White rappers and the N-word
So I listened to the V-nasty again...I forgot which white girl rapper it was. Funny, if you notice a few weeks ago, I posted about the desire for there to be a successful white female rapper to take off where Eminem started. Right after, Kreayshawn popped up from the Bay area with "Gucci, Gucci" and a day or so later, V-nasty appeared on world star with the following freestyle:
Just because here is "Gucci, Gucci":
So both of these females are supporting each other (are they actual sisters?) and coming from an area that is known as a niche and trying to expand. The issue most people have is that in their music, they are known to drop the word 'nigga'. Black folks immediately seem to be shitting their draws over this, I'm here to say one thing-get over it.
We don't 'own' the word, it was derived from the French word negre and stuck as the derogatory term for us black people in the country for years. It was adapted and over the past 60 years or so, the meaning for the most part has been changed especially when used int he social context as slang as you see in most rap songs. Saying "that's my nigga right there" is a different term from a slave-owner using it and yes the 'er' does make a difference as it takes the contempt and disrespect from the word. As it is today, when you look at hip-hop and its influence it seems patently obvious that people who grow up listening to hip-hop will eventually use the slang associated with it regardless of race.
It's 2011 and fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you see things more of the generations starting with mine (I'm almost 30) and following are identifying less with their racial features and more with the group of people they live around and share likes with. The spread of music and migration of people into more diverse communities has made the traditional lines harder to see and older people often are somewhat confused by this. It might be easier if I tell you the exact two moments that made me, a person who has never experienced that real,true racism, understand that the word nigger or nigga was not the same as it had been just a scant 15-20 years earlier.
Incident one was during the Blueprint Lounge tour. This was the first time I saw Jay-z live and was excited. During the show, I noticed that the crowd was at least 75% white. The music for "Nigga What, Nigga Who" came on and I wondered, would the entire venue just get quiet when the hook came on or would this mob of white kids be bold enough to say the dreaded "n" word. My answer came immediately, they didn't give a fuck. It was in the song, they weren't talking down to anyone and they were feeling the music. The second was while my friend and I were working for Red Bull Energy drink on the Mobile Energy Team. We were for a long time, the only two black people there and on one of our shifts we stopped at a Royal Farms on Washington Boulevard. We were approached by a group of white teens who asked for Red Bull by saying "Can we get some Red Bull, niggas is thirsty". We looked at each other, knowing we weren't thirsty and apparently, not the only 'niggas' in the area. After that, the word nigger or nigga will never affect me. It's no longer racial for generations of people, it's cultural.
This brings me back to V-nasty. If you watch the above video with her and the ultimate coon Riff-Raff, you can see all the traits of stereotypical niggas. The gold teeth, tattoos, exaggerated ignorance are all hallmarks of what you would consider niggas. They're not making a mockery either, you can tell, they're just like that. That's what is cool to them. Watching their videos-they're real-ignorant that is."Nigga" means the same as dude or guy now in the majority of instances. So if you're under 30, and almost definately in an urban area, if someone is calling you "nigga" even if they're angry, it's probably not racism.
Just because here is "Gucci, Gucci":
So both of these females are supporting each other (are they actual sisters?) and coming from an area that is known as a niche and trying to expand. The issue most people have is that in their music, they are known to drop the word 'nigga'. Black folks immediately seem to be shitting their draws over this, I'm here to say one thing-get over it.
We don't 'own' the word, it was derived from the French word negre and stuck as the derogatory term for us black people in the country for years. It was adapted and over the past 60 years or so, the meaning for the most part has been changed especially when used int he social context as slang as you see in most rap songs. Saying "that's my nigga right there" is a different term from a slave-owner using it and yes the 'er' does make a difference as it takes the contempt and disrespect from the word. As it is today, when you look at hip-hop and its influence it seems patently obvious that people who grow up listening to hip-hop will eventually use the slang associated with it regardless of race.
It's 2011 and fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you see things more of the generations starting with mine (I'm almost 30) and following are identifying less with their racial features and more with the group of people they live around and share likes with. The spread of music and migration of people into more diverse communities has made the traditional lines harder to see and older people often are somewhat confused by this. It might be easier if I tell you the exact two moments that made me, a person who has never experienced that real,true racism, understand that the word nigger or nigga was not the same as it had been just a scant 15-20 years earlier.
