The+Reduction+of+the+Colloquial+Use+of+the+“N-word”+Among+African+Americans.

Recently, the N-word has become more frequently used in casual conversation among African Americans, despite its negative connotation. This type of usage has given African Americans a means in which the N-word can be utilized as a language barrier to separate themselves from the rest of society. For centuries, the N-word has been used as a tool of hatred throughout African American culture. While the N-word is, currently, primarily used out of its original context, it is still defined as a derogatory term used by Caucasian people to monopolize racial discrimination. African Americans who use the N-word towards each other, despite whatever connotation it is used, have unknowingly left themselves susceptible to the depression of their culture, validation of “racial passing,” and the amplification of the racism that still lies within America today. Through the continual use of the N-word, African-Americans are allowing themselves to forget about the abhorrence that word carries, which in turn results in, as Rahman observed “the construction of an identity founded on self-hate” for generations to come (Rahman et al. 5). In the 1980-1990s, there was negative correlation in the manner of which the N-word was used. All over the nation, its usage became more frowned upon amongst Caucasian community as African Americans, simultaneously, re-appropriated its usage through the uprising of hip hop and rap; a rougher, more aggressive genre of music. In hip-hop and rap music, the N-word was changed from its use as an insult to a colloquial term used among African Americans in reference to each other, taking the place of terms such as “bro” or “homie.” On the west coast, the N.W.A released the song F*k Da Police, which was a meant as a rallying cry against police violence in Compton, California. In this song, the N-word was used to describe the victims and witnesses in these crimes, as Ice Cube depicted in his lyrics, “Thinkin' every nigga is sellin' narcotics You'd rather see me in the pen… Huh, a young nigga on the warpath. And when I'm finished, it's gonna be a bloodbath Of cops, dying in L.A” (N.W.A). Even though this word has been thought to be re-appropriated, in the south, the birthing grounds of rap and hip-hop music, it is used in conjunction with heavy violence and destructive behavior as found. For example, following the release of the N.W.A’s song, in the south Master P released, Till We Dead and Gone. Show casing lyrics such as these “We gon’ hang niggas. We gon’ bang niggas. We gon’ slang niggas”, which in depicts a culture of heavy gang violence and the belittling of rival gangs, reverting the N-word back to its original negative connotation. Today, most of the African Americans I have in encountered have decreed that the N-word can only be used by African Americans to describe other African Americans because, it is thought to be a word that can be used by our specific race. In turn, saying that a race can take ownership of a word; which places limitations on our racial differs, freedom speech. This inhibition is not justifiable because if reverted to technical terms the word really belongs to people of the Caucasians race, because the connotation it is used in correlates to its previous use, the noun form “nigger”. By trying to take this word away from Caucasians, we are accepting the insults embedded in this word It is a silent understanding that Caucasians are not allowed to use “nigger”, simply because of their ancestors’ history of African American slave possession. In this social law, communities somewhat create a language barrier inhibiting the words shared between common colloquial due to the abhorrent nature recollected through allowing certain Caucasians to use “nigga”, I say certain because African Americans give Caucasians with, what they deem African American traits, a Black Card that allows them to use the word “nigga”. Theses Caucasians must’ve had to have dated a member of the African American society, dress like an African American and/or have listened to popular African American music. In regards, to allowing theses select few Caucasians to use the word, African Americans have made it harder to regulate the use of the N-word. The academic term for this is “Racial Passing”, “Passing is a deception that enables a person to adopt certain roles or identities from which he would be barred by prevailing social standards in the absence of his misleading conduct…. the individual whose physical appearance allows him to present himself as “white” but whose “black” lineage (typically only a very partial black lineage) makes him a Negro according to dominant racial rules”( Kennedy 1). The Black Card can be used negatively because it, not only, mobilizes Caucasians to use the N-word among a private group of companions, but, also against any group of African Americans they might encounter.

The N-word cannot be used in any way shape form, because it does not take away from its demeaning underlying message. The continuity of this type of use, has given African Americans a means, in which the N-word can be used an insult towards their race for generation to come. If the use of the N-word is at least highly discouraged there may be hope in the restoration of equality within races in the United States of America.


 * 1) Rahman, Jacquelyn. “The N Word.” Journal of English Linguistics, Sage, Jan. 2012, eng.sagepu
 * 2) Kennedy, Randall. “Racial Passing.” Passing into the Present, 2010 [Vol. 62: 1145 (2001].
 * 3) "N.W.A – Fuk Da Police." Genius Lyrics. 9 Aug. 1998. @https://genius.com/Nwa-fuck-tha-police-lyrics