Two years ago, Dear Amy received a letter in which a white writer was complaining about her white friends calling each other “…niggas.” Published in the Raleigh News & Observer on September 20, 2009, the writer wrote:

     “I have a few white friends who throw the “N word” around with an “a” at the end. It makes me uncomfortable when they use it, especially when they use it to describe me (I am white).”

     Dear Amy answered by calling this practice unacceptable.  Her answer was a good one, but I was puzzled.

     My puzzlement had to do with why this group of white people got such apparent joy out of doing this.  That quandary of mine grew when I got a paper from one of my students in which he described the same practice among his white acquaintances.  He was uncomfortable and he was verbal in saying to his friends that their behavior was “…racist.” Interestingly, his friends argued that they were just having fun; that this was harmless.

     My puzzlement went nuclear when I got a paper from a white female who said it made her “angry” that blacks could call themselves “niggers” but she wasn’t allowed too.  Really, I wondered… it makes you angry?  Why in the world would that be the case?

     A lot of different student groups on our campus invite me to lecture on neo-diversity.  Our campus is predominantly white, so most of the time I lecture to racially mixed groups.  But on October 19, 2011, I had the unique opportunity to give a lecture to a predominantly black student group because the invitation came from a black fraternity. I chose as my topic, “There Are No Innocent Racial Slurs.”

    

    This was a real opportunity to address an ugly within-group dynamic in this community of young African-Americans.  So, I went loaded for bear.  Using the same analysis I use in my “Interpersonal Relationships and Race” class, I made the point that black people calling each other “…nigger” is just as unacceptable as whites or members of other groups doing so. That practice is unacceptable because it is done for the same reason; to make an interpersonal power move.  Use of the word “…nigger” is always an attempt to say “I am superior to you.”  How so?

     Some parts of our language have an intergroup character; words are used to distinguish us versus them, and with that superior versus inferior.  Not only that, but the intergroup character of language has a history. Saying that “…I didn’t mean it that way” means you know that history.  Turns out, that history is so strong you can’t change the meaning of the word; there is no other way to use the word.

     Jabara Asim writes with clarity about this in his book, “The N-Word”

 

       Mr. Asim writes:  “…the word ‘nigger’ serves primarily—even in its contemporary ‘friendlier’ usage—as a linguistic extension of white supremacy, the most potent part of a language of oppression that has changed over time from overt to covert.”

    Going on, Asim says,   

    “’Nigger’… is not one of those words of innocuous meaning that morphed over time into something different and harmful; it has always been tethered to notions of race and racial inferiority.”

    So one African-American saying to another, “What’s up… my nigger,” is not friendly or affectionate.  It is one black person reminding another black person of their place in the racial hierarchy of America.  “My nigger…”; “your nothing special, just another nigger” and not only that but “I can talk to you this way because I own you like a slave.”

     When I got around to making this point, the predominantly African American audience went hushed. I had hit home.  Like black students in my class, they had not thought of it this way.  These young black people had not realized that through their language they were perpetuating racisms legacy.

     No matter whose mouth it comes out of, there are no innocent uses of a racial slur.  The intergroup character of language has a history.

    Understanding that makes it less than a puzzle that some whites want to use the word freely towards each other; they say harmlessly, with affection.  Keep in mind that when I teach about the use of racial and other anti-group slurs, I make the point that these slurs are used for one reason: to display power.  The use of anti-group slurs is to pull the “…superiority card.” 

    Whites who call each other nigger do so to show they are still superior to blacks.  Since by being white the term cannot actually apply to them, they are just showing that they know that there are still niggers in the world; there are still people who by their skin color are inferior to white people.  That’s why those whites say that it’s fun; it feels good to remind themselves that they are still superior.

     As for those whites who say “…well if they call each other that then why can’t I call them that?”  What an arrogant, transparent argument. 

     Whites who call each other niggers do not do so in the presence of black people.  Not surprising because they know there would be justified negative consequences because those whites know there is only one way to use the word “…nigger,” however it is spelled. Yet some whites want to be able to use the word.  Why?  There is only one possibility; to show that whites are still superior to blacks. Whites who do this are making a white supremacy claim.  It is pulling the “…superiority-card.” Those whites seem to be saying “…because I am white, I have the right to use this word.” Those whites seem to be saying, “look we invented the word to use against them; so it’s our word after all.” Indeed… that also explains why a young white person would become “…angry” because that white person can’t call black people niggers even though some black people call each other that. 

     Angry about what; how is calling a black person or a white friend a nigger important to your everyday life? 

    Answer me that.

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