The Word Nigger

1466 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The history of the word nigger

The Word "Nigger"

“My niggas. Some niggas that you don’t wanna try.

My niggas. Some niggas that’s really do or die.

My niggas. Ain’t no longer living a lie.

My niggas is stong. My niggas is real.”

Does this artist use the word nigger in the same way that racists have and still are? The answer to this question is a simple one- no. Today’s urban society have changed, not only the definition, but also the spelling of this word, which was once used to belittle those of African-American decent. Now, the definition as proved through today’s urban youth holds many denotations- positive and negative. But has the definition really changed? Or are today’s urban society just being ignorant and socially blinded by the hardships of our ancestors as they continue to use a word that held such great racial tension when used in the 1800’s? Two answers for this one- yes and no. Yes the definition has changed, but not totally to where it’s precedent has been forgotten. In fact, urban youth are so socially powerful that they can take a word and totally flip it and use it within themselves but when one of another race uses it, they return it back to the old definition and the racial remarks commence.

The definitions of the word nigger are as follows:

1. a Negro

2. loosely or incorrectly applied to members of dark-skinned race

3. a vulgar offensive term of hostility and contempt as used by Negrophobes

Nigger (etymology)

1. Latin niger becomes Spanish and Portugese Negro used in France for “black man” especially in Africa adapted by the English

2. latin niger, for black, occurs in such river names as the Rio Negro in South America and the Niger f Central West Africa.

When used by a white person to describe a black or African American person, this can be the most hateful hurtful, offensive term in the language today. This word in American speech dates back to the late 16th century, although the modern spelling doesn't appear until two centuries later. The obsolete spelling niger dates to 1574. It derives from the Latin niger meaning black. It shares this common root with negro.

The first recorded use of the word nigger was in 1786 in a poem by Robert Burns yet variations on it including negar, neger, and niger are recorded two centuries before then.

The offensiveness of the term has increased ov...

... middle of paper ...

...ds in the air and scream.

In this thesis, I’ve actually learned a few things. From looking up the word in etymology books, I concluded that the society has come to realize that we do use the word amongst ourselves but never to the extent to which it has been used centuries ago towards our ancestors. One book quotes “…African Americans commonly use the word in different ways among themelves…”

1. DMX, Interlude, (Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood, 1998)

2. “Nigger.” The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary ed. 1973

3. DMX, Interlude, (Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood, 1998)

4. “Nigger.” The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary ed. 1973

5. “Nigger” Webster’s Third New International Dictionry

6. “Nigger” A Short Etymologica Dictionary of Modern English ORIGINS ed 1966

7. “Nigga” Dictionary for American Slang ed. 1995

8. Twain, Mark Hulckeberry Finn

9. Rice Jr., Earl The O.J.Simpson Trial San Diego, CA:Lucent Books Inc, 1997

10. Peterson, Nina. Personal interview. 2 June 2000

11. Punisher, Big. Watch Those! (Yeaah Baby!, 2000)

12. Rush Hour (movie)

13. Scoop, Fat Man, Brooklyn Clan (Hot 97’s mix tape)

14. “Nigger” Encyclopedia of Word and Phase Origins ed 1997

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of John Griffin's Black Like Me And Dick Gregory And Nigger

    743 Words  | 2 Pages

    He effectively moves from a position of “Other” to one of empowerment through his active participation in the Civil Rights movement, and his comedy. In fact, Gregory views comedy as “friendly relations,” allowing him to abandon his repressed identity—one that was “mad and mean inside” (134)—and move to a position of empowerment that allows Gregory to “make jokes about [whites] and their society” (Gregory 132). Through his comedy, Gregory is also able to dissociate himself from the term “nigger,” as well as the namelessness, de-individuation, and dehumanizing effects associated with it: “Every white man in America knows we are Americans, knows we are Negroes, and some of them know us by our names. So when he calls us a nigger, he’s calling us something we are not, something that exists only in his mind. So if nigger exists only in his mind, who’s the nigger?” (Gregory 201). In refusing to adopt the word and its negative connotations as self-definition, Gregory “returns” the word and its negativity to the dominant society of the white middle class—the discriminatory “. . . system that makes a man less than a man, that teaches hate and fear and ignorance” (Gregory

    Read More

  • Gloria Naylor's The Meaning Of A Word

    425 Words  | 1 Pages

    Moreover, the racial terms can be a projection of more positive definitions and interpretations that can establish individuality. In “Meaning of a Word” by Gloria Naylor, she talks about instances where adults of her community/race have references of the ‘n-word’ that differs from how society or individuals who may use it.

    Read More

  • How Does Williams Use Nigga?

