Who you calling nigger, nigger?

“Nigger. And so this one night I decided to make it my own. Nigger. I decided to take the sting out of it. Nigger. As if saying it over and over again would numb me and everybody else to its wretchedness. Nigger. Said it over and over like a preacher singing hallelujah...Saying it changed me, yes it did. It gave me strength, let me rise above…”

Richard Pryor, Pryor Convictions

“Imagine a white person saying that. It wouldn't make a lick of sense. Is that a double-standard, or a reflection of two totally different cultural and historical perspectives? That's what I meant by ‘Plain and simple, the word means something completely different when uttered by a black person as opposed to a white.’

History is a double-standard, a kaleidoscope-standard: In America, that history means one things for blacks, another for whites. The usage of "nigger" is the one word I'm gladly willing to allow that so-called double-standard because it is the one word that reflects the historical double-standard. What I'm really saying is it cannot be a double-standard because white and black come at the word from totally different perspectives.”

Geoff Sherwood, Uncommon Commentator of The Tropaion

Ok, I think I’m starting to get “IT” now. That last reply from the author of the Tropaion helped me a lot. I hope you realize, I am not agreeing with anyone who thinks this silly word should be outlawed. But it does bother me, no matter who says it, and I think the purpose of this exercise is to help me explain to myself why it should not be outlawed in the first place.

In order for me to understand, I have to imagine it differently, though. Instead of vague black on white, I need to give “IT” a face.

Snoop Dogg: “I call myself nigger because that’s who I am.”

Mister Boles: “I calls them niggers cuz that’s what they is.”

Or, as my dad used to subtly describe, “Old Joe’s a nigger but everyone likes him anyway.”

If you read on in Pryor’s writings, he claims to have a specific definition of the word. To him, as The Trope says, it defines a persevering perspective among blacks about themselves, a perspective that I am unqualified to even describe. To whites, I don’t know, maybe that could equate to the overbearing “average” quality that whites try so hard to define and maintain about everyone of their color. Snoop has his version, Boles and my dad had their own, and all these differing versions seem to never compromise.

In Pryor Convictions, he says again that he went to Africa where he didn't see any niggers. He came back “regretting ever having uttered the word 'nigger' on a stage or off it. It was a wretched word. Its connotations weren't funny, even when people laughed. To this day I wish I'd never said the word. I felt its lameness. It was misunderstood by people. They didn't get what I was talking about. Neither did I … So I vowed never to say it again."

Pryor Convictions

“When the underlying motivation is different, the true double-standard is in the heart of the white person who expects to be treated the same for saying, technically, the same thing that black people say all the time, while meaning, unbeknownst to themselves, something very different. This is why blacks have such a visceral reaction to white attempts to steamroller all nuance out of it and expect them to accept some white-defined universal standard for using ‘nigger.’”

Sherwood

Pryor eventually called his word “lame” which he even misunderstood but I called it “hypocritical” which even I can admit is a rug too large for my own sweep.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think we are all still speaking the same language.

Today, in spite of Pryor’s vow, we struggle on with two distinct definitions for this word which are based on opposing perspectives that can only be described as Whites-only and Blacks-only.

As we know from our history, that may be a dangerous situation but “IT” would only be a double-standard if we all enjoyed the same definition, which we clearly do not. Thus, I regret to say, the argument of general hypocrisy is lost.

My bad.

So, the original Tropaion article, which all should read, points out the misguided reasons behind outlawing this word “nigger” in NYC, even if that means allowing the most hateful Whites-only definition to linger. Personally, I am left in this murky semantic swamp where every time I hear the benign Blacks-only version, I am immediately and painfully reminded of the ignorant Whites-only version and I just want it all to stop.

Ahh … finally … there is my key to unlock this mystery.

Clearly, outlawing any words in this country should be a crime in itself. I remain steadfast in my first conclusion that the civic-minded souls on the east coast who first concocted this strange unenforceable legislation should clean off their desks, turn out the lights and lock their office doors behind them. They are not needed in this country.

Beyond that, there’s no good reason to penalize or criminalize modern youth, for example, for saying this word “nigger” if, based on a modern black perspective which I do not understand, it is deemed more a compliment rather than an epithet.

If any person merely offends another by saying the word “nigger”, then perhaps that offending person should reconsider. But the fact is that it’s only offensive when white people use the word in contrast to an acceptable black definition that whites can not even begin to fathom.

Most importantly, any legislation or moralizing against the use of the word “nigger” will only suppress a painful truth which we should not allow ourselves the comfort of ignoring. And this is the point. That truth is that as this silly word can only be defined by distinct Whites-only and Black-only perspectives, it only symbolically arises from a nation that truly remains segregated by a distinct Whites-only and Blacks-only cultural divide.

If struggling to cross over that divide means suffering the hurtful sound of the word “nigger”, then so be it.

You see, that’s the road I was going down with Willy and Dink. I have a decent idea of how and when the Whites-only definition took hold. I was hoping the brothers would show me in Part II how the Blacks-only version was first developed.

Now, after reading The Trope’s article, I don’t think I’m able to contemplate how that journey ends. But, who knows, I might learn enough to finish it some day in the future.

Cheers,

Mb