Essays On The Word Nigger

In every facet of our society, from economics to entertainment to law, the nigger became synonymous with stupidity, laziness and worthlessness.Nigger as a derogatory term was borne out of the fear that the slaves would revolt. Soon, some blacks began to call themselves nigger as a badge of honor, which lead to a term of endearment.Words do indeed have power and to ignore that is to be a fool. Blacks will stop using the word nigger when the world stops treating us like niggers, not the other way around.

In every facet of our society, from economics to entertainment to law, the nigger became synonymous with stupidity, laziness and worthlessness.Nigger as a derogatory term was borne out of the fear that the slaves would revolt. Soon, some blacks began to call themselves nigger as a badge of honor, which lead to a term of endearment.Words do indeed have power and to ignore that is to be a fool. Blacks will stop using the word nigger when the world stops treating us like niggers, not the other way around.

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Why wouldn’t you want to embody that which most scares your oppressor and change its meaning?

From Jim Crow to the Civil Rights Movement to now, the word nigger has continued to carry the weight of violence and degradation.

The uneducated American slavers in the south mispronounced that word and bastardized it until it became nigger.

Joans wanted to be any kind of nigger, as long as it meant he wasn’t seen as a nice colored man. When Africans were first captured and brought to the Americas they were called Negroes, the Spanish word for black.

Piers Morgan suggested in his piece that blacks are aware of the history of the word.

I would challenge that and say that most Americans, black or white, remain unaware of the history of the last ten years, much less the history of a word that was invented during the Atlantic slave trade.Morgan suggests that he is writing to us blacks because our use of the word “doesn’t work”—as if there was some secret black meeting we had where we planned on collectively flipping a derogatory term on its ear.Saying that blacks using the word nigger as a term of endearment gives racist whites license to say it is the same argument that’s made when someone says a woman who dresses provocatively deserves the unwanted attention she will receive.Knowing that nigger is considered a bad word with racial connotations is not at all the same as knowing its history.My mom, an English professor, cannot stand the word nigger. Since Morgan is from London, let’s revisit the story of Ted Joans, a black poet who was invited to read poetry in London in the 1970s because he was a “nice, colored man.” Upon hearing this description of himself he wrote a poem called …it goes on like this, you get the point. It is the most effective tool of the greedy men who dominate the world’s resources and it has been used to separate and control people to great effect since the Atlantic slave trade.White teachers taught white kids in white schools that niggers were subhuman and not as intelligent as whites.White ministers in churches taught that God was white and that God wanted all niggers to be slaves.At the same time, “niggers” were being hung in broad daylight for learning how to read and praying to their own Gods.When you say ‘the n-word’ you put the word ‘nigger’ in the listeners’ head. You say ‘the n-word’ and I go, ‘oh, she means nigger.’ You’re making me say it in my head. Nigger was a slang term without any negative connotations until around the 1800s when abolitionist movements began to gain traction with black slaves in the south.Why don’t you say it instead and take responsibility for the shitty words you want to say? To keep slaves from revolting the slave masters had to dehumanize their slaves in order to justify the practice, so they began to use nigger in a derogatory way.