In the last post, a much-abbreviated history of the word “nigger” was discussed as it was originally intended by slave breeders and other whites. Their use of the term meant “a non-human animal”.
Understandably, a people who had never heard of themselves by any other reference might take on the term as a way to identify. But what makes it so appealing today?
In the non-humanizing slavery days, the “bad nigger” was the one who defied the authority of the master and held on to himself/herself facing punishment and/or death. From the perspective of the white oppressor, the “bad nigger” threatened the order of the plantation and the colonial apparatus (system).
The masters/overseers would refer to that person as a “bad nigger”, in much the
same way one might refer to a disobedient pet, by saying “bad dog”. For the slaves, the “bad nigger” was the person who refused to be the created nigger-object.
The bad nigger created a duality for society; he exercised something that by law was not his, yet by nature couldn’t be owned by another – that was his will. Over time, proud men stopped referring to themselves as bad niggers, as they knew that they were not the animals slavery tried to create. Also, over time, the image of the man/woman who stood against a system for justice and autonomy, was lost and only the term would remain.
Neither emancipation, assimilation, nor the Civil Rights Act enfranchised African Americans into the system of liberty. Thus, the image reemerged as a pessimistic outlook in the identity of the “nigga” in an effort to reject the system and self-identify.
Rather than the proud, and whole human being, today’s bