Nigger
From Metapedia
Nigger, Nigga or Niglet (a child) is a term used to refer to dark-skinned people, mostly those of African ancestry. In modern times, in many contexts, it is most often considered pejorative. Some want to "reclaim" the word for use by black people.
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Etymology and history
Earlier variants (such as neger or negar) derive from the Spanish/Portuguese word negro, meaning "black", and probably also the French nègre, which has also been used pejoratively (but also positively as in Négritude), derived from negro (the ordinary French word for "black" being noir). Both negro and noir (and therefore also nègre and nigger) ultimately come from nigrum, the accusative form of the Latin adjective word niger, meaning "black".
In Colonial America, negars was used in 1619 by John Rolfe, describing slaves shipped to Virginia colony. Neger (sometimes spelled "neggar") also prevailed in northern New York under the Dutch and also in Philadelphia, in its Moravian and Pennsylvania Dutch communities. For example, the African Burial Ground in New York City was originally known as "Begraafplaats van de Neger" (Dutch phrase meaning "Cemetery of the negro" in English).
In the United States, the word nigger was not always considered derogatory, but was instead used by many as merely denotative of black skin, as it was in other parts of the English-speaking world. In nineteenth-century literature, there are many uses of the word nigger with no intended negative connotation. Charles Dickens, and Joseph Conrad (who published The Nigger of the 'Narcissus' in 1897) used the word without racist intent. Mark Twain often put the word into the mouths of his characters, white and black, but did not use the word when writing as himself in his autobiographical Life on the Mississippi.
In the United Kingdom and other parts of the English-speaking world, the word was often used to refer to people of Pakistani or Indian descent, or merely to darker-skinned foreigners in general; in his 1926 Modern English Usage, H. W. Fowler observed that when the word was applied to "others than full or partial negroes," it was "felt as an insult by the person described, & betrays in the speaker, if not deliberate insolence, at least a very arrogant inhumanity." The note was excised from later editions of the book.
In the 1800s, as nigger began to acquire the pejorative connotation it holds today, the term "Colored" gained popularity as a kinder alternative to negro and associated terms. For example, abolitionists in Boston, Massachusetts posted warnings to "Colored People of Boston and vicinity." The name of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People reflects the preference for this term at the time of the NAACP's founding in 1909.
Southern dialect in many parts of the southern United States changes the pronunciation of "Negro" to "nigra" (used most famously by Lyndon B. Johnson, a proponent of civil rights). In North American English, the transition from negro > nigger represented a formerly widespread sound shift. In the early editions of his dictionary, Noah Webster suggested the new spellings of zeber for "zebra", as well as neger for "Negro".
Black became the preferred term in English in the late 1960s, and this continues to the present day. In the United States this has been displaced to some extent by African American, at least in politically correct usage; this resembles the term Afro-American that was in vogue in the early 1970s. Nevertheless, black continues in widespread use as a racial designation in the United States and is rarely regarded as offensive.
Today the word is often spelled nigga or niggah, in imitation of the manner in which some pronounce it. (Less-common variants are nigguh or even nikuh.) Other variations, designed to avoid the term itself, include nookah, nukka, nagger and the much older "jigger."
Literature
Before the word became pejorative, several books were written with the word Nigger in the title. One was a book by Joseph Conrad, The Nigger of the 'Narcissus': A Tale of the Sea. Another book was Ten Little Niggers by Agatha Christie, later retitled Ten Little Indians and And Then There Were None.
Popular Culture
The term "Nigger" was officially "buried" in the summer of 2007 by a group of African-Americans; the term is supernaturally resurrected each and every time TNB occurs. It originally stems from the Latin word niger, meaning black, and was historically used in reference to the African race. The English added the extra 'g', and the word has since remained unchanged. Black Americans commonly use the word towards one another, or drop the 'r' and say nigga. "Typical Nigger Behavior" (TNB) is any of a variety of exceedingly dumb or violent behavior characteristic of their kind.
