As a black man in the United States of Amerikkka I have been exposed to the derogatory word "nigga" since birth. Now granted I am 23 reflexive so I was not born back when white people used it openly without possibility of reprimand. The word I believe comes from the spanish word "negro" which means black. Europeans used it for a long time ago and up until recently to describe something that has the color black. From slavery to the civil rights movement it was a hatred slang against people of color(namely black folk). It has been ingrained in our society ever since and the funny thing now is that the same word is used by mostly black people to describe themselves. It is funny(to keep from crying) because black people use it sometimes as a term of endearment;a euphemism.
I aint gonna lie I have used it many times before cuz it has become part of my lingo; my everyday speech. Blacks have used it so much that when you don't use the word the sentence feels out of place so to speak. Black people have come a long way since being subjugated but in a since we are limiting ourselves still and this is one way we are doing that. The term was(is) used as a scathing generalization of Afrikan-Americans; that we were sub-human. Now we[blacks] use it openly to describe other of the same race. It baffles me how we flipped it to somehow make it seem less harsh.
Since it has become used in our daily commentary Caucasians have been using it(again). I have posed this scenerio to some of my fellow brethren and they strongly object to whites using the word stating that they have used up that privilege. One, since when did a pejorative term become a privilege to use and Two, why can't they use it too since they might use it as term of endearment. There are too many grey areas and most would be hypocritical if they say whites cannot use the word. I say don't use it if it isn't deemed fit for everyone to use.
Nice post babe
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