Incident one was during the Blueprint Lounge tour. This was the first time I saw Jay-z live and was excited. During the show, I noticed that the crowd was at least 75% white. The music for "Nigga What, Nigga Who" came on and I wondered, would the entire venue just get quiet when the hook came on or would this mob of white kids be bold enough to say the dreaded "n" word. My answer came immediately, they didn't give a fuck. It was in the song, they weren't talking down to anyone and they were feeling the music. The second was while my friend and I were working for Red Bull Energy drink on the Mobile Energy Team. We were for a long time, the only two black people there and on one of our shifts we stopped at a Royal Farms on Washington Boulevard. We were approached by a group of white teens who asked for Red Bull by saying "Can we get some Red Bull, niggas is thirsty". We looked at each other, knowing we weren't thirsty and apparently, not the only 'niggas' in the area. After that, the word nigger or nigga will never affect me. It's no longer racial for generations of people, it's cultural.
This brings me back to V-nasty. If you watch the above video with her and the ultimate coon Riff-Raff, you can see all the traits of stereotypical niggas. The gold teeth, tattoos, exaggerated ignorance are all hallmarks of what you would consider niggas. They're not making a mockery either, you can tell, they're just like that. That's what is cool to them. Watching their videos-they're real-ignorant that is."Nigga" means the same as dude or guy now in the majority of instances. So if you're under 30, and almost definately in an urban area, if someone is calling you "nigga" even if they're angry, it's probably not racism.
I had a recent incident where I was doing a photo-shoot for a model near a river. Some white boys were cruising down the water about 200ft away from us. Basically, a distance I couldn't possibly swim fast enough to jump on that boat and deal with them.
ReplyDeleteAs they cruised by they shouted nigger repeatedly then flew off as fast as possible. That's racism. That's the intense sense of hatred we should fight against.
This though...whether or not I agree with it. I honestly don't feel any animosity coming from her.
It's curious how things have developed. We've been able to change a word from being derogatory into a staple of cool American culture, but still...in some places it still festers.
Que The Lights
QTL Images
Xay you are very right. I'm not going to say that it has been extinguished, but the mere fact that just in the 60's a white person would never utter the words unless they were about to attack you with a dog, to now, where white kids are dressing, talking, eating, and acting like us is a great deal of growth in that short span of time.
ReplyDeleteBut these chicks, nah they aren't racists so we need to stop putting everyone into that boat.
"They're not making a mockery either, you can tell, they're just like that." Wait what? If people can't see through this facade, theres seriously something wrong. These women are obviously performing an idea of what they consider to be blackness. I don't buy it at all.
ReplyDeleteNaw, where they are from and hang out that is how the black people act, talk, and dress. If I have never moved to Oakland, and lived it that area I wouldn't believe it. For the black people they are around that is what they consider it to mean to be black, or "hood".
Deletejust like it has been stated how far we have come in that white kids are growing up wanting to act and be black (as a rule that couldn't be further from the truth, but for the sake of yalls point of view we'll let it ride)it's funny to me how we have so quickly forgotten "our" heritage and what our people have gone through to not stop and educate a coupla ignant white chicks about what being black is all about.
ReplyDeletethey run around making dumb ass songs acting like cartoon hood rats and niggas (yeah i said niggas lol) is jumping to defend them instead of being self aware enough to realize that in many ways some of the worse sh#t about our culture is being embraced and misunderstood by white kids and shot back into the world as this mess.
then there's the angle of, what other people of color in any country let alone the US will let ANYONE so clumsily mimic our culture or say a word that originated as a derogatory term against them? NONE. try and dress like a jewish person and say a coupla slurs, or call a mexican a beaner and give him a high five, or roll up on an asian dropping "chink this and slant eyed that" and see what happens. only niggas is so ignorant even in the face of blatent disrespect, intentional or not, to try and defend it as merely a sign of the times, or even a good thing cus white chicks in the burbs is saying nigga nigga, while rapping about sellin dope and killin, bitches is proof that we won.
thats a seriously f#cked up train of thought. no matter who you are that sh*t makes NO SENSE!
They're not trying to be "black" that's the point. There is less of a specific blackness as an entire culture now and that's the issue. Black people today are more seperated by their individual csocio economic classes among each other than divided by race between white people and blacks. Its not that they think this is how to be black and more that they just feel this is their way to behave based upon culture. This is representative of the hip hop class coming to the forefront in this day and age than an example of how to be black.
