Dirty Words

That word is: the N-word. What did everyone think of when you read "N-word"? Narcolepsy? Nutter Butters? Neo-Synephrine? No, you thought of the word "nigger". So why do we call it the "N-word"? I mean, everyone knows exactly what you are hiding. N-word is not fooling anyone. Yet, the word has been, for many, moved into the realm of the unspeakable. And those that do use it, are not simply using it as descriptive term - they are well aware of its power to incite emotions and actions. It is such a racially and politically charged word that it has garnered its own abbreviation. It is not a word I use often, in fact, I would go so far to say that I have never really used it in a sentence at all. The word has been so vilified that even to type it gave me pause. Even though I know that I am not using it to demean anyone and am simply typing it for sake of a discussion, I still hesitated (although this was partially to weight the risks of attracting racist and bigoted yahoos who type that word into search engines).

My mother and father are from Texas and New Mexico, respectively. They are both in their 70s now which places their formative years somewhere between 1930 and 1945. While I actually heard my paternal grandmother use the word nigger, I'm sure that both my parents grew up cultures where the word was acceptable. Yet my parents never said the word in out mostly Republican household. Never complained about blacks (and they were called blacks then) as a race. Any criticism they had for blacks were targeted at the person specifically. One that I remember vividly was my mother's dislike for Mohammed Ali(sp?). Not because he was black, but because of his actions. All very fair if you ask me. So my brother and I grew into adulthood knowing that word was not to be used in any context.

Yet, now the word nigger is experiencing a resurgence. And that resurgence is being led by none other than the rap music community, itself largely comprised of African-Americans. Interestingly, the usage of the word now is, by some unspoken rule, only acceptable if used by other African-Americans. For whites (and by whites I mean "everyone else"), the word nigger is still not to be uttered. This leads me to some confusion over the future of this word. Does the African-American community want this word to just go away? I would think so. Since the 1940's the word has gone from commonplace to almost unspeakable. In a few more generations, I would think that the word might just have disappeared from usage.

What brought this concept to mind was an exchange I heard on the Howard Stern Show. Howard's producer, Gary (Bababooey) was explaining how his 5 year old son liked a particulart rap record that he heard on the radio. Gary either bought the CD or downloaded the MP3 from Napster (R.I.P.) to play for his son. Well the version that was on the radio was significantly cleaned up in comparision to the version Gary played for his son. It was full of the word nigger. How do you explain to a 5 year old the rules of usage for that word? If he sing that song the way it was written on a school bus, he would probably get beat up or suspended. But it would be hard for him to understand why. Gary eventully stopped letting his son listen to that song.

While I'm not sure what makes up the target market for rap and R&B music these days, I do know that a significant percentage of white kids are buying it. This is an impressionable group that - in place of proper parental guidance (a sweeping generalization, I know) - takes its cue for acceptable behavior from what is shown in the media. So what is the message from the African-American community regarding the future of the word nigger? It seems fragmented at best. While I won't start using this word any time soon, and I will teach my kids NOT to use the word, I don't have the continued hope that the word will disappear from the American vocabulary anytime soon.