1,187 words / 8:25
Only one word in the English language can get you killed if you say it — or, in many cases, merely if your murderer claims you said it.
In his essay “Why The N-Word Is Not Just Another Word,” black writer H. Lewis Smith attempts to explain why this word has acquired its verboten status:
Hitler, Attila the Hun, [and] Ivan the Terrible look like mere Boy Scouts compared to what went on here in man’s effort to conquer and control, [sic] the minds, souls and hearts of another race of people. All that went down during this era stunk so bad its [sic] a wonder the stench wasn’t smelt [sic] as far away as planet Jupiter.
Preach, brother. Sorry — I meant to say “brotha.” The distinction is apparently important. When dealing with anything regarding the N-word and the people to whom it refers, it’s considered especially sinful to pronounce the hard “r.”
Audio version: To listen in a player, use the one below or click here. To download the mp3, right-click here and choose “save link/target as.”
In the dearly departed O. J. Simpson’s murder trial, black prosecuting attorney Christopher Darden — who couldn’t bring himself to say the word — called it “the filthiest, nastiest, dirtiest word in the English language.”
There is no word that is filthier, nastier, or dirtier. And, like those three words, the word ends with a hard “r.”
Much has been made of the fact that black Americans have proudly “reclaimed” this word. In his 1912 novel The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, James Weldon Johnson noticed how blacks used the word “as a term of almost endearment”:
I noticed that among this class of colored men the word “nigger” was freely used in about the same sense as the word “fellow,” and sometimes as a term of almost endearment; but I soon learned that its use was positively and absolutely prohibited to white men.
But in the process of reclaiming the word, blacks also repronounced it. And among those blacks who are at least literate enough to write the word, they have almost universally respelled it.
I refer to the perceived differences between “nigger” and “nigga.” Some would say it’s a distinction without a difference.
In phonics, people with “rhotic” (ROW-tick) accents pronounce the hard “r” at the end of a word. Most Americans — except New Englanders and, for some reason still unknown to me, black Americans — pronounce the hard “r.” The Wikipedia page on “Rhoticity in English” contains two sound files — one in which an American speaker pronounces “farmer” with the hard “r” and a British speaker enunciates it so it sounds more like “pharma.”
Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary uses a black man’s voice to pronounce the non-rhotic “nigga,” but a white woman’s voice for the rhotic “nigger.” It should be noted that basketball fans in China use the word’s rhotic form.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFlAiytqM5U
Which brings us all to a dilemma: Is it worse to say or write the absolute worst word in the world if you pronounce and spell it with the hard “r”? Verily, I say it is the existential, moral, and linguistic question of our time.
To the best of my ability to untangle this searingly important question, it’s probably considered worse with the hard “r” merely because that’s how most white people say it, so black people associate the hard “r” with hateful usage and the non-rhotic variant “nigga” with the more affectionate, brotha-on-brotha usage. The only time I can recall a black person using the hard “r” was during comedian Dave Chappelle’s portrayal of a blind white supremacist who didn’t realize he was black.
But in the course of reclaiming, repronouncing, and respelling the word, black Americans have defiantly declared that white people are not permitted to use either version. Or, as the now-dead-from-AIDS oracle Eazy-E of rap group Niggaz wit’ Attitudez declared on the song “Niggaz4Life”:
Niggaz say “nigga” we cool but, crackas say “nigga,” nigga nut the fuck up.
You can buy Jim Goad’s ANSWER Me! here.
In layman’s terms, this translates to, “We blacks are encouraged to call each other ‘nigga’ in acts of fellowship, but if a white person says the word, we’ll go crazy and kill them.”
Tupac Shakur is another dead black rapper. Unlike Eazy-E, who was brought down by little gay microbes, Tupac was felled by bullets presumably shot by other niggas. His song “N.I.G.G.A.” repurposes the word as an acronym meaning “Never Ignorant Getting Goals Accomplished.” In his posthumously published and partially ghostwritten autobiography, he draws the distinction between servile “niggers” and proud “niggas”:
Niggers was the ones on the rope, hanging off the thing; niggas is the ones with gold ropes, hanging out at clubs.
Wikipedia’s entry on “nigga” says that in 1995, a pair of Tupac Shakur’s co-niggas wrangled a different acronym out of the word:
In 1995, two men from Houston filed a trademark application with the PTO [Patent and Trademark Office] for the words “Naturally Intelligent God Gifted Africans”, and its acronym. The application was rejected, as were numerous subsequent applications for variations of the word nigga. In 2005, comedian Damon Wayans twice attempted to trademark a brand name called Nigga, “featuring clothing, books, music and general merchandise”. The PTO refused Wayans’ application, stating “the very fact that debate is ongoing regarding in-[ethnic]-group usage, shows that a substantial composite of African-Americans find the term ‘nigga’ to be offensive”.