ReplyDeleteNow when talking about other groups they aren't as integrated into american society as we are nor do they have as many imitators. Words can change power and the more we get away from the derogatory nature the less this will bother people. Just look at this generation and the next they will not ever incur the same wrath of racism my grandparents experienced and will as a result never have the same feelings about the word. You would prefer to have the word be taboo or have the meaning totally changed to be seen as something casual and non hurtful? What is better for society as a whole?
What I read here is misguided at best, ignorant at worst.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking the word "nigger" or any of its variations into the air invokes the immutable history of slavery and everything the historical moment of black object-ness (by that I mean the position of Blackness, or the Black, as a social/cultural object in a system of white supremacy) held. To speak the word is to invoke the whip, the noose, the sweat, the blood, the tears, the inequality, the racism, and ultimately the social death experienced by the Black, by Blackness, in the slavery moment.
Such a social death is a social, cultural, and conceptual murder that manifests in the real-world (physical, legal, economic, etc) murder (i.e. the removal of humanity) of the Black, or of Blackness; the word "nigger" as it arose in the temporal and spatial context of slavery was intended to voice and embody the violence that lies in that murder--and you are sorely mistaken in that you trace it back to France, when the word originates much earlier in the traditions of the greeks and romans, and even earlier in the hieroglyphs and cuneiform messages of the Egyptians, Sumerians, and their predecessors (but that's beside the point, since the word adopts new life when it emerges from the lips of plantation owners and slave traders in the 1600s, and even in those in the 400s (when slavery began)).
That 'times have changed' is a futile argument. Look at Loic Wacquant's "From Slavery to Mass Incarceration", which chronicles the transformation (NOT disappearance) of slavery into various forms that allow the oppression of black people to not only persist to this day, but afford it new, institutional life that is more diverse and covert, and thereby differently effective. Largely, despite the grand physical shifts and bodily elements of oppression characteristic of slavery that are maintained by the system of mass incarceration (quite clearly oriented toward the over-imprisonment of blacks), have spread even more subtly into the realm of the psychological--as seen here in the idea that "it's 2011, the word should be meaningless."
(continued in next post)...
Look at the work of Frantz Fanon, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. (not the tame MLK taught in elementary school, the whole one), Aime Cesaire, CLR James, Angela Davis, Hortense Spillers, Saidiya Hartman, bell hooks, Frank Wilderson III, Jared Sexton, Dorothy Roberts, or Kimberle Crenshaw: all of them are activists, all of them are far more experienced and knowledgable than those who claim we are in the end-times of racism; all of them provide groundbreaking analyses and observations that definitively destroy any notions of a "post-racial" society, ESPECIALLY when using the term to describe the present moment.
ReplyDeleteAll in all, speaking the word "nigger" invokes the history it holds, regardless of whatever idealisms liberal hip-hop listeners attempt to present--there is no removal of the historical from the linguistic, there is no removing the whip or noose or death from the term, and there most certainly is no way to turn it into a "casual" expression. Its inability to be extricated from its history makes problematic its use at all to date, and makes even more problematic its use by whites and non-blacks. Blacks have not escaped the object position of the slave--use a keen, critical eye and sharp mind (e.g. read those scholars) and witness that fact. Changes have been made, granted, but the work is never over, and never will be. Having V-Nasty and her ignorant "crew" use the word is an invocation of the slavery moment by Whites in a world where that Black object position, that Black social death persists.
Furthermore, just because there is no apparent intent (that's arguable), this does not excuse the animosity embedded in the term, and thereby the consequent racism that emerges from it. Racism does not require intent (i.e. so much is racist without the intent to be so). The word is no less racist than it was before--it holds that history, it will always hold that history. Check out some of the scholars I suggested to understand my position, and the position of many. They cannot, and should not use the word--even worse, since they are the worst rappers since Soulja boy.
My relevant background:
I'm a dual PhD Student at Brown University studying Africana (African-American) Studies and English. I run a magazine for the Black Community called "Umoja News Magazine: Brown University." I am Black; have been called "nigger," "nigga," and whatever other variation both maliciously (once with my girlfriend, other times walking down the street in what should be liberal Southern California) and communally (friends in the Black community at UCI). And I love good hip-hop, not trash.
If i don't think about the historical contexts then for me it no longer exists. No one thinks of a "Fag" as a cigarette even though that is what it once was used as a term for. History changes as do historical contexts as you get further away from the time when it was prominent. Only those who wish to hold onto the old meaning will go through the work of finding all of this evidence and holding onto it.
