“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names [words] will never hurt me!” That’s what we were taught as children, but as adults, we now know that was some nursery-rhyme b#######! Many-a-dude has gone into rehab behind a chick telling him he has a teeny-weenie pencil-neck p##### and many-a-chick has gone into depression behind a dude calling her a “thot” and a “jump-off.” Yes! Words can sting and touch us to our core!
Thus, it was, in 1839 that Englishman Edward Bulwer-Lytton wrote a play entitled “Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy” where he coined the phrase, “The pen is mightier than the sword.”No truer words have ever been spoken! The “pen” (or words) are powerful!
The idea that we “give words too much power” is ludacrisp preposterous! This seems to be the new thinking of this generation of youngsters who would tell us old-heads that we are living in the past, as though the word “n#####” (or even “n####”) has lost its sting and wretchedness coming from the moufs of white people. Meanwhile, it’s been 2,000 years and you’re still harping on the murder of one man (Jesus), but bringing up a pogrom (look the word up!) of slavery that ended less than 160 years ago is hanging on to the past?
When did it become okay for white people to say n#####/n####? Yes! I know they are just parroting, mimicking, aping and regurgitating black hip-hop cultural aesthetics. Hip-hop (rap) is partly responsible for the desensitization of the N-word, but when did it become okay for white people and white rappers like V-Nasty (and I’m hearing some scuttlebutt about Iggy Azalea) to use the N-word? When did this shift occur? What coonerific black rapper cosigned the usage—Mister Fab?
Surely, every white rapper, from the Beastie Boys to Third Bass to Vanilla Ice to Eminem (and please don’t bring up Benzino’s supposed outing of Em!) knew that using the N-word (whether it be n##### or n####) on wax was a no-no—a faux pas (misstep) of the highest order! They weren’t trying to reinvent the wheel and take the power away from the N-word. They knew full-well the ramifications that lie ahead for trying to adopt the N-word.
But now some whites argue that blacks are hypocritical because we can call each other “n#####,” but a white person can’t. (Awww! Poor Baby! You want in on our cultural ignorance. Tough!) They’ve become philosophical. This has to be the lamest argument ever, but I say to any white person who feels as such to freely used to the N-word, and expect that overhand right to come a-calling from Bum-f### Egypt at any given moment when used around enough black people. Go for it! I want to hear you tell some hood cat that he’s “hypocritical” while picking up your teef dental off the ground. By all means, go for it!
Listen to me white people! You know damned well it’s wrong to use the N-word in any form! Don’t let this industry, ignant-assed rappers or the black kids you grew up around you make you think any differently! You will never be the homie (as in, “my n####!”).
N#####. Nothing stings a race of people more than the word n#####! Not cracker, s###, w######, P######, k###, Ginny or any other ethnic slur! Why? Because the word “n#####” is rooted in a history so wretched, so shameful, so painful, so degrading, and so murderous—a word that is the bedfellow of the worst hell-ocaust “holocaust” in the annals of human history, euphemistically called “That Peculiar Institution”—f###### American slavery!
The word n##### is still fresh in the minds of young and old African Americans/blacks today. Those are fighting words! How dare you even think that after 400 plus years of human servitude and a mere 150 years “Up From Slavery” (Shout-out to Booker T Washington!) you think you can come along with your pseudo b####### cultural interloping and “culture vulture” self and undo the legacy of the N-Word? That’s just like a white person to think such idiocy! You can’t devalue or take the sting off a word that sent hundreds, yea, thousands—doff! Millions to their deaths! You can’t erase that in the name of Freedom of Speech or artistic licensure or rap music or ‘cause your ignant black friends told you it was all right to use the N-word! The proof is when a black person steps to you (white person) and verbally and/or physically checks you! Don’t get a “n####” (me!) wrong! I’m not (per se) against white people using the N-word, but I’m also not (per se) against black people knocking the s### out of white people for using “said” word. How’s that? (“For every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction.”)
If only we’d read a book or two! We might find a way to a clue! This subject really isn’t worth a lengthy blog. Black action will speak louder than any white pontificating.
Justin Bieber, Iggy Azalea, V-Nasty, etc. Keep it up! I assure you there’s a Worldstar moment with your name on it! You can use the N-word, but be warned—use at your own risk!
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Khalil Amani is a blogger for AllHipHop. He also writes for DJ Kay Slay’s Originators Magazine & Straight Stuntin Magazine. He is the author of six books, including the ground-breaking book, “Hip-Hop Homophobes…” iuniverse.com 07). Amani is gay hip-hop’s self-proclaimed straight advocate. Visit The Coonerific One athttp://www.khalilamani.ning.com Follow on Facebook/Twitter @khalilamani. Instagram @khalil_amani, Youtube @ yahweh 12 Khalilamani@yahoo.com