Guest columnist: Joshua Perrin Nigga vs. Nigger

Nigger vs Nigga



Crispus Attucks, the first slave to die in the Revolutionary War, would weep if he were alive in 2010. He would weep tears of joy to see a man of African descent holding the office of president. He would weep tears of joy seeing black billionaires Oprah Winfrey and Bob Johnson. He would weep seeing Adrian M. Fenty presiding as mayor of the capital city. But he would also weep with grief upon seeing that over two hundred years later the Negro is still not free; only this time ourselves enslave us.

African Americans have the highest level of unemployment, one of the lowest levels of education, and despite making up 12.9% of the population we account for over half of the prison population. Forty-two years after the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. majority of the blacks in the United States have let go of the values that once defined the bond amongst our race.

Present day we have enslaved ourselves mentally by dividing each other by skin complexion to social status to dialect. The most offensive racial slur used for African Americans is “nigger”. The endless debate on nigger versus nigga should have never taken place. That word should have been eradicated from American society after the progress of the Civil Rights era.

Nigger is defined as a commonly pejorative ethnic slur to describe black people or a person who is ignorant to the dominant culture. After residing in the United States of America since 1619, it is laughable to believe we are ignorant of the dominant European influenced culture. The other definition is a racial slur to blacks, like honkey to whites, guidos (although MTV recently showcased young mislead Italians glamorizing this word) to Italians, and wetback for Mexicans.

Starting in the late 1980s to early 1990s the Hip Hop genre of music began habitually using the new and improved version of nigger. This new word was creatively given the name nigga. Rappers (Jay Z and Ludacris to name a couple) have been vigilant in insisting that nigga was a term of endearment, and is interchangeable with “my brother”. They insist of pronouncing it an “-a” instead of an “-er”, it loses all negative connotations. This claim is ridiculous.

The term nigger is proper English, nigga is broken English. It is the same word, and has the same meaning. Sadly, I constantly hear people, non-blacks as well, using this word as casually as any other. By holding onto such a word, we are holding onto a piece of racial division inside of us. Think of all the women whom cried as the word was hurled at their husbands, as they were beat. Think of all the children who saw how one word made their father less of a man. Think of all the men whose last word was nigger as they hung by their neck.

We as a people must start to remove the shackles we have placed on ourselves. The first way to start is to remove the word from your vocabulary, in respect for our heritage. It is still salvageable if we stand together as strong as we once did. Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds.