreciation.”
Per Merriam-Webster dictionary “alteration of earlier neger, from Middle French negre, from Spanish or Portuguese negro, from negro black, from Latin niger – First Known Use: 1574″
- According to dictionary.com
1. Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive.
- a contemptuous term used to refer to a black person.
- a contemptuous term used to refer to a member of any dark-skinned people.
2. Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive. a contemptuous term used to refer to a person of any racial or ethnic origin regarded as contemptible, inferior, ignorant, etc.
3. a victim of prejudice similar to that suffered by black people; a person who is economically, politically, or socially disenfranchised.
All of this is bullshit. Like most things there are cycles and this word has had cycles through its use. Originating with the original enslavers, the Portuguese, Spanish, and French. In life there are truths. In America the word nigger was used to invoke fear from the original niggers. Nigger has always been a projection of the behaviors and characteristics of the most inhumane whites walking the planet earth, those of European descent that were completely devoid of humanity, those that would gladly participate in slave trading, hunting, policing, those that would rape enslaved African Women and sell their own children to the next nigger willing to buy, those that would be so emotionally fragile that they would lynch a man for daring to protect his wife, and then rape his wife in front of him while dying, those that would legislate Jim Crow aka Black Codes so that Descendants of Slaves would always be behind socially and economically, those like the Sisters of the Confederacy that re-wrote the history books to mis-educate generations. Niggers like those Presidents of America’s past that allowed segregated military, reduced pay for Black Service Men, deny housing to American citizens because their blackness made them uncomfortable and allowed the FHA to deny loans to hard working Black People while giving higher home values to their fellow whites. These self loathing, fear mongering men and women are the original niggers.
At some point despite being a hard working slave, you had to believe some nigger telling you that you were lazy and of no more value than their pet dog to accept such a horrible title. At some point despite governmental actions of niggerish men that built ghetto’s and disallowed you to live and work freely or to be compensated fairly, as a Black Person in America you would have to accept the term nigger although you had no ability to forcefully correct the social and economic engineering that locked you out of your full potential. I understand to a degree in my Grandfather’s day or my Great-Grandmother’s Day where you tolerated being called nigger because the town Sheriff might shoot you where you stood, but in 2018 we are beyond Q-Tip’s from A Tribe Called Quest “neo-nigga of the nineties; term of endearment.”
No American Black Man, Woman or Child should use the term to describe another Black Person. We are labelled docile because we have not simply taken up arms in a blood thirst kind of revenge, that is because that is not who we are. We are not kings and queens because we built the pyramids, we are kings and queens because daily we give true niggers the opportunity to return to humanity and in America sadly there are many unwilling people who happen to be born into white skin that cannot rise above violence and killing, that will not legislate reparations to fully correct a historic wrong, or offer something as simple as fair lending in their community, that cannot rise up against personal fears of being dominated by people who happen to be born into black skin or who are ethnically different, people that are unwilling to grow in their humanity. A Christian will tell you the meek will inherit the earth, but those that are niggers will think they are chosen after returning from a Klan rally spewing hatred and living in fear of other human beings.
Nigger is a projection of the behaviors and characteristics of the most vile whites who are devoid of humanity onto Black People and black bodies. Black people you never were, nor will you ever be a Nigger. That is the 360 all things return to truth. If ever a white person should call you Nigger, there is no need to gratify them with an emotional response, certainly not one of hurt, that would imply that based on the known history of America, you accept a name that does not belong to you, the name that someone else gave to you to hide who they are. In that moment you call the true nigger by their name and tell them I will never be you, and if you do not find your humanity, you will never be me. Should a Black person ever call you nigger, please remind them of who they are. There are brothers and sisters in humanity and there are niggers, in 2018 you should be able to recognize who they are and skin color has little or nothing to do with it.
Unapologetically,
Friday Jones