    1078 Words  | 3 Pages

    “I don’t give a fuck what a nigga say,” for a word that many different things I think most people would agree that in this since nigga means a person preferably black. Nigga is a derogatory and racist word that refers to Black people. But, we, meaning Black people, still use it. We do not care, nigga flows off the tough. In using nigga we not only show disdain but become a nigga when using it and we’re ok with it. This is why I choose Katt Williams, 2006 comedy skit Pimp Chronicle Part 1. In William’s skit he use nigga some 221 times, in 45 minute, that’s about four times per minute. I could not find a better example of someone using nigga. 221 times, he must have something interesting to say if he can find 221 reason to say the word and you know what he did. I could not help but laugh it was funny, but at the end of the day I knew though it may have been funny it was still morally wrong. In Williams, he uses nigga in ways that support Black stereotypes, which make the audience laugh. There is nothing worng with that a mans

    Read More

  • Comparison of the Two Essays "The Meaning of a Word" and "Being a Chink"

    971 Words  | 2 Pages

    In both their essays, Naylor and Leong introduce a word that is meant to humiliate, hurt and ridicule. Naylor, being of African decent, was introduced to the word nigger at a very early age. Naylor asked her mother what the word meant, but she knew it meant something terrible. Black people raising their children in America would have to explain what nigger meant sometime in their childhood. Naylor's mom explains that the word

    Read More

  • Origins of the N-Word

    1380 Words  | 3 Pages

    The words Negro, nigger, and nigga have always been a sensitive topic, yet it is a topic that needs to be addressed in light of the more common use of its vernacular. One word is used to describe a color, while the others are used to define a people. It’s very clear to many the negative connotation these words carry, but where did these words come from? Furthermore, is there a difference between the word nigger and nigga; and why is it that African-Americans now use the word nigga to degrade each other in today’s society? These words, in spite of their spelling, still holds the same degrading power as it did during the time of slavery, and they are still spoken out of cruelty and ignorance, but who is to blame? Can one still blame the Spaniards for considering people of a darker skin tone –Black? Can we blame the Europeans for perpetuating their hatred and ignorance of superiority over a race of people to the point they felt it lawful to define and dehumanize them? Or does the blame lie with the African-American race as we use this degrading labeling on our own kind, thus becoming the victimizer. Either way nigger or nigga are words that should be eliminated from the vocabulary of every human being.

    Read More

  • I No Longer Use the N-Word

    759 Words  | 2 Pages

    The word “Nigger” was a term used in reference to a slave. A slave meaning, you were the lowest scum of the earth, Illiterate and uneducated in every sense. Today, the usage of the word is spilt in to different context, it is used to refer to one another. A lot of children today use the word freely, not because they are ignorant to the history and putridness of the word, but solely because they are not really offended by it and the only time they hear it, it's being said by someone else who is of color. As I looks back over the years, I can’t really remember anyone distinctively ever calling me the N-word, or better yet, not in a derogative fashion. I don’t think that anyone has ever called me the word to my face or in hearing distance. Growing up in New York City, the only time I ever heard the word “Nigger” was from people who called themselves “Nigger”. I remember sitting in class daydreaming on the word, thinking to myself, “How could anyone call themselves a Nigger and be proud of it?” Yet It’s Hard to hurt me with words, but I had never heard that word used with such vengeances. What does this word mean in my everyday life?

    Read More

  • Nigger: Historical and Current Use

    3576 Words  | 8 Pages

    While many blacks and whites agree that the word should not be censored from the English language, it certainly should not be used by all people because of its historical significance. For example, black militants believe whites should never use the word nigger. On the other hand, the word nigger has been “reclaimed” by black youths particularly in the hip-hop culture. These modern day teens claim that it is just a word and that people give words meaning rathe...

    Read More

  • Jim Crow: Shorthand For Separation

    539 Words  | 2 Pages

    The term Jim Crow dates back to the eighteenth century, although there is no evidence it is referencing an actual person. Instead, it was a “mildly derogatory slang for black Everyman (Crow, as in black like a crow)” (Edmonds, Jim Crow: Shorthand for Separation). A segregated rail car, or anything separated from the Caucasian race might be called ‘Jim Crow’ because of a “popular American minstrel song of the 1820s made sport of a stereotypic Jim Crows” (Edmonds, Jim Crow: Shorthand for Separation). Finally, “As segregation laws were put into place-first in Tennessee, then throughout the South- after Reconstruction,

