NAACP: Niggas, Please

Cant necessarily recall the day of the week, but a week or so ago, I turned on CNN and saw some grandiose "funeral" staged by the NAACP to put the "N-Word" to rest. NAACP wants the word "nigger" and all its derivatives to die, cease to exist in our vocabularies. I think this is a bunch of BS and that them NAACP niggas need to wake up and get real.

There's just no way you can provide me with any valid argument to convince me that the black community's use of the word nigga is at the root of any larger problem.

I dont wanna be on some "NAACP has more important things to worry about", because I actually believe the organization truly thinks our use of this word is a microcsmic problem. And I'm also not the kinda dude that spouts the moronic "we use it as a term of endearment" rhetoric, either. Whereas that is definitely true in some cases (hence the Q-Tip lyric in "Sucka Nigga"), I use the word in a variety of ways and I'm not sure if my usage connotes positivity 50% of the time. Put it like this, I try my absolute hardest to never use the word around strangers, young people, white people, asians, arabs, some hispanics, older folks, in professional settings, amongst niggas rockin bowties. So its apparent that it's a word for which wide, rampant and indiscriminate use should be discouraged.

With that said, I will "nigga" my family and friends to death. I grew up in a "nigga" using household. My Pops is a "nigga"-using fool. My friends will "nigga" a nigga off a cliff. It is as much a part of my vocabulary as the word "is".

And lets be clear, if I'm upset with a black person -- or really any color person -- I'm most likely gonna call them a "nigga" as in, "Nigga have you lost your mind?! Why would you spit in my face?!" Or, if had an irritating experience with an El Salvadorian at my local Chipolte, at some point in the story I'm bound to say "And then this nigga hit me with about a pound of guac, when I specifically, in English, told the nigga 'No guac, but go heavy on the cream.' Sun, I wanted to strangle the nigga."

BUT, if me and my nigs are having a mini reunion and one walks in the door with a $70 bottle of single malt scotch, I'll most likely pound him up and say something like, "This is why you're my nigga." How many times have I said, "I love that nigga"? Probably a gagillion.

It's a complex word with complex usage. I watched LeBron's historic Game 5 against the Pistons in Buffalo with my Pops...only Pops was asleep for the whole 4th quarter and both overtimes as LeBron turned in the greatest Playoff performance of all time. I mustve shouted at him to wake up after each of Bron's buckets. he finally woke up around 1am while I was watching the press conferences. I said, "Nigga you just missed LeBron go OFF! The nigga scored the Cavs final 29 points!" Two different types of "nigga" in that sentence.

I mean, really, "nigga" is pretty much synonomous with "man". It's just that "nigga" or "nigger" obviously has a sordid history in this country. But then again, so does the word "boy". White men used to call black men "boy" to emasculate them, as well. That's why black men started calling each other "man" ("Wassup, man") -- to combat the disrespect of the white man's use of "boy". But then we started calling each "boy" too. "That's my boy." "Wuddup, boy?" "The boy is bad."

This has the same built-in fraternal use as the word "nigga". A couple years back, me and my nigga Rek hit up a Buffalo diner one early morning to kop some steak and eggs. Pano's can get kinda crowded at times, so we had to stand and wait to be seated. That's when some older white man, maybe in his 50s, condescendingly placed his hand on our shoulders and said "Xcuse me, boys. Let me by here." My nigga Rek (we were about 24 or 25 at the time) looked at him and asked super incredulously "BOYS??!?!?!!!!" That's when the idiot white man smirked and said, "Sorry. Fellas, can I get by here?" And we moved.

These words, as I said, are complex. It depends who says it, the tone, the context, etc. I see no point in why we need to put the word "nigga" to sleep. I'm not the HUGEST proponent of free speech. I'm a bit of a conservative on that front. I agree with the Supreme Court's ruling that high school campuses can be policed by adults for speech that goes overboard (this was recent when some kids had some wild display that disparaged Jesus). But, the same way I use the "nigga" frequently on this blog, I believe rappers should be able to do so in song, same as script writers should continue to write it into scripts.

(Note: I believe men should retire the word "bitch" and go to more classy terms like "broad", "bird", "dame", "skirt". The more innocuous and sophisticated, the better. "Tramp" and "slut" are OK, too.)

This is all just mindless venting and ranting. I just think this firestorm over the use of nigga in the community is overblown and the grandstanding by the NAACP was just stupid and not worth a drop of water in a bucket. Them niggas shouldve stayed in their air-conditioned office.

Yall know how I feel: Niggas Is A Beautiful Thang.