In a recent black-on-white mob beating at a Connecticut park that someone in the crowd was thoughtful enough to film and post online, it’s unclear what precipitated the attack, but during a brief respite after the white female victim is viciously pummeled and dragged down a hill, she can be heard at the 27-second mark asking, “Are you gonna hit me again, nigga?” She was at least courteous enough to omit the hard “r.” But once that word slips out of her mouth, they resume hitting her — and much harder.
Violent people look for any excuse to attack! Flip the script, and this would be national news!
A white female High School student was brutally assaulted by at least two black youths in Byram Park in Greenwich, CT, on April 9th.#fight #racism #KOhttps://t.co/4Ph5pI8b2L pic.twitter.com/PbG7JgBLSL
— YouDontHaveToWatch🔃 (@StarsAndBars123) April 11, 2024
So, hard “r” or no hard “r,” you’re in for a hard beating if you’re white and use this word.
This all leads me to wonder whether a white person has ever been beaten or murdered for merely saying the infantile phrase “the N-word” in a black person’s presence as part of a fumbling attempt not to offend. I don’t mean whether they said “nigger” or “nigga”; I’m wondering whether a well-meaning white person was shot dead for merely conjuring the word by saying, “Rest assured, Tardavious, that I’m not the type of person who has ever said the N-word.”
As if dislodging a long-dormant cerebral blood clot, this entire topic has also dredged from my memory the time about six years ago here in suburban Atlanta when, during a face-to-face traffic dispute, a black person called me “nigga.” I was momentarily flustered and disarmed, because how was I to know whether he was using it as a pejorative or as a term of endearment? How would he have interpreted it if I called him a “nigga” in return?
These N-words are so confusing, they may be smarter than I’d ever dreamed possible.
44 comments
Why we can’t talk about the Holodomor:
“Never Investigate Grievous Gulags Anymore”
Saying “nigger” is one of the most liberating experiences in today’s age.
My wife and I recently had friends over, 4 crackers and 1 squaw, and one guy started talking about a word we can’t say and my wife blurted, “Just say it already! Nigger!” The others were shocked. I laughed.
I absolutely made the right choice in marrying her.
HEY! “Squaw” is not considered a nice word.
The English word squaw is an ethnic and sexual slur, historically used for Indigenous North American women. Contemporary use of the term, especially by non-Natives, is considered derogatory, misogynist, and racist. – Wikipedia.
We used that word when I was a kid and didn’t realize the Indians didn’t like it. Oh, well.
They recently renamed the duck-like bird called “old squaw” to something else, as part of the ongoing PC cleansing. As a birdwatcher I was thrilled and alarmed to encounter an old squaw back in the late 00s when the bird was still called that. Its call was so loud and frantic and hysterical, it was unbelievable. If old Indian squaws sounded like that, it’s a wonder they ever reached that age without being turned out of the village to die.
It’s kind of like the gist of this article, isn’t it? Squaws were treated as property and beasts of burden and could be dumped at any time for a hotter squaw or, more typically, other squaws brought into the “marriage” with the first squaw having no say in the matter whatsoever. And while squaws had to stay home and embroider buffalo scrotums or whatever, the menfolk got to go raiding of which gang-rape was de rigueur. If raided by other Injuns, squaws were gang-raped and/or horribly tortured and murdered and their bodies mutilated or they were enslaved but don’t you say “squaw” you misogynistic racist cocksuckers!
of which gang-rape was de rigueur.
I heard that the gang rapes of German women at the end of WW II were mostly done by Asiatic type Russians, but I don’t know if that is true or not.
I don’t know about that, but it was the Plains Indians’ raison d’etre, if you will.
It’s a legitimate word in one of the Indian languages of the northeast. It was even in a translation of the Bible. That’s something that the PC people don’t tell us when they try to discourage the word.
It’s better than that Mr Goad. A white guy from England got paid a ton of cash for saying it – there is a God or maybe just common sense.
https://freespeechunion.org/fsu-wins-employment-claim-for-bank-manager-sacked-in-free-speech-row/
This dude got nearly half a million Sterling – LEGEND! It’s just a word after all, not a nice word, but neither is ‘cunt’. Hail Carl Hail Victory.
African-Americans, please. Learn that it’s “were,” not “was” and “saw,” not “seen” like three-year-olds of any English-speaking race already know and it might do wonders for your self-respect and benefit the perception of you, your children and your race. Then you can lecture us on the word mainly you use to denigrate one another. Everyone in America grew up with television and radios and computers and attended second grade so you know how to speak English and be choosing not to. It’s “fuck the police,” not “tha police.” “Tha police” are the ones who secured justice for the two victims run down by Suge Knight on the set of Straight Out Of Compton. Niggaz Without Aptitude.