ReplyDeleteHow can it be racist when one is referring to themselves when they weren't the original target of said racism? I respectfully disagree with you. You should have put your name with all of the work you did typing that.
The most enlightening thing I read after I randomly stumbled onto this page was the comment by "Anonymous".
ReplyDeleteHow can you ...Rembrandt .. Ask why would he bring up all that history ?? You don't take this topic seriously that's why you don't understand why someone would take the time to type out & explain why many black people still feel its offensive when a white person refers to hell themselves as "nigga ... There would have to be alot of time passed for us to remove
...o forget o transfom the histoy behind the word..Not enough rap songs by any artist will. Not in this lifetime. Especially like Anonymous typed out for you ..while black ae still facing a racist government & society as we see in our educational system, our justice system, & our emploment practices..hell even the Big Banks are working against us..I wont bring out the statistics becuase I see you dont like facts in abundance ...But I do agree with one thing..its to bad anonymous doesnt have a name becuase thats a blog id like to read!!
ReplyDeletesmh so because my opinion is different it isn't serious? I know plenty of those 'facts' and you can also see by those same numbers how much better it has gotten, or are you going to say we still face the same issues with the same veracity of the 40's,50's, and 60's? nope, exactly, so my point is during a transition period, why not look at this word and understand that it isn't used in the demeaning way as much as it was in the past. The government may be 'racist' but not in the way in which the national guard was turned against us. Not in the police departments being turned against us from getting educations, thats racism to me. Today, green is the most important color. Then you attributed something to me that wa snowhere within my comment...I didn't ask why he/she would, i totally understand, but to me it isn't relevant.
ReplyDeleteI'm saying this, as a black person who is 20 years removed from the movement from birth, who has children 40 years removed from it, that is actually, a long time for them to be removed from the hostory of the word. I've never been spat at or called a nigger so yeah it doens't have that context for me at all, and if you haven't either then to me you're fronting on 'having these feelings'.
The problem isn't so much that Kreayshawn, and V-Nasty are racist, its that they're ignorant. They're not devilish (no pun intended) masterminds who are consciously exploiting black culture, that just happens to be a coincidence. The real problem is that these two "white" girls, are probably the most accurate portrayal of the upcoming generation of black youth. A generation that has absolutely no concept of its history and culture.
ReplyDeleteWhat I mean by this, is that to say that black people no longer "own" the word Nigger/Nigga, is ridiculous. The word nigger, was the word whites bestowed upon black people in order to demean them and thus make the destruction and enslavement of an entire people seem not so bad. The word nigga was what slaves who spoke Ebonics, called each other in acknowledgement of being in the same struggle.
The area of confusion comes in, when Hip-Hop comes on the scene in the late 70's. Hip-Hop culture and black culture are borderline synonymous, but are not in actuality synonymous. Hip-Hop culture was born out of black culture, where the word nigga derives from, which is why it became so common as Hip-Hop culture became more popular. Now hip-hop culture means to speak from the soul, to embody your culture with the spoken word. Which is why Eminem was so successful, not just because he was a good rapper, but because appealed to white people (the primary share holders of the buying market), he didn't try to be black. Really his music is like heavy metal lyrics over a Dr. Dre production. He brought his middle America sensibility to the table, and combined it with Hip-Hop culture, never once using the word nigga.
And that's what these two girls lack, an understanding of both Hip-Hop and black culture. They may have grown up in the hood, but you take away the tattoos and the baggy clothes, and they fit right into any republican candidate's family photo. They're not now, or can never be niggas, you can't separate black people from the word because you can't separate one's self from one's race. Take away all aspects of racism, and like still takes to like, basic human nature.
So that leaves one other area of confusion, how come other races can use the word with out the same type of uproar? Simple, white people have treated every race of immigrant to come to this country like shit, or better yet like "niggers." So again nigga is used as a term of acknowledgement of being in the same situation, especially with Hispanic people because many Hispanic cultures share African roots.
It all comes down to being self-conscious enough to know when and where shit is not appropriate, when you're singing along to a song (that a black person made) at a concert that you paid good money to see, damn right you gonna say nigga. When asking for a red bull, "Man, a nigga thirsty," not so much. Does that mean they should be getting jumped for saying nigga? No, but someone in the crew should be aware enough of their own culture to set home girl straight. Just saying...
I agree with very ignorant in deed. Then again you have people in the music industry like Lil Wayne and etc who make buffoonery the new trend then many people who are dumb enough will follow suit.
Deletei would say I like your response Mike especially the first couple of paragraphs.
