here are
many different interpretations of the meaning and origin of the word "nigga"
and many different attempts to rationalize the use of it. However, all
agree that it is a word originally created by racist whites to express
contempt for black people and to convince whites of their superiority.
The
word was created as a combination of the Spanish (European) word
"negro," which means "black," and the Greek word "necro," which means
"dead." Those who designed the word intended to plant in the minds of
whites, blacks, and the entire world the image of black people as
inferior, contemptuous, and mentally dead. This was done to support the
psychological enslavement that was necessary to keep black people
physically enslaved.
The whites responsible for slavery wanted everyone to accept the
false idea that black people were not even human. As a result, it was
easy for the Supreme Court of the United States to rule in the infamous
Dred Scott Case that as far as the US Supreme Court and the Chief Judge
of that court were concerned, blacks were only 3/5's human and therefore
had no rights that the white man was bound to respect.
During the slave trade, when Afrikan people were forcefully torn from
the continent of Afrika and transported all over the world, the European
(white) who controlled the slave trade realized that he had to strip the
Afrikan (black people) of all culture such as original names, languages,
and religion because these things all contained value systems,
traditions, ways of worshipping God that were constant reminders of both
our individual and collective value, worth, and greatness. Names like
Nubian, Kamite, Axumite, Ashanti, Mandinka and Kushite all carried proud
legacies of civilization that Europeans knew they had to erase from our
individual and collective psyche. In order to accomplish that, they
outlawed anything and everything belonging to or identified with Afrikan
culture and forced us, instead, to accept their names, languages,
religions, and along with that, the terms "negro" and "nigga."
When our ancestors refused to accept the names "negro" and "nigga,"
and refused to accept any name other than their own or to practice any
other religion, they were summarily tortured, mutilated and murdered in
the worst imaginable ways. This inhumane treatment instilled fear in the
minds of the other Afrikans, thereby enforcing on them the shackles of
mental as well as physical slavery.
When the European used the word "nigga" towards us, it was used as a
mental whip to force us into the image they had created of us: mentally
dead and equal only to the animals of the plantation. It was meant to
reinforce all the lies and false images they had built up to justify our
enslavement and the brutal and savage way they treated us. It was but
another form of "the lie" that justified servitude and blackness.
According to "the lie," Ham (the alleged foreparent of black people)
looked upon the nakedness of his father, Noah, and he and his
descendants were, therefore, cursed by God with blackness and with
servitude to all other people who would hold us in contempt.
The word "nigga" was one of the most damaging tools used by the
European to force mental slavery on black people. It not only promoted
the idea among Europeans that we should be held in contempt, but it
caused our own people to adopt that same attitude. Our people began to
call one another "niggas," and look at each other in the same way that
Europeans looked at us, with all the hatred and contempt they intended.
It was used against us in ways that made us hate our women, our
children, and ourselves.
This word was at the very foundation of the condition of the mental
and physical slavery suffered by black people. Nobody else in history
was called that horrible name and made to suffer the degradation,
humiliation, and emasculation that it inflicted on black people. No
other people have been made to live perpetually for more than four
hundred years with that terrible stigma and the terrible lies that go
along with it.
Yet, from the very beginning of those physical and psychological wars
against us, black people have fought against the enslavement of our
bodies and our minds. Our ancestors fought on every level, at every
turn, and against every attempt to force us to be looked at or treated
like "niggas." The slave revolts and rebellions in America, in Afrika,
the Caribbean, and throughout the world, were consistent struggles by
our people against it.
Many of
our wars were successful, but they were not publicized because the
European knew then, as he knows now, that if our people knew of these
successful battles against enslavement and injustice, then that spirit
of resistance and revolt would spread in ways that would encourage all
of us to commit to the struggle. Thousands of Nat Turners, Denmark
Veseys, Gabriel Prossers, and Cinques existed then and exist now in
spirit, and they knew/know it.
Afrikan people fought and won from the very beginning. The struggle
continues, and today there are thousands of black people who fight
against injustice and win! But part of the purpose of the word "nigga,"
both then and now, was to make you believe that you had no value or
right to be respected, and, as a result, to take away confidence in
yourself or in anybody who looked like you. It was designed to make you
believe that you could not win.
Brothers and Sisters, the Civil Rights Era in America was about black
people struggling on all levels not to be called or treated like "niggas."
We fought to be treated like human beings with an equal right to
freedom, justice, and full equality, as is our natural-born right!
We know that there are still those in this society and the world who
would like to see us, who will try to make us see ourselves and have the
entire world treat us like "niggas." We need to remember that there are
those who still fight against it and we should join in that fight in
every way we can. We know that we are not "niggas" and that no human
being deserves to be called or treated like one. We know that the use of
the word, whether it is used by us or by others, is historically tied to
the intention of putting black people down. It is disrespectful to our
ancestors, our parents, our children, and ourselves.
Although there are many who use this word unaware of it meaning and
history, this is no excuse. We know, too, that there are those among us
who use it to put us down, on the down low, like smiling in our face
while stabbing us in our back. We should not allow either to continue
because, no matter who uses it, it is like a shackle around our necks
and on our minds.
Words do have power! Words have the power to cause people to act in
certain ways, and when you use a word that was designed to put black
people down, used to help enslave, rape, murder and brutalize black
people, then it does not matter how you think you intend to use it. When
you call someone a "nigga" it means what it was originally designed to
mean, and it belittles all black people.
We must consciously stop using that word ourselves and we must ask
others not to use it. Think about this, my Sisters and Brothers: No
matter how you think of yourself - whether as an African American,
Afrikan, Rastafarian, Boriquen, Nubian, Kushite or whatever national
origin you identify with - you should not call anyone a "nigga." When
you do, it comes back to slap you in the face. You should ask/demand
that people respect your past, your present, and your future and you
should respect everyone else's.
Think good about yourselves. Say what is good about yourselves and
our people and work to rescue, reclaim, and restore black people to our
rightful place in history in the present and in the future.
Note: Brother G. Baba Eng, currently at Great Meadow Correctional
Facility, has been imprisoned in New York State for 27 years for having
killed a man who pulled a gun on his wife. During that time, he has
transformed his life and become a prisoner of conscience and
consciousness. He will be going before the parole board in December when
he hopes to be granted a parole so he can come back to the community to
fulfill the "vision of service" he has already started.