What I wonder about is “females.” Whites and every other nonblack English speaker, when they are referring to women or girls in plural, say “girls,” “women,” “ladies,” etc., but never “females.” Ghetto blacks often say “females.” It’s strange. Do they think they are scientists when they say that?
For me as not a native English speaker, the words male and female should be apply mostly to animals. I would not call a pussycat a “catwoman” (sorry, Michelle, sorry, Halle), but a female cat is OK.
It’s a normal term describing a legitimate biological distinction. It sounds slightly odd when referring to women.
On the other hand – what’s a woman these days, anyway? For the longest time, I thought I knew, but then…
In Omaha, a woman named Ashlei Spivey recently opened a non-profit that works with pregnant black women and she named it I Be Black Girl. I just can’t wrap my head around someone who is trying to do something good in the community would sully her work with an illiterate name that most normal people would either laugh at, roll their eyes or think what in the hell is that.
I was wondering if she was white or black but she indeed be black. And be running for office.
Another one is “Juneteenth.” Not only is it premised on a false history that’s insultingly stupid, it’s perhaps the dumbest word ever invented. Only blacks would invent and promote a numerical-sounding word that’s intended to refer to one specific day of the month, but precludes you from identifying which of seven it might be. The fact that this word has been given the force of law is further proof that America as we knew it is dead.
It’s pronounced Juneteenf.
I used the word “Oriental” at work just a couple years ago and you would have thought I dropped a nuke on Nagasaki myself. Sheesh. If it’s good enough for rugs I say it’s fair game.
Out nigga,
Weave
Even when referring to an Oriental RUG some black SJWs in America will get very flustered. I *deliberately* say “Oriental” when I need to distinguish that it was a-person-who-looked-like-he-could-have-been-from-the-Far-East (Japanese/Chinese) VS a Paki-Muslim in UK who demands I call him “Asian” or he’ll cut my head off.
I am both Caucasian and Asian, but I do not like the word “Oriental” used for me and my fellows, because for me this is something Levantine, i.e. Arabian or Jewish.
On the other hand, the Anatolian Türks do not like to be called Asians.
Those of us who grew up in the old, pre-illegal invasion America, always thought of China as the Orient. The Middle East would’ve been Arabia. Turkey was just Turkey.
But what is then The Great Steppe, the world of Nomadic Empires of Scythians, Huns, Avars, Pecheneks, Qipchaqs, Tatars, and the bordering countries of Caucasians, Idel-Urals, Central Asians, and Siberian peoples? We are not Levantines, neither are we Chinese/Koreans/Japanese. I would use the word Eurasians, but the word is privatized by mad Dugin, who misused and abused it.
“Turanian” would be a suitable term, though it’s not very common.
I certainly appreciate that. But truly, unless someone wears a sign around their neck, how the heck am I supposed to know where anyone is from? Rest assured, I would not walk up to you or anyone on planet Earth and address them as Oriental.
At the time, I wasn’t even saying it about a specific person. Just the use of the word at all seemed to floor everyone around me. My problem with the reaction is this weaponizing of even the most banal words. Suddenly I am insensitive or whateverthehell just because I don’t know the “new” thing the word means. It makes me dislike being around young people and definitely anyone of color, because it is a game they have predetermined I will lose.
Im Irish and German by descent, but I don’t know if anyone could decipher that by looking at me. You could call me pretty much anything and I don’t know that I would care one freaking bit.
Thanks, for me as a foreigner it was interesting. At least I understood why gangsters were Italians, Irish or Jews, but gangstas only Blacks.
one in which an American speaker pronounces “farmer” with the hard “r” and a British speaker enunciates it so it sounds more like “pharma.”
Should it suggest, that the English are much nearer related to the Blacks, than we used to think? :))
Not English, but the American usage of, say, ‘budder’ for ‘butter’, ‘wadder’ for ‘water’, and ‘thirdy’ for ‘thirty’ is hilarious. Why they use a letter ‘d’ instead of a ‘t’ is beyond me. And this comes from personal, on-the-ground experience.
You hear that in New York. It is actually because New York was originally a Dutch colony.
Yes, Jew York was once upon a time a Dutch colony Nieuw Amsterdam, but Hollanders still say boter, water, etc., with t not with d.
A real low life black I have to deal with sometimes says he hates n*****s. He used a hard r. I think he was just showing off
The savagery of these beating videos is a. I am really tired of watching white people get savagely beaten like they are lifeless rag dolls. If you are going to get savaged, stand up and inflict some damage. In fact, there is a martial art called SanTsu. In such situations, you pick one person and you swing for the nose and break it. In the blood and shock of it, you have an opportunity to run.
I am just sick and tired of watching a race of people that idealized courage, bravery and that systematically mastered violence just get brutalized. They are clearly filming these episodes because they know the impact it has.
I heard someone say Reconstruction 2.0 the other day. It gets harder and harder to watch this.
