A SHOUT OUT TO MY NIGGERS

Jessie Jackson talked into an open mike and used the word Nigger. I am not beating up on Jessie anymore. But let’s take this opportunity to broaden the discussion.

First of all it’s not the N word, the word is Nigger. I was born, raised and lived most of my adult life in the South and no white person ever called me the N word.
They called me Nigger. I have never understood why we have given this word so much power that we cannot say it.

Second I am a writer and lawyer and words are a powerful tool for either good or bad and I reserve the right to use every word in the human vocabulary to describe the human condition and to fight for a dream of a just society.

Thirdly, a white person is as free as anyone else to call me a Nigger, I don’t like it when they do it but I no longer feel compelled to want to kick their ass. After all it’s just a word. Now I warn them there are millions of African’s that WILL kick their asses if they call them a Nigger so as a general rule, if you white, you should not to go there.

Now part of the problem is that black people took this word that was meant to dehumanize us and turned it into something beautiful. It’s like what we did with the pig. White folks gave us the scraps and we turned them into chitlins, hog head cheese and pig feet.

White folks gave us the blues and we turned it into song and dance, jazz, reggae, hip hop, rap and now the whole world pops its finger to a music that began out of the pain that America gave us.

An example is Marvin Gaye singing the Star Spangle Banner at the NBA Allstar game in 1983 .Now when you think about our history in this country, getting excited about the Star Spangle should be difficult. But like everything else in America that we have touched Marvin, made it ours. Check him out:




When one of my dear friends looks me in the eye and says “you my Nigger”, it is a codification of a bond that is deep that the word friend does not equal. In that moment he is telling me that “we came up the hard way, we stuck together and because of you I never felt alone, you have been my rock “

When black people are alone and drinking or smoking weed or just hanging out and we discuss our condition, we say “Niggers are a motherfucker.” Now we could say “I am deeply disappointed in some African-Americans inability to handle our ethical, personal and social responsibilities.” But among ourselves we created a language that is uniquely us.

Black people as a whole have drawn a line and said because we use the word, it is not proper for white folks to use and white folks respond in their usually selfish ways “that if you say it, we have a right too and if we cannot use it then neither can you.” And of course as always because some of us love white folks so much we rightly oblige. We start talking about ignorant stuff like holding funerals for a word. You would think that if we have to give up using Nigger, they should have to give up being racist.

It’s okay to for black people to say to white America, the word Nigger means many things to us and it is a part of our history that represents our darkest moments, but also of our ability to take ugliness and make it beautiful. It is a deeply personal word for black people and if you respect us, you should refrain from using it and just because we have made it cool, it does not give you a right to culturally appropriate it.

James Baldwin said " When i decided i was going to think like a nigger, eat like a nigger, make love like a nigger, live like a nigger, i had to leave America for fear of my life.