(ThyBlackMan.com) Someone sent me a YouTube video of Actor Terrence Howard speaking on the use of The N-Word and how it should ultimately be removed from the English language.
There has been a resurgence of intense conversation on the N-Word because of the upcoming (August 16, 2013) release of the Lee Daniels film, “The Butler“, which stars Terrence Howard, Oprah Winfrey and a HUGE “All-You-Can-Eat side order OF the N-Word!
And yes, I truly understand where he is coming from when he says this and how much of an ugly word it is but I have a slightly different outlook on it and as always, I want to share it with you here.
Why are we as Black people struggling with a word when others don’t have the same problem?
I mean, other races and nationalities of people have had their fair share of demeaning names given to them by others but we have digested the N-Word (I’m not saying every one of us!) into every fiber of our being in a way that has never been accomplished in recorded history.
But why a word?
What does the word describe? If it does describe something is the description correct?
Well, let’s take a look at the others who have had demeaning words placed on them and see what they did about it.
Now there are a vast amount of insulting words for every race on the planet, let me first say that I am using those words in this article to make a point in the Black struggle and what must be done to lift ourselves out of it. I am in no way condoning or using these words personally to describe or put down another people because I personally know the pain of certain words used out of ignorance to describe me.
Asian People – Chink, Bug-Eater, Dog Muncher, Imitasian, Rice Ball, Yigger, Yellow Monkey, Widescreen…….
Jewish People – Hooknose, 51?st Stater, Himey, Jesus Killer, Oven Baked, Penny Chaser, Yiddiot, Zionist…….
White People – Honky, Cracker, Redneck, Slavemaster, Caveman, Devil, Caucazoid, Clay Eater…….
Latino People – Balsero (Cuban slur, Spanish for rafter), Pocho (A word for Hispanics who can’t speak Spanish), Spic, Spink (Spic and Chink combined), Mulatto (Black and White mix)
I believe you get the picture, and while I won’t go into every slur on the face of this earth (Try me one day, I just might do it!), I must say that many of these words have a reason why they are used, meaning that there is an explainable history to it. Now that doesn’t mean that it’s politically correct but it does have its roots.
Now, the word Nigger hurts so much to many because of the history behind it. Many others have their hurtful names but ours hurts probably more because we’ve lost our connection to the Motherland in the very act of being sold into slavery.
No one would doubt that fact, but we had a substitute culture given to us and the thread of our original culture by being removed allowed us to unravel in our unity to each other and make it easy for the oppressor to rule over our minds, bodies and souls with ease.
So for us, the N-Word doesn’t get the pass when spoken to us from other races the way that their common slurs do to them. But the irony is that WE use this very same word to refer to each other as if it’s a term of endearment! Talk about Schizophrenic tendencies…….
Let’s go deep…….
The only way to rid ourselves and the world of this damn word is to NOT live DOWN to the expectations of it!
Why don’t the derogatory names placed on the Asians stick to them like burnt rice on a wok? Well, it’s because they do not acknowledge those words in their maniacal and righteous quest for excellence to be the best at whichever area of expertise that they choose!
Regardless as to WHAT words are used on them, they have conquered any chance of validity with those words by EXCELLING above and beyond those who would even THINK to call them that.
So even if someone didn’t like an Asian person out of ignorance, prejudice or racism, they HAD to honor their excellence for example in the manufacturing of some of the most durable trouble free vehicles on this earth as well as the high average of technological thinkers that their culture and race has produced.
So what if a White American calls an Asian person a Chink? Chances are that person is driving a Japanese car with a stomach full of Asian food talking on a Korean phone! HA! So much for a slur! You think THEY care? Keep calling them names while they rule you with THEIR products as they GET PAID BIGTIME!
Can we as Black people learn from this?
Do you think Jewish people will let a word or slur stop them when they have endured the tragic events in their history and overcome them to become some of the greatest businesspersons on the face of the planet?
Regardless as to what ANYONE says, they have done a remarkable job at securing their place as the movers and shakers of the education, real estate and entertainment industries as well as countless others.