This article reminds me that Negro fatigue is the one disease that can get worse and worse and worse over decades, and no matter how much you hope for it, you still live.
“This article reminds me that Negro fatigue is the one disease that can get worse and worse and worse over decades, and no matter how much you hope for it, you still live.”
^^Too right, Doctor ExCathedra!! We’ve all heard those montages of Black women, usually of undeserved high-profile, droning on and on about how exhausting White people are. I always think, “You think you’re exhausted??!!”
The government intelligence agencies, and internet providers that spend most of their budgets spying on us, know that a genocide of blacks could very well be in the works, which is why they’re spending so much effort to humanize them.
The funniest line in an extremely funny post:
His song “N.I.G.G.A.” repurposes the word as an acronym meaning “Never Ignorant Getting Goals Accomplished.”
At first I assumed Goad was making this up, which had me chuckling. Then I realized this was an actual fact, which had me roaring, especially after having just watched that hilarious Chappelle video.
I live in New England and every one has a rhotic accent. What New Englanders was Jim Goad referring to?
Fuh stahtas, my fatha’s side of the family was from Vuhmont. They would pahk the cah outside the fahma’s mahket. I don’t even think they pronounced the hard “r” in the middle of words.
And every Boston accent I’ve ever heard sounds nearly identical to the Vermonters.
From Wikipedia: “The biggest strongholds of non-rhoticity in the United States have always been eastern New England, New York City, and the former plantation region of the South…”
I’m glad there is so much recent coverage of the OJ trial, one of the more socially acceptable topics in which one can at least indirectly hint at black biases. I can accept that at one end of the spectrum, there are blacks that see the n-word as evidence of a ‘deep white state’ that wants for frame them and hold them down. But at the other end of the spectrum there are those who see it as opportunity to ‘bait’ white folks: “I can say it, but you can’t.” Kendrick Lamar won a Pulitzer prize as a rapper. He once baited a white woman into singing one of his songs onstage with him. Can you imagine that one of his songs had that forbidden n-word? When she got to it and ‘rapped’ it, he stopped the song and chastised her. I guess all those white female feminist writers will have to hold out another year for their crack at a Pulitzer because Mr. Lamar has out-thunk ‘em.
Some of my more memorable recollections of the OJ trial:
The decision for a sequestered jury for a 6 month trial. A sure fire way to ensure the jury pool would be enhanced with folks with 6 months of free time on their hands.
When OJ pled ‘not guilty’ a black woman audience member was interviewed and remarked how ‘he looked at me and he waved at me… he was very good looking and that day he was really good looking.’
OJ had multiple black defense lawyers (Cochrane, Holly, Carl Douglas). Then the prosecution brought on black attorney Chris Darden, which led to them being accused of including him because he was black.
Johnny Cochrane preparing for the jury tour of OJs house by adding artwork with black themes because there were so many photos of OJ with white people.
White defense attorney F Lee Bailey eviscerating Mark Fuhrman because of the forbidden word. Sadly the biggest takedown of whites (in this case getting a murderer off) is often other whites.
One of my fave memories was Judge Lance Ito being Judge Lance Ito. The other was about a professor brought on as an expert witness delivering a college-level biology lecture for three days about how DNA works, and therefore that there was only a 180-million-to-1 chance (or whatever it was) that the DNA test misidentified OJ for someone else. Meanwhile, the dimbulbs on the jury were bored to tears. All this is because the defense demanded the prosecution to prove that this matter of settled science is something valid, and of course because Judge Lance Ito allowed them to pull off this stunt.
Even so, although I was very based at that point, it still surprised me that OJ got off for a double murder via jury nullification. That should demonstrate clearly to anyone with eyes to see that multiracialism doesn’t work. If he can get off scot-free because he’s black even though he’s very obviously guilty of two heinous crimes, then the system is dysfunctional beyond repair.
Anyway, I do feel bad for what happened to Ron Goldman (and his ethnic background doesn’t change my opinion). As for Nicole Brown, well, you burn the coal, you pay the toll.
So far as I am aware, the police have never looked for another suspect in the case because the evidence was so damning of that filthy, nasty, dirty shovel.
Noticed this online, halfwit blacks calling white people ‘nigga.’ It’s ludicrous. By the looks of some videos and posts online, the word ‘nigga’ is one of only about four or five words that some of these clowns have in their vocabulary. “Bitch this bitch that, nigga this, nigga that,” to quote the same NWA song Jim did. Risible, disgusting, and pathetic.
There’s Massachussets, where the bright kids attend Haavahd to get Ph.Ds in gender studies.
Then there’s Joisey, where someone seeing a noxious splat on his sedan will say, “Dere’s a boid toid on my caah!”
The Associated Press Stylebook for so-called news organizations emphasizes that “Black” should be capitalized but “white” should be written in lowercase. There seems to be no entry for the capitalization of nigga or similar words.
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