Black Imagination – what’s a nigga to do? Part 3

An interesting imagery submitted into discussion, suggested the word had grown to Pandora like proportions rendering us incapable of ever claiming any ability to reframe or reform the word or its usage. How can a people group compete against a musical genre culture, which purports that it is the voice of that people’s group youth culture? Plainly stated, Urban Black America created Hip-Hop culture to redefine our savage, concrete reality while celebrating the elements of hope oxy-moronically thriving within that bleak existence. Thirty years later it has become the largest revenue grossing music genre in the world as well as the pied piper of African American misconception while simultaneously enticing and seducing an entire generation to eagerly seek the destructive inheritance set aside for those who aspire to become “niggers”.

One of the older brothers stated he believes the word has become so “watered down” that it doesn’t even hold the same significance toward African Americans anymore but instead points more in the direction of a demonic mindset being projected into and onto the lives of this generation of young people. It is almost impossible for me not to interpret his views through the lens of geography; he has lived in New York City for the majority of his life and is a product of the Black Power and Civil Rights Movements. Though I know he empathizes with the views of our Southern brothers, I think it is unconscionable for him to infer that the word “nigger” has lost its ability to puncture the soul of any African American, particularly those who’ve suffered the indignity of repeatedly being called this word to their face, beginning with the vulnerable and formative years of their youth. With all of that being understood, I do believe this brother has uncovered an extremely interesting point.

How are we to view this newest evolutionary twist from the word and its most recent carriers; it now travels through the lips of Chinese, Mexican, Indian, and German youth-just to name a few-as they communicate with one another using the word in terms of inclusion and affection while equally interchangeable with anger and inanimate identifications. Basically they have learned to use the word in the same manner we as African Americans do because we have taught them extremely well. Their tutelage has followed the same trajectory as that of our Puerto Rican brethren whom we share neighborhoods, buildings, and schools with as well as the creation of one of our greatest accomplishment, Hip-Hop Culture.

The one question, which left the majority of my interviewees with some sort of bewilderment, was when I asked them if they could explain why we were the only people group to use a term of destruction as a term of endearment towards one another …