(ThyBlackMan.com) In recent news, comedian Bill Maher was figuratively lynched by a mob of angry Black viewers and empathetic white observers because on National TV he told Republican Senator Ben Sasse that “I’m not a House Nigger.”
With a knee-jerk reaction, multiple thoughts raced through my head. I think initially I thought something like, “How dare this racially insensitive, red-neck, devilish, hillbilly, cracker use OUR word to define himself?”
I then stood stupefied. Did I just think what I think I thought? No, it couldn’t be. As I pondered my thoughts, I truly couldn’t discern which ones were worse. Yes, I thought the N-word spilling from the 
moist fork tongue of Mr. Maher was bad, despite his intentions; but, me claiming the word as my own or belonging to my race, was even worse.
I’m not a nigger, house nor field; so, why should I be upset at Mr. Maher? I mean, truth be told, it’s me and many of my peers who continue to perpetuate and eternalized the word. I’ve heard Black leaders, Malcolm and Jesse, publically called niggers: niggers. My favorite rappers, Tupac and Ice Cube, publically called niggas: niggas! And, eye, witnessed most of the people who I know, publically and privately, call niggaz: niggaz. Some may even enunciate: Nig-gro; but we all know what they mean.
The N-word is a multi-faceted word. If it were human, the N-word would’ve been borne by an intimate relationship between a homonym (words that have the same meaning, but spelt differently) and a polysemous (a word that has multiple meanings).
All of it relates back to slavery. Whites called all of us niggers, a demeaning term derived from a race of people labeled: negroid. Once the slaves were forced to work, some labored in a house, cooled by air-conditioning; others sweated in the fields under a scorching hot sun.
Centuries later, the Civil War ended slavery; yet, racism remained in the veins of many Americans, Black and white. Blacks who were fortunate enough to inherit southern properties were immediately terrorized and chased northward by former slave masters; or they were slain by former overseers because they were too broke or too illiterate to make it past the Mason-Dixie line.
Now here we are, nearly a century and a half after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, and, Ice Cube, the author and creator of Niggas With Attitudes, has an attitude because a white man called himself a Nigga? Really?
It is the position of this writer, practice what you preach. All else is hypocrisy. If niggas are gonna run around and call niggas niggaz all day every day, what do you expect someone else to say about you?
Words are powerful. The pen is mightier than the sword. And, Karma is colorless. If we continue to allow the N-word to spill out of our mouths, we damn sure can’t turn around and cry over the spilt milk; despite whether the milk is colored vanilla or chocolate.
Staff Writer; Saint Solomon
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