This Infatuation With The Term “Nigga”
With All Its Descriptors
Bill Maher is not the only white person, nor was he the first, nor will he be the last, just itching to use the n-word without recourse. There appears to be some motivating-ly ignorant effort to normalize the usage enough so that it becomes a nondescript, non-racist, humorous term. The term officially became a homonym of cultural sorts when members of the black community started using the term to self-identify, albeit mockingly of whites and their oppressive and demented usage to describe enslaved Africans — turned African Americans and their kin.
The problem with this is that it began to stick in dubious ways.
However you want to spin it/spell it or use it, the origins remains the same. Noah Webster, the lexicographer whose last name is synonymous with dictionary and is said to be the “Father of American Scholarship”, referred to people with a particular strand or composition of melanins — Negroes as it were — as “negers”. Again Negro is simply an adjective for Black in Portuguese and Spanish, used lazily then and now to identify actual people of differing cultures, religions, and traditions, or differentiated groups rather, in a monolithic way. Many historical accounts fail to arrive at how the word turned so derisive. But then again these historical accounts have this niggling dominant narrative attached to them. Needless to say the substitution for the actual meaning, its intents and purposes, its varied spelling or pronunciations — all yields the same injurious result of racial predisposition.
What’s next? Substituting orange for red in a painter’s work because some observers find red too aggressive? — Jill Nelson
The n-word became a hallmark for and predominately requisite verbiage of rap/hip hop music. The effect of which has seemingly been profitable as a exploitative device appearing with interchangeable force of endearment and disparagement, praise and insult. An epistemological view of this can be maddening or better yet seems maddening because of the social psychosomatic self-concept it embraces.
Personally, I would not reflexively respond to this term coming from blacks, whites, nor from people who don’t consider themselves either black or white (of whom may be considered closer to black under the racial social construct). Self-described niggas assert that it is a stylized euphemism captured within the hip hop diaspora as a unifying abstract of being in an all too common struggle for people of color and blacks in particular.
This struggle, however is inherent under the sham of a racial social construct designed to divide, conquer and disenfranchise, as well as promote chasms throughout the black diaspora, most emphatically. There is enough compelling indications of its affectations that would rationally prompt one to resist the urge to veritably demonstrate this through the usage of this euphemism and fuel what majorities continue to do to minorities by co-opting any reference to this term. It awkwardly encourages a disingenuous unity and is of a defeatist mentality.
So based on the NYTimes account below…
Shortly after 10 p.m. on Friday, Mr. Maher, the comedian and host of HBO’s “Real Time,” was talking to Mr. Sasse on his program about the boundaries between adolescence and maturity, and how adults in California still dress up for Halloween.
When Mr. Sasse said this did not happen in his state, Mr. Maher said, “I’ve got to get to Nebraska more.”
Mr. Sasse replied: “You’re welcome. We’d love to have you work in the fields with us.”
Mr. Maher said: “Work in the fields? Senator, I’m a house nigger. No, it’s a joke.”
It is hard to dissect this word from its original meaning without killing the force that gives it life. This is why apologies from Bill Maher and the like are meaningless. The fact that it came off as a joke provides that license and or buffer to express an instance of freedom of speech, and invoke futile dialogues, irrational emotives, or just plain stupidity.
