Gravedigging the N-Word.

There are few discussions more incendiary and polarizing for the Black community than ones surrounding the word “nigger.”

You should know, before reading forward, that this article will use the word “nigger” as opposed to the phrase, “the N word,” in many of its sentences. If this will incite your anger or heighten your discomfort, you may wish to stop reading here.

As with most of PostBourgie’s content, our goal is to thoughtfully and carefully investigate the messier, unwieldier issues of our culture. And what could be more messy or unwieldy than the history of the word nigger in this country?

When Gene posted that clip of Kwame Kilpatrick’s State of the City address yesterday, wherein Kilpatrick laments having been called a nigger more times in the past few months than he had in his whole life, going on to state that he’d heard the word plenty of times but never had he heard it directed toward his wife and children, I commented, “Why is he repeating it? Wasn’t he at the forefront of the N word burial last year?”

The “mock burial” took place at 2007’s NAACP convention in Detroit. And Kilpatrick stepped to the podium to say, among other things, “I say good riddance to the N word. Die, N word! And we don’t wanna see you ’round here no more.”

Gene then wondered whether the context in which Kilpatrick used the N word during his mayoral address made any difference. If he was simply stating that he’d been called that by others, abusively, was that the same as using it as a term of endearment? Gene further wondered whether the burial of the N word just referred to affectionate uses of “nigga.”

Judging by the clip above, I’d say that the NAACP was very serious about burying the word, regardless of intent behind usage. Check out the vehemence with which they shout out stuff like, “The N. Word. IS. DEAD!!!” I mean, I don’t think they’d be any happier with Kwame repeating it, to reiterate how he’s being harassed by it, than they would be with the harassers themselves.

But that’s what’s so problematic about “burying” words. A word will not stay buried. There’s no way to control the eradication of any word in the English language. Even if someone—or an entire culture—doesn’t like being called something and even when certain words are associated with documented historical and ongoing psychic traumas, that doesn’t mean everyone everywhere will agree to stop using it. If anything, publicizing discomfort and offense ensures continual provocation.

This is a country that still has NFL teams called the Redskins and the Indians—with offensive, feather-donning caricatures as logos. And regardless of how often or convincingly Native Americans have lobbied for a name or logo change, no one has been in a particular rush to rescind his or her cultural insensitivity. This is also a country that still has a restaurant operating under the name Sambo’s. And, as we’ve been discussing in previous weeks, this is a country where we’re still having debates about whether or not actors are in blackface because Hollywood keeps insisting on darkening white people’s skin either for drama or for laughs.

The point is: the state of racial politics in America is so much larger than “nigger”—and larger still than the three examples listed above. These are the surface wounds. In order to stop the effects of racism, someone would have to own a laser beam that cuts into human psyches and burns away every negative perception ever emblazoned there. Since no one’s developed such a laser and it’s not likely anyone ever will, doesn’t it stand to reason that “burying” racism is an endeavor beyond our control? Isn’t “burying” the word nigger akin to applying a Band Aid to a bullet wound?

Arguably, the only control a person has over whether or not “nigger” is used is to stop using it himself. He cannot stop others from referring to him as a nigger by ceasing to use the word. What he can do is absolve himself of guilt for proliferating the word.

This may have been what the NAACP was actually after at its burial: absolution. They might’ve wanted proof that the country’s most enduring organization for the “advancement of colored people” was publicly distancing itself from the use of the word nigger—not in hopes that all of America would follow suit, just in hopes that, by doing so, people would have less cause to say, “Well, they still get to use it….”

And what of us “still getting to use it?” We all know Nas has titled his much-delayed next LP, Nigger. Though he hasn’t done much justifying, he’s spoken to a few music outlets about his rationale—and it’s nothing we haven’t heard before:

“We’re taking power [away] from the word,” he added. “No disrespect to none of them who were part of the civil-rights movement, but some of my n—as in the streets don’t know who [civil-rights activist] Medgar Evers was. I love Medgar Evers, but some of the n—as in the streets don’t know Medgar Evers, they know who Nas is. And to my older people who don’t now who Nas is and who don’t know what a street disciple is, stay outta this mutha—-in’ conversation. We’ll talk to you when we’re ready. Right now, we’re on a whole new movement. We’re taking power [away] from that word.”

Without wading too far through that load, Nas raises valid ideas about the intergenerational conflict associated with the word nigger. The thing is—while our own infighting (Black elders vs. Black youth) contributes to the assertion that the word will never become extinct, so does the fact that as many white kids listen to Nas as Black kids. So does the fact that “the streets don’t know Medgar Evers.” There are far too many factors that will prevent this word from going anywhere for us to worry about burying it or to take Detroit’s mayor (who previously backed its burial) to task for using it in his address (I mean, he’s a bad mayor; that’s the bigger problem. Why hone in on his use of one word, rather than attacking his whole shady track record?).

To rein this in, we’ll leave you with one last situation to ponder: Paul Mooney has often been quoted as having quipped, “I say nigger 100 times every morning. It keeps my teeth white.” The word nigger has been at the forefront of his decades-long career. But just last year, in the aftermath of the Michael Richards scandal, Mooney claimed to have been reformed. Ironically, a white man’s repeated vitriolic use of “nigger” made him cringe and hold himself accountable for close to 40 years of using the word in stand-up comedy and television/film writing. In his comments to Keith Olbermann, he repeated Nas’ sentiment about the necessity of “taking power back” from the word. But, at this point in his life and career, can Mooney contribute to the mythical idea of “taking power back” from “nigger?” And what makes him presume that his personal moratorium will permanently alter the landscape of the larger picture?

The word has proliferated at it current rate because of centuries of use. People have been changing its intent, clamoring over claim to its “power,” spitting it out as an insult, evoking it to draw class and behavioral lines in the sand between different “kinds” of African Americans, and using it to punctuate jokes since the before the 1800s. Nigger is as inextricable from the fabric of this country as the psychic effects of slavery. Can anyone expect a personal moratorium to eradicate the use of this word in America?

slb

slb (aka Stacia L. Brown) is a writer, mother, and college instructor in Baltimore, MD. Check her out here: http://stacialbrown.com and here: http://beyondbabymamas.com.
  • That Bury the N-Word campaign was absolutely ridiculous.
    I also think it’s ridiculous when people like Nas and Paul Mooney mention taking power from the word; you cannot take power from a word, but you can definitely give a word power. Just ask the NAACP and people like Nas and Paul Mooney.

  • DrZRM

    Speaking of the word, how did Ralph Nader get off so easy telling a room full of mostly white newsmen in the south in 2005 that the democratic machine had made him feel “like a nigger” in the 2004 presidential election? Minimal response in the press–though Brother Sharpton went after him. It’s worth mentioning that when he went on NPR to talk about it (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4721166) he did not apologize, though in discussing his use of the word, he switched to using the “N-Word” instead of repeating his use on air.

    I was surprised at the time no-one seemed to care.