The “N-Word” Will NEVER Lose Its Power OR Meaning (Sorry NAS)

In the last year, rapper NAS caused quite a stir when he announced to the world that his next album would be titled “Nigger.”

His explanation for giving his work such a controversial title seemed genuine enough: the album was going to focus on how the word is currently seen in our society, and he hoped that using the N-word on the cover would help give less meaning to the word since it would be so out-there in people’s faces.

For years now, rappers have used this excuse every time they are asked about the usage of nigger - oops, I mean, “nigga” - in their songs.  The same response to this question is given over and over again: they are “taking the word away from their oppressors and using it in a positive way.”

Oh, if only I could agree with their idiotic rhetoric.

I was having a discussion with one of my fellow Black co-workers the other day about Nas’ newest mixtape.  While NAS was eventually smart enough to rid his new commercial work of the “Nigger” title - deciding, instead, to have it be untitled (apparently, selling a “Nigger” at Wal-Mart was going to be harder than they thought) - he recently released an underground mixtape called “The Nigger Mixtape.” 

Despite the title of said mixtape, the songs on it were actually well thought-out ideas and conversation starters about how the N-word is looked at and used in our society. And my co-worker, a big fan of Nasir Jones’ work,  was excited to learn about this new mixtape. 

Unfortunately, that excitement spilled over a few minutes later when me, him, and one of my white co-workers were standing around talking.

The Black co-worker (BCW) looked over to me and said:

BCW: “Hey Aaron - tell so-and-so (i.e. the White co-worker, or WCW) about that new NAS mixtape.”

Me: “Um… huh? What?” (Trying to avoid the converstaion altogether.)

BCW: “Yeah, that new NAS mixtape.  He’s a big fan of NAS, too.  What was it called again?”

Me (to the WCW): “Oh, yeah - ‘The Nigger Mixtape…’”

That’s when I felt it - that sting.  That uncomfortable feeling I get whenever a white person is around and the N-word is used in any capacity.

It’s already an unsaid but known rule that White people are no longer allowed to say the N-word (at least around other Black people), lest they get their behinds handed to them.  But, just because the word has been used more by Black people in the last few years, does that mean that “Nigger” has lost its power to hurt, insult, or demean us as a people?

I say, “No.”  No matter how many times we as a race use that word, or change the spelling of it, we all know that as soon as the wrong person uses it, it’s going to make us feel uncomfortable in that moment.

I don’t care how the person saying it is using it, it’s still going to make me feel antsy and awkward.  If a White professor is talking about the history of the N-word, it’s all good - until he actually says the word.  If a group of white kids go to see a Black rapper in concert, and the rapper says “Nigger” in one of his songs, it’s all good - until the white kids actually say the word. 

Even if Black people who live in the ghetto have a White friend who they consider “Blacker” than other black people they know - heck, they might even say, “That White dude right there? That’s my nigga!” - things between them will be all good…

…until the White “Black” guy actually says the word.

And why is that?  Because, no matter how much us Black people try to act like we’ve gotten over it, or that we’re above letting the word bother us, “nigger” will always be a sore spot with us.  It’s a word that reminds us that we were, at one time (and sometimes still are), considered to be less than nothing.  So much so, in fact, that we couldn’t even be referred to by name - instead, we had to be given cute little nicknames like “tar baby,” “Sambo,” and yes, “nigger.”

The N-word will forever be to Black people what the Swastika is to the Western world: a symbol that, despite the attempts to make it a positive, has too much of a negative history to ever be completely accepted.  Nor should it be.  I think it’s a dumb idea for anybody to try and change the meaning for a word that many of our ancestors died trying to get rid of in the first place.

But if you think I’m being too hard on the word, or that my feelings about it are old-fashioned, ask yourself this: if NAS hadn’t changed the title of his CD, would you have REALLY felt comfortable telling your friends of different nationalities that you went to the store to pick up a “Nigger” album??

-Aaron P. Taylor