Wale, a rapper from DC who was recently named one of Hip-Hop’s Freshmen by XXL, has a song called “The Kramer” from his Mixtape About Nothing. It’s a great song to analyze because in one song it features a lot of the different views that people have on the n-word. It has hypocrisy. Wale says usage of the word is bad but then uses it more than 30 times in this song alone. He talks about the idea of Black people taking the word and making it ours, taking the power from it. He talks about why is it okay for Black people to use the word but not White people. In the end I think Wale condones using the n-word and he is on the side that we have taken the word and made it into something positive. While I don’t agree with everything Wale says, it’s still an interesting listen.

Warning. There are explicit lyrics. This is a fan-made video the song by Wale. There is no official video right now.

Wale – The Kramer (Unofficial Fan Video) from McFaddenisDead on Vimeo.

“Nigga ain’t bad, see, niggas just had/ A clever idea to take something they said/ Into something we have/ Something we flipped into something with swag/… A nigga write nigga in a lyric/ Expect the white boy to omit it/ The white boy spit it like he spit it/ Recite it to his friends who, by the way ain’t niggas/ And say, ‘Nigga, nigga, nigga, my favorite rapper did it’/ … Until a black friend kinda hear it just a tidbit/ He thinks, “Aw forget it./ It’s so insignificant and little.”/ The white boy sees this as a clearance/ Now it’s “Nigga, nigga, nigga” every single day/ And that little nigga nigga thinks it’s okay/ And he’s the only nigga in his particular grade/ And it begins to phase him more each day/ The things they say went a little too far/ He couldn’t tell the difference between an a or e-r/ So they keep going saying nigga in his face/ There’s nothing he can do, he let it get away”

Like I broke down the Jay-Z “Lost+” song, I’m going to do the same here. I’ll go line by line with the lyrics and talk about the argument of using the n-word.

“Nigga ain’t bad, see, niggas just had/ A clever idea to take something they said/ Into something we have/ Something we flipped into something with swag.”

This is the main argument you have probably heard when hearing someone explain why they use the n-word. “We took it and made it ours.” Jay-Z recently argued this point when he appeared on Oprah. Wale reiterates that point here. Black people tried to take a horrible word and flip it into something positive – a term of endearment. I think this argument is slightly hypocritical because to use this argument you’re acknowledging that there is a history behind the word and there is a deep-seated hatred. Yet once you ask them about the history, they say oh it’s just the past and it doesn’t mean anything today. This tells me that they must not truly know the past because we are still living in the effects of slavery, and that time period today.

” A nigga write nigga in a lyric/ Expect the white boy to omit it/ The white boy spit it like he spit it/ Recite it to his friends who, by the way ain’t niggas/ And say, ‘Nigga, nigga, nigga, my favorite rapper did it’.”

Here’s where the problem lies. Whatever your stance on the n-word, if you think black people should say it or not, here is usually where most people agree – non-blacks should not use the word. So if Sean says the n-word all the time around his white friends. Are we supposed to believe that his white friends aren’t going to pick up on the word and use it? Some might say that common sense should tell them not to use it. But humans like trial and error. So a white person will try it once and as soon as you ignore it that one time, they will take it as approval; as if you condoned their usage of the word.

“Until a black friend kinda hear it just a tidbit/ He thinks, “Aw forget it./ It’s so insignificant and little.”/ The white boy sees this as a clearance/ Now it’s “Nigga, nigga, nigga” every single day/ And that little nigga nigga thinks it’s okay/ And he’s the only nigga in his particular grade/ And it begins to phase him more each day/ The things they say went a little too far/ He couldn’t tell the difference between an a or e-r/ So they keep going saying nigga in his face/ There’s nothing he can do, he let it get away”

This is my favorite part of the song. Like I said earlier a black person will hear someone say it and not like it but won’t blow up and make a big deal out of it for whatever reason. Maybe they think it’s okay for them to say it or maybe they just think it was a slip and they won’t say it again. But then the white (or any non-black) person sees that as “a clearance” or an okay to use the word. Then they start using it all the time and that passes it on to their non-black friends and now everyone is using it. The issue comes in when Wale says, “The things they say went a little too far/ He couldn’t tell the difference between an a or -er.” Those who think it’s okay for a white person to say nigga instead of nigger have a problem with this. Personally I’m not okay with a white person using any form of the word so I don’t have to deal with this. However, I have seen this happen. One day they don’t like the tone a non-black person used the n-word in. They couldn’t tell the difference between if they said nigga or nigger and it offends them. This discrepancy in their ideology and their emotions confuses them and “there’s nothing he can do, he let it get away”.

