The "N" Word

It's taboo.  Boycotted.  Al Sharpton even wanted it removed from the dictionary.  You're not even allowed to use it around Black people; you can only use it when your Black friends aren't around and you're quoting a song or movie line.  Or if you're Black.  

Well I'm here to tell you that's bullshit.  I say use it freely.  I say the sting is gone, because it is no longer a racial epithet.  Because no matter what your race, creed or color you can be a nigga.  Blago?  Nigga.  Brittany Spears?  Yep.  She's a nigga.  There has been a recent uptick in "niggaism"; indeed America is becoming more and more "nigga-ized."  There are all kinds of people that deserve the term be directed at them--and I wholly advocate it's use if it fits.

This is a relatively recent phenomenon.  Niggas used to only be Black.  But sometime in the 80s and 90s, someone decided it was a good idea to give niggas money, mostly to entertain the rest of us who are/were not niggas.  This was the worst idea in history.  You can't give niggas money!  Especially millions of dollars.  Because then niggas do nigga shit to grandiose proportions.  Plaxico Burress.  Adam Jones.  Kevin Federline.  All niggas doing nigga shit with the money we paid them.

So we pay niggas to entertain us, and like court jesters they deliever.  Except the most prominent niggas tend to be Black, leaving those of us who are not niggas to be categorized with them.  In other words, "niggaism" begets all sorts of other isms--class-ism, racism and sexism.  "WTF?" you ask.  Check it--it doesn't matter your tax bracket, but if you're doing nigga shit you're looked down upon by those more well off, i.e. class-ism.  White folks look down on colored folks who partake in nigga shit, i.e. racism.  Women who participate in nigga shit are looked down on as chicken heads, hood rats or white trash, i.e. sexism.

So what is nigga shit?  Perhaps wearing baggy sweats a club--and tucking a gun into the waistband.  "Leasing" a car on the promise to sign autographs and make an appearance--and then let your boy borrow the car, wreck it, and then don't sign the autographs, or return the car.  Having Maury Povich determine the paternity of your child.  "Making it rain" in a strip club.  Failing to think critically.  Taking everything you're told as truth.  Following rather than leading.  Having more children by the time you're 30 than most people have in a lifetime.  Complaining about your circumstances, yet not making any moves to change them.  Growing up shitty, but "keeping it real" in refusing to better yourself or those around you.  Living "ghetto fabulous," including but not limited to driving a car that is more expensive than your rent/mortgage.  I could go on but you get my drift.  Things like this (at least if you only watched the news) only used to happen to Black people.  Now?  These things go on all the time, even in white suburbia.

So go ahead.  Drop a few N-bombs on some deserving soul.  It's only inappropriate if it doesn't fit, much like calling a woman a "bitch" or a "slut" when in fact nothing about her behavior suggests she is either.  Use the word and use it wisely.

Brought to you in part by:

The baddest, the meanest, the prettiest,

SHO-NUFF