For my Bompz

[Brian Phillips <hagar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Is "niggaz" derogatory too? Just wondering..

As much as I was trying to avoid this, it managed to pop up.  To quote
Charles Barkley, "I am not a role model", nor am I by default the
spokesperson for my race, but since I am at the very least, qualified to
talk about it, here goes:

"Nigger" is without a doubt derogatory.  So is "nigra" and "jigaboo".  Many
a Klansmen, songwriter and ad person have used these and to a person, we
have all hated these and other terms.

"But hey, Brian, I have heard other Black people using Nigger.  What about
that?"

Well, you must consider the source.  Here is the unwritten code:

African-Americans sometimes do use that word, but if the person is friendly
to the other, it is usually not taken the wrong way.  However, while I am
friendly with my Pastor, I would NOT use it on him.

One does not call the other a nigger in front of someone of another ethnicity.

Can it be used in anger?  You betcha!

Now a while back (let's say the late 80's) a movement started to reclaim
the stereotypes and the terms used to hurt my people.  I see the point in
the sense of empowerment and definition, so if 2Pac issues an album "...For
My Niggaz", he is using it in this sense: "That term no longer hurts me, as
a matter of fact, I take that, assimilate it and I use it.  It binds us,
for we have all been called it and yet we don't wish to be perceived as
"Just a nigger" ".  That's how I took it, anyway.

Chris Rock, however, uses the term in this context, "I love Black people,
but I hates me some niggers!", as in, "If you act in poor fashion, ___ will
think badly of ALL of us!"  I see his point, too.

How do I feel about the word?  Let's put it this way:

I can spend my money where I please, I can vote, own a house, pray, pay
taxes, protest if I disagree with something and walk around at night
(unless if I am in San Diego or Los Angeles; I have been stopped quite a
few times for that).

ALL of the above has been achieved at a high price: humiliation, lynching,
beating, murder, injustice, lying.  You name it.  Many folks have died
hearing that word, many folks have died thinking that they weren't worthy
of being called anything better than that.  I had a cousin whose real NAME
I don't know because until he went to school, it was changed for him,
because his identity was not important enough to the person calling his
name in school.

Don't argue to me about etymology of the word, because in the end, it
doesn't make a lick of difference when you see someone swinging in the
breeze for the crime of being born (lynching still goes on by the way, it
just isn't "news")

I really (multiplied by 342) didn't want to talk about this on a music
list, but you asked and I felt this needed an answer and I also have to
sleep at night.

Not saying that you did, but DON'T you DARE call me a nigger.  Not even as
a joke. Anyone who knows me knows this and if you don't, I am telling you now.

Brian Phillips

P.S. I am also hip to the folks that want to go ahead and use "nigger" on
me after explictly saying NOT to.  I don't do rude well and I do cliche'
worse.  OK?