This post wasn’t to convert anybody. If you use the n-word, you use it. If you don’t, you don’t. I have an opinion on whether or not I think the n-word should be used but this wasn’t the venue to express that. I just liked Wale’s song and thought it was an interesting angle to look at the debate over the n-word.

Who can use the n-word? What’s your stance on this subject?

-Michelle Huxtable

I’m not a Harry Potter fan by any means. But I do know one thing about the series. There’s this guy named Voldemort. And according to Wikipedia, “He is so feared that almost no one uses his real name, instead referring to him as “You-Know-Who” or “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named”.

I was going to put a picture of Voldemort but he's too creepy.

I used to think that was dumb. Saying his name isn’t going to change anything. Sure he’s an evil person but the word itself is just a name. But the word has connotations. Connotations of an evil man who hates non-pure-blood wizards. He is a “self-hating bully”. JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, said he is a “raging psychopath, devoid of the normal human responses to other people’s suffering.”

Why am I going on and on about a fictional character in a book about wizards? Because there are interesting parallels between the name Voldemort and the n-word. Voldemort is so feared that people won’t say his name. The n-word used to be like that. Even if non-blacks said it in privacy, they had enough sense to know not to say it around Black people. But that seems to have changed. Everybody thinks they can say it without repercussion.

Why won’t people say Voldemort’s name? Because of the meaning behind it. Voldemort hates non-pure-blood wizards. The people who originated the n-word hated those who were not pure white blood. The word was bred out of hatred. Pure hatred.

In the minds of the wizards at Hogwarts (the school Harry Potter attends), He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and Voldemort are the same person. They are interchangeable. They do not have different meanings. The same should apply to nigger and nigga. They are not different words. Nigger is not the racist version, and nigga is not the friendly fraternal version. They are the same word. They have the same history. Just because somebody along the way got lazy and changed the -er to -a doesn’t change the meaning of the word.

Some use the excuse that it’s all in how you say it. If a non-black person is using the word to refer to a joke that they are repeating, or saying it in a friendly way, it should be okay, right?

Wrong. Intentions do not change the meaning of a word. If I call you a fireman in an angry way or in a nice way, I’m still calling you a fireman. The word doesn’t change depending on how I mean to say it in my mind. Intentions can never change the history of a word. The n-word was never a term of endearment and it was never synonymous with brotherhood.

I don’t care who says it. Black or non-black. When I hear the word I’m going to associate it with slavery. I’m going to associate it with the real meaning. Derived from the Latin niger, it started out simple enough. Labeling people based on the color of the skin. People may think this is overreacting because it’s a new day and age. The only problem with that logic is that it isn’t a new day and age. The technology may have changed, the climate may be a little warmer, but racial thought in America is not that different. People would know this if we were educated on our history.

The history of the n-word, slavery, racial thought in America, and all other branches of these areas are not Black History. It’s the history of America. Black, White, Chinese, Dominican, Korean, Jamaican, Indian, Peruvian, it doesn’t matter. Once you are in America there is a history that should be taught.

If more people knew their history I truly believe, maybe naively, but I truly believe that the word would not be used as much.

First off, yes I realize there is more than one problem with rap music. But let’s try to stay focused. A problem with rap/hip-hop/trip-hop/nerdcore whatEVER you want to call it is that we relate to it. We’ll rap every lyric like we live that life knowing dang skippy we don’t. It’s actually one of the beauties of rap. And yet it’s what makes it so difficult.

Exhibit A - Not the life I live.

PAUSE.

*record scratches to a halt*

I dare you to say the n-word. Try me.

What the N-Word Police can look like

1. Since you’re monitoring what they say you have to listen to them butcher a song that you like.

2. If they say the n-word you have to find a way to tell them it’s not OK for them to say it. The problem with this is that most people don’t know how to have this conversation.

3. If they skip the word and you say it because you think you’re the all powerful negro who can say it well then you’re trapped in their car while they are driving and you can’t escape the proverbial question of “If you can say it why can’t I?”

Reasons 2 and 3 both lead to this same question. Then you’re forced to dig deep and ask yourself questions about the history of the n-word. You start thinking about slavery. You go home and watch Roots. You start getting mad at white folk and can’t hold onto your non-black friends. It really just goes downhill from there.

That’s the problem with rap music. It is and always has been (even in its current state of foolishness) a mirror of society. It makes you think. It may not always produce change but it will make you reflect.

How do you have “the talk” with a friend about the use of the n-word? Is it really that serious? Do you find yourself on n-word patrol when listening to music with a non-black friend?

Stuff Black People Hate wrote an article about the n-word that I enjoy. (Caution: Lots of profanity but still a good read) TheFreshXpress also wrote an article about Keeping Black Friends by not immediately playing Jay-Z when we get in the car.