ReplyDeleteWhite rapper usin it... smh .. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsPhZ7nC7fs
ReplyDeleteI don't agree too much, because it's sad that black people try to justify or make a derogatory word like "Nigger" and change it to NIGGA. To make it mean my friend or whatever. I never heard a Puerto Rican saying hey what up my Spic to one another. The same goes for Chinese saying what up my Chink or Japanese saying what up Jap-o! Even the Irish what up my Dick!! I grew up on hip-hop the same as you, but you fail to realize we are the only ignorant ones who try to turn a negative word such as that and try to change it. "Hell no!!!" Before my mother died she even told me back in the 60s 70s and early 80s. You would get the piss slap out of you for even saying that word. I do not remember any rappers till the late 80s or early 90s using that word. I was a kid then, but my behind knew better. I am sorry I only say the n word when you act like a buffoon. Plantation behavior is not cute, but people do it. Wearing your pants half way off your ass isn't comfortable when I see you walking like you stole Yosemite Sam's pants. Plus it's not health or safe unless you are in jail where you cannot wear belts and afraid your ass my be Big Ron's if he finds it nice and round for the night. Many of these young guys lookin like they.stole their kid brother jeans/pants do know that little bit of fact I stated. Sorry that is begin a nigga in my eye. No matter what race you are everyone act ignorance since it's bliss. I have a habit of letting that word slip here and there. It is just that it is said and heard in music that the masses want us to look forever as the most ignorant race to date. I will say the Jersey Shore kids do use the derogatory word for Italians like rappers use Nigga, because once again Ignorance is bliss. Just remember besides them why no one else uses Spic, Map-o, Chink, Jerry or Mick. They are deragatory words and there is no way in changing that into a positive. We the only fools that seem to do it. I am not HOLIER than thou. Just keeping it real!!!
ReplyDeleteI randomly found this blog, and had to comment.
DeleteWhile teaching in PA I would always hear/observe my black students calling each other 'nigga', and since I was from PA that was normal to me...then, I move to Arizona, and the mexican students are always calling each other 'beaners' or 'fence jumpers'...younger generations don't attach the actual history/meaning of the word--to the actual word. They're too far removed. Most 7th grade student--black, white, mexican, asian--couldn't even tell you when slavery ended. Most don't care...sad, but true.
I am typing on my cell phone so I tried my best to fix all the typos. LOL, but I will repost the corrected one:
ReplyDeleteI don't agree too much, because it's sad that black people try to justify or make a derogatory word like "Nigger" and change it to NIGGA. To make it mean my friend or whatever. I never heard a Puerto Rican saying hey what up my Spic to one another. The same goes for Chinese saying what up my Chink or Japanese saying what up Jap-o! Even the Irish what up my Mick!!
I grew up on hip-hop the same as you, but you fail to realize we are the only ignorant ones who try to turn a negative word such as that and try to change it. "Hell no!!!" Before my mother died she even told me back in the 60s 70s and early 80s. You would get the piss slap out of you for even saying that word. I do not remember any rappers till the late 80s or early 90s using that word. I was a kid then, but my behind knew better. I am sorry I only say the n word when you act like a buffoon. Plantation behavior is not cute, but people do it. Wearing your pants half way off your ass isn't comfortable when I see you walking like you stole Yosemite Sam's pants. Plus it's not healthly or safe unless you are in jail where you cannot wear belts and afraid your ass may be Big Ron's if he finds it nice and round for the night. Many of these young guys looking like they stole their kid brother jeans/pants do know that little bit of fact I stated. Sorry that is begin a nigga in my eye.
No matter what race you are everyone act ignorant since it's bliss. I have a habit of letting that word slip here and there. It is just that it is said and heard in music that the masses want us to look forever as the most ignorant race to date. I will say the Jersey Shore kids do use the derogatory word for Italians like rappers use Nigga, because once again Ignorance is bliss. Just remember besides them why no one else uses Spic, Jap-o, Chink, Jerry or Mick. They are deragatory words and there is no way in changing that into a positive. We the only fools that seem to do it. I am not HOLIER than thou. Just keeping it real!!!
ITS A MUHHFUCKN WORD!!! GET THA FUCKK OVER IT YALL... REAL..
ReplyDeleteBest up and coming white rapper? http://www.themustachetribune.com/poll-best-white-rapper-up-and-coming/
ReplyDeleteCool and that i have a super offer you: Full House Reno whole house renovation cost
ReplyDelete