    Read More

  • The Legacy of NWA

    1125 Words  | 3 Pages

    Post 3.*N.W.A*. “Why do I call myself a nigger, you ask me? Because police always wanna harass me every time that I'm rollin. They swear up and down that the car was stolen, Make me get faced down in the street. They throw the s**t out my car on the concrete front of a residence A million white motherf**kers on my back like I shot the President.” Facebook. N.p. 12 July 2009. Web. 5 Nov 2013

    Read More

  • African American Humor Research Paper

    815 Words  | 2 Pages

    One must say to simply use freedom of speech amongst peers does not necessarily mean any harm when using the “N” in comedy sketches, stand-up, and sitcoms it have been used in the black humor many decades. The “N” has to be identified by Americans whether saying the Nigga in comedy is humor or is it been used as racist

    Read More

  • The Word Nigger

    2002 Words  | 5 Pages

    (Merriam-Webster) Nigger was at first niger, which means the color black in Latin. Over time the Spanish adopted the word and it became negro, the color black. It was not until white Americans adopted the word that it became negative. Instead of using the word as an adjective, it was as a noun. The new meaning of the word was now “colored person” instead of the color black. White people used it as an “insulting and contemptuous term.” It was “a term expressive of hatred and bigotry.” (Merriam-Webster) The word “nigger” later became a synonym for the word “negro” and it was used in “derision”. The word was later used in a variety of ways. For example, nigger-lipping (which meant getting too much spit on the end of a cigarette), nigger-knocking (to knock on someone’s door and run away before they open it), nigger heaven (when you owe money but you are not living like you do), and nigger luck (bad luck). (Middleton, Phill and Pilgrim David) Those are just a few examples but you can see that they are negative. The word is negative. It is and was associated with negative things so it should not be

    Read More

  • The Art of Benin

    1044 Words  | 3 Pages

    http://www.arm.arc.co.uk/britishBenin.html Negritude http://www.nigerdeltadirectory.com/websiteseminars/negritude.html http://www.culturekiosque.com/calendar/item14966.html http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/negritude/ (Accessed 14.02.11). African Art http://www.jpanafrican.com/ (Accessed 14.02.11). Benin Massacre http://www.dawodu.com/igbinedion3.htm http://www.arm.arc.co.uk/britishBenin.html http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/anthony-okosun/the-glory-of-benin-kingdom-and-the-shame-of-the-british-empire.html. http://books.google.co.uk (Benin Diplomatic Handbook By USA International Business Publications).

    Read More

  • Evolution of Slavery

    1044 Words  | 3 Pages

    There were many social opinions of black people, mostly stemming from fear of the unknown. . Some of the earliest writings were by Frenchman Jean Bodin and Leo Africanus. Bodin wrote numerous books on Africa, the natives and why they should be made into slaves. The books would state that the Africans were lustful in nature and should be captured and enslaved so they wouldn’t continue to be sex crazed Africans. Leo Africanus was a native of Granada and raised in Morocco. He was best known for writing “Description of Africa”, a geographical description of North Africa, Timbuktu, Mali and West Africa. This book described the daily lifestyles, schooling, royal courts and markets. The ancient Greeks had a mythological reason people were “black”. There was a theory called “Ptolemy’s theory that there was less sun exposure to people who lived in the n...

    Read More

  • The Longest Yard Analysis

    1304 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are laws that prohibit any type of segregation in the United States of America. We have in office today the very first African American president, President Barack Obama. The culture is now more politically correct on what is acceptable and what isn 't. There is a scene in the 2005 remake of The Longest Yard that includes Guard Dunham ( Stone Cold Steve Austin) and prisoner Megget (Nelly). The "N" word was used towards this prisoner a few times, but this was the only time in the movie it was used. This is obviously not okay, but compared to the 1970 's film, this was a huge change. The use of that hateful word helped the director portray the guards as villains in the film. The 2005 remake did not separate the white and black inmates in the prison like they did in the 1974 original. Although director Peter Segal did use the disrespectful word in modern day, he used it moderately. Segal did not use it so freely like the original film because today 's culture would not tolerate it. It could have jeopardized the quality of the film in the view of modern day

    Read More

  • The Word Bitch

    617 Words  | 2 Pages

    The discussion of whether or not the re-appropriation of the word “Bitch” is a positive action in our society is common amongst women in our society. I am involved in many clubs at WSU and one of my favorite clubs that I participate in is the Black Women’s Caucus (BWC). BWC is an assembly of women that talk about specific issues and topics effecting the Black Community, more specifically focused on Black women. At one of the meetings this past Wednesday, the discussion focused on the word “Bitch” and if the historical negative connotation of the word could ever truly be “erased” or righteously flipped into a positive meaning. There were two standpoints during the conversation, some young ladies agreed that the word needed to be abolished from

    Read More

More about The Word Nigger

Open Document