So do you think a word is going to get them upset when pretty much you have to pay them rent, let them educate your children and pay them a cut to listen to your favorite artist?
If you are calling a Jew out of his name then he is laughing at you all of the way to the bank and probably owns that too!
The same goes for White people as well as Latinos, the relentless nature of Caucasians in business even to the point of murder and theft has placed them at the top of the food chain for so long even if their techniques are not always morally correct.
How much weight does it have when you call HIM a cracker when you still must obey his laws and protest at his courts after not given any respect in the decisions of those same courts.
He pretty much does with you as he wishes to remind you that you are no more of a threat than that fly stuck on the fly paper buzzing along making noise until he dies in that same very place.
…….and look at the unity that Hispanics have in the face of adversity in the form of racism against them and their culture with many and most of them having Black blood running through their veins? You fight one of them then you must fight them ALL! And I love it!
Some of us call ourselves “gangster”, but do nothing except kill ourselves while we don’t do a damn gangster thing to stop the police brutality going on right now in our neighborhoods!
So isn’t it clear what we must do to STOP the N-Word and snatch away it’s power over us? Well if you haven’t figured it out we have to EXCEL!
EXCEL? haven’t we excelled on so many levels and in every circle of endeavor? Of COURSE we have! But where did it get us as long as we excelled to push another man’s agenda and not our own?
Think about it!
When was the last time you saw a native Black African come to America and get called a Nigger by a White American or by any American no matter what the race?
And when was the last time that the same native African got the “Nigger” treatment by the Whites here the way they do when they follow YOU around the store or lock their car doors when you cross the street in front of them while they’re in their vehicles?
NEVER!
These same Black men and women who happen to be of African descent get the respect of all who are here because they KNOW who they are and carry themselves with a dignity and power that comes from that very knowledge!
It’s a knowledge that too many of US just don’t have and will NEVER learn in these American schools of indoctrination!
You as a Black American must excel in loving yourselves and KNOWING who you are so that you can shine as is instead of exalting the presence of your conqueror in your life!
When your oppressor sees you generating one third of the beauty industries revenue out of a glaring insecurity to be someone who you are not, you are ASKING him and BEGGING him to call you a Nigger! How could he now when your actions tell the world that you hate yourself?
You worry so much about how you look when in fact when left untouched from the fake hair, skin lightening creams and plastic surgery you are beautiful as you are!
But niggers don’t think in the manner of self righteous pride and therefore the word Nigger will always live on because of our ACTIONS!
Stop the action and the word will have absolutely NO meaning!
If you are NOT that and truly believe it, you won’t ever get upset at it because you will know that you are not some cheap monkey who jumps when a word is uttered to you! Simple as that!
We get all bent out of shape when a White person calls us a Nigger but if we didn’t have that deep sense of insecurity then we wouldn’t react as fast because those who call us that are only showing how ignorant and narrow minded THEY are! That’s THEIR SICKNESS!
You can call me a crackhead until the day the devil makes it into Heaven gates, but if I’m not that then it will be a joke as I go about the more important business at hand of cultivating the greatness that God has placed in me over and above the oppressors indoctrination.
Bottom line: If we stop acting like niggers then the word will immediately evaporate!
While I would never say to abandon all you know and “go back to Africa“, I will say that we need to expand our self image to embrace the fact that we are larger than this minute American culture and join on in business and education with those who are our direct family across the shores.
Everyone else does this with brilliant results but we stay loyal to this place and don’t usually go beyond it unless it happens to be in his military or by some strange set of circumstances!
Niggers are local, Black men and Women are citizens of the globe and know it!
So don’t concern yourself with the words formed from the verbal wind of those who dislike us, and stop forming those words out of your mouth to address your Brothers and Sisters.
But work on manifesting the excellence from within you so that you force the world as well as the ignorant of us to address you as the KINGS and QUEENS that you forgot that you are while they know it hidden away in the lodge books and history archives.
“Nigger” is the figment of the oppressors imagination and NOT the Mighty God who made you to subdue and conquer the earth and EVERYTHING in it! Remember that!
