So, let's talk about the word nigger. I am going to do it without quotation marks or emphasis. I am just going to talk about the word without any barriers to that. I am about to type some of the most OFFENSIVE SHIT I've ever written. Please know that. Please understand I am typing this with that full knowledge. I am saying what I am saying in these horrific terms to make my point, but NOT as a personal POV.
I am in the 3rd year of my PhD in 19th Century American Lit. So let's start here:
Where does Nigger come from? It's complicated. Understanding it means understanding the weird, fucked up history of the slave trade. Yes, the English were the greatest masterminds, but they didn't own it entirely. The worst portions (in terms of labor demands) happened in the Caribbean. Which were largely (though not entirely) taken over by the Spanish. It was meant to be descriptive. "Black" in another language. The term migrated with Spanish who owned slaves lucky enough to survive the sugar fields. Or, more correctly, people who profited enough in the south to move North to America. Almost no one survived the sugar fields.
So...how the hell did it get so offensive here without contaminating another word (like 'black') in English? Well, the answer comes from the start of the abolitionist movement. There were a LOT of white slaves. Many were indentured servants paying their way from Europe. Slavery wasn't just black people. And the abolitionist movement wasn't necessarily about black people and their rights. Most of it stemmed for north/south political disputes that come out with the Mayflower. There were a TON of social and political issues happening between the North and the South. I could write a novel about the issues therein. But here are some of the high points:
Etc. Etc. Etc.
The Civil War WAS about slavery. And money. And land. And political power. AND money. And more money. Don't confuse it.
So, starting with the beginnings of the abolitionist movement and carrying through to the reconstruction, there's a radical move to brand 'black' and 'nigger' in this country. And those are two different things, mind you. Black was a condition of birth. The one drop rule, the 1/8th rule, the visible reality of skin tone. You have to remember that everyone is fucking their slaves. Skin tone is being diluted. This is before genetics, there's no REAL way to know if someone has a drop of black blood. There's passing, then there's not. There is being black, and not. People are super, hyper concerned in a way you cannot fathom about "black" people passing as white.
But then...there's the nigger. And the nigger is different. The nigger is sub-human. The nigger is politically irrelevant. The nigger can't pass because they can't possibly be mistaken. They are a boogeyman, a specter, a political no-man. They served a VERY specific focus in the South, in the North (which, let's be honest, as as racist in different ways). It isn't about skin color or voting status. It is about person-hood. Nigger was used to negate being a human being, a relevant thing. It means black but it means in the sense that, because of being black, you do not matter. You are not counted. Your entire existence is just speculation like that of an end table or a forgotten piano.
Why have nigger? Because black is tricky. Black implies color and too many years of rape and in-breeding ruined that. Slave is a political condition that happened and then un-happened. Plus, there were white slaves (the Irish, for example) so that didn't quite fit. It wasn't about color. It wasn't about rights. It was about being a human being or not. So they took an old word, a fitting word, a new word for English. They took nigger and they made it mean what they wanted: sub-human, less-than, monster.
The nigger wants to rape white women. The nigger has an insatiable sexual appetite. The nigger woman wants to be raped, she craves it. Nigger kids steal. The only good place for a Nigger is a noose. On and on and on.
They are monsters. They can become monstrous, but only with a name that makes them so. They can't just be "black". People had black nannies, black field hands, black drivers, black cooks. They were the "good" blacks. But the others? They were niggers.
See the difference?
So why, WHY, would ANYONE (black or white) EVER use it?
Because, for people who grew up niggers, whose parents grew up niggers, it is real. It is happening. It is STILL happening. People still view them as monsters. Because the black person who takes your order every day at the Starbucks is a nice kid. But you still cross the street, I STILL cross the street, when a young black man is following behind you on the way to your car. Some of that is socioeconomic--we've done a spectacular job of screwing black people and calling it 'hard work' and 'personal merit'. Some of that is Brown v. Board (the white doll is the "good" doll). Some of it is politics. We don't like angry black people. We don't want to talk about it. We get caught up in white guilt, sins we must live with but cannot undo. It hurts, it really does.
So...why use the word?
Because the word, that word, is the word that gets at ALL this bullshit without a thousand word post from an unequipped white girl explaining it. And I'm probably doing a shit job, but here I am anyway. That word encapsulated the whole thing, the root of it, and it makes it knowable. You can say it to friends, to enemies, you can say it. It lets you SAY it.
Admit it: you know fuck all. About the slave trade, about being black, about being black in America the last seven decades. You're a dumb shit. So am I. But if you do know, if you want to communicate that to someone else who gets it.....what's a better word than nigger? What carries the same punch? What encapsulates the trauma, the struggle, the triumph, the contrast, the history better? What word would YOU use instead? What could possibly replace it?
What word gets at it? Not skin, not rights, not money, not god, but humanity. What word really depicts the color line between 'person' and not that we drew so many years ago and have to live with. We can't undo it, it's still here and happening. The word or the lack thereof doesn't absolve us. Nigger is the only word we have to talk about it.
And people use it. To make light of, to make sense of it, to reaffirm self-hood. And there are people (me, for instance) that that cannot use it lightly, that should not. But that's okay, more than okay. I get it, in my limited way. I'm not entitled.
But...do you get it? That's the question.