(ThyBlackMan.com) I recently had a discussion with a concerned friend of mine regarding her son. As a married, African-American mother raising her son in a predominately Caucasian school and community, she expressed a concern regarding him losing an appreciation for his heritage as he assimilates into an entirely different world from the one she grew up in.
While Hip Hop serves as a common denominator of different cultures, it also undermines racial issues that should not be overlooked. I’m not in favor of reminiscing over the “good ol’ days” of segregation nor am I soliciting that we remember grievances of slavery an attempt to keep a fresh grudge. What 
does need to happen however, is to respect certain boundaries of racially sensitive subject matter.
Case in point. My friend’s son was on Facebook recently and witnessed his White friends calling one another “n*gga” on a wall post. This recalled to mind the media frenzy that ensued when Nas was set to release a new album tentatively titled “N***er” a few years ago.
If Nas had openly referenced this slanderous epithet in such a manner, it would’ve acted as a double-edged sword. While it could have potentially taken away more power from the word, it could also have belittled the history of it to the point where it actually permeated further into popular culture. I once read that the best way to objectify an entire people is to label an inanimate object by said people’s name. Cherokee. Seminoles. Pontiac. Blackhawks (sorry, Chicago!). REDSKINS (sorry, DC!).
Most of us are old enough to recognize the Native American tribes and names from the latter paragraph but there are youth today who have come to recognize them more so for the vehicles and sports mascots that bear their names. Such labels effectively trivialize the entire history of a population of human beings. I don’t mean to infer that “n***er” is a name that should be associated to African-Americans; but we were made to answer to it within the course of American history. America doesn’t need to forget that ugly part of its past lest it’ll become bound to repeat it.
We are living in a time where we are witnessing such malicious repetition. Although somewhat unsubstantiated, I remember reading about either an intramural basketball team or a minor league “professional” baseball team going by the name “the N***ers.” Can you imagine what the mascot would’ve looked like?!! If that’s a little too hard to believe, try grounding your belief system in the hallowed grounds of Northwestern University where some students showed up to a Halloween party last year in black face.
I’m glad that Nas’ album title never saw the light of day but can you imagine the damage it could’ve done to label a CD “N***er”? As African-Americans, we have to be more socially astute in how we challenge our cultural counterparts. So if you want to subtly remind America about its history of racial inequality while reclaiming a sense of power, try the following. If someone asks you what you’re dressing up as for Halloween, tell them you’re going as Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. Anyone offering anything cruder than that, if I may call a spade a spade, is a reneger of Black culture.
~
A Renegade Reneger
Native Sons should
renege like Richard on prior
use of the N-word.
Staff Writer; Reggie Legend
Can find more about this writer over at; http://www.steelwaterspoetry.com
Also available as a Keynote Speaker – Book him Today; Speakerwiki – Reggie Legend