Ice Cube, in his song Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It, says he first "heard nigga back in 1971." The term "nigga, please", first used in the 1970s by comics such as Paul Mooney as "a funny punctuation in jokes about Blacks,"[10] is now heard routinely in comedy routines by African Americans. The growing use of the term is often attributed to its ubiquity in modern American hip hop music. Examples include hip-hop group Niggaz With Attitude (N.W.A.), Notorious B.I.G.'s song, The Realest Niggaz, The Geto Boys' Real Negro Shit, Ice Cube's The Wrong Nigga To Fuck With, Jay-Z's Jigga That Nigga and Snoop Dogg's For All My Niggaz And Bitches. Ol' Dirty Bastard uses the term 76 times in his Nigga Please album (not including repetitions in choruses). This is reflected in the term's wide use in modern American gang culture. According to a Texas Monthly article about Houston gangs, many Hispanic street gang members call each other niggah [13].
However, its use has spread beyond north America. The Portuguese comedy show, Gato Fedorento, uses the word nigga in an audio sketch, where the four individuals say they are niggas ("I'm nigga, nigga; are you nigga, nigga?"), and end up admitting that they do not know what nigga means, although "people say it's amazing". Da Weasel, later sang a song named Nigga in Gato Fedorento's last episode of season 5.
Chris Rock had a routine Niggas vs. Black People that distinguished a nigga, which he defined as a "low-expectation-having motherfucker", from a "black person". In contrast, Tupac Shakur defined NIGGA as an acronym: "Never Ignorant Getting Goals Accomplished" in the lyrics to his song Words of Wisdom, on his 1991 album 2Pacalypse Now. It later served as a title of a track on his posthumous 2004 album Loyal to the Game. In an interview in the documentary Tupac: Resurrection, Shakur further distinguished between nigger and nigga: "Niggers was the ones on the rope, hanging off the thing; niggas is the ones with gold ropes, hanging out at clubs."
Even white teenagers who look nothing like wiggers have been known to use the phrase "nigga" as a greeting toward their friends.[1]
While negros use this word constantly in degenerate music and stand up comedy, when a gentile of European ancestry uses it, the consequences are dire. If a police detective (e.g. Mark Fuhrman) is found to use it, an otherwise easily proven guilty murder suspect will get a "not guilty" verdict (e.g. OJ Simpson) and the detective will be publically humiliated, fired, and forced into a plea bargain where he spends the rest of his life a convicted felon. The phony felony perjury charge for Mark Fuhrman was for saying he did not remember if he had said it, meanwhile police officers commit actual perjury in traffic court constantly without consequence. If a white person is on television is found to have used it even once, their entire television show is cancelled (e.g. Paula Deen).[2]
In 2006, Valley Traditional High School Teacher Paul Dawson was in class where negro students were calling each other "nigga" constantly. After one acted very undisciplined, the teacher said, "sit down nigga". Immediately there was outrage and the negro students all banded together to lie and deny ever saying "nigga". The teacher received a 10-Day Suspension rather than being fired because he argues he used the ebonics slang version of the word rather than the actual word.[3][4]
Although not the word "nigger", a black rapper actually called himself "Monkey Black".[5][6]
Blacks love to say the word "nigga" especially in hip-hop.[7] Below is a typical hip-hop song:
Niglet
Nigger also refers to the fully grown niglet. Niglet is combination of piglet (very young pig) and negro. It is a derogatory term for pigs which are better behaved, better looking, and far less noisy than negroes.
It can be shortened into the word "glit".[8]
Criminal punishment for saying "nigger"
In August 2013, a 19-year-old woman in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan used the word "nigger". As punishment, the court ordered her to write a 250-word essay on diversity, spend six months in prison, serve two years probation, and then attend a racial sensitivity class.[9]
See also
References
- ↑ Is the 'N-Word' Going Mainstream? by ABCNews April 10, 2010.
- ↑ Paula Deen's use of the N-word forces Food Network to drop her show June 21, 2013
- ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XURRzofbMc0
- ↑ http://hinterlandgazette.com/2008/06/valley-traditional-high-school-teacher.html
- ↑ Black Monkey's death: Dominican rapper stabbed to death in Spain
- ↑ http://topconservativenews.com/2014/05/major-spanish-rap-star-stabbed-to-death-by-gypsies/
- ↑ http://rap.genius.com/This-is-gangsta-rap-nigga-nigga-nigga-lyrics
- ↑ http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=glit&defid=3202127
- ↑ Woman Ordered To Write Diversity Essay After Racial Slurs August 22, 2013
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