"a word is not a crystal"

'How could the man who gave me permission to "go to war" against racial insult turn around and proudly refer to himself as a nigger? My father could do so because he intuited what Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once observed -- that "a word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged," but is instead "the skin of a living thought [that] may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and time in which it is used."' -- nigger: the strange career of a troublesome word by Randall Kennedy, p. xviii

a video of nas's upcoming & sure-to-be-controversial song, 'be a nigger too':



i recommend the book, nigger: the strange career of a troublesome word by Randall Kennedy, to anyone who is engaged in the philosophical debate about the infamous N-word. while i don't agree with every last thought expressed in that book, randall kennedy presents some refreshing ideas that are not circulated in mainstream media. furthermore, the author is a middle aged black man from the midwest and i was intrigued by his stance.

let me share some more of that stance with you:

"Some entertainers who openly use nigger reject Cosby's politics of respectability, which counsels African Americans to mind their manners and mouths in the presence of whites. This group of performers doubts the efficacy of seeking to burnish the image of African Americans in the eyes of white folk. Some think that the racial perceptions of most whites are beyond changing; others believe that whatever marginal benefits of politics of respectability may yield are not worth the psychic cost of giving up or diluting cultural rituals that blacks enjoy ... These entertainers don't care whether whites find nigger upsetting. They don't care whether whites are confused by blacks' use of the term. And they don't care whether whites who hear blacks using the N-word think that African Americans lack self-respect. The black comedians and rappers who use and enjoy nigger care principally, perhaps exclusively, about what they themselvs think, desire, and enjoy ... They eschew boring conventions, including the one that maintains, despite massive evidence to the contrary, that nigger can only mean one thing." -- p. 134-135

as i have personally participated in this debate and listened to the arguments of those who are ANTI-NIGGA and want to ban the word from the english language several patterns have emerged to me in the thought processes of these anti-nigga folk.

the first is a lack of basic understanding about linguistics which is simply another word for how language works. many people either deny that the universal laws of linguistics apply to the word nigga or they are ignorant of the linguistic laws that have governed ALL language and communication systems since the beginning of time. linguistics is not a white thing. its a human thing. and language is always and has always been about context.

secondly. the other underlying pattern that i detect in arguments that object to nigga is simply fear. fear of one thing. the RE-action of white people. whether its: white people will start saying it, white people will start believing it, white people wont know the differences in definition .... etc etc. its all a fear of the RE-action of white people. and if you find your mind wandering down that path --- pause ...

lastly. the pattern of self-hatred in the "disrespecting ourselves by using nigga" argument. if a person says we disrespect ourselves by using the word nigga than that person assumes that nigga means something disrespectful. if nigga was created by a white man to mean: a black person who is lazy and trifling BECUZ they are black ... does it really mean that? are there really black people who cant help but be trifling because they are black? if you believe so then you are yourself a racist. if you are black and believe so than you hate yourself as well. IF nigga is a false concept in the derogatory use of the term and there is no such thing REALLY as a nigga ...

then how does it accurately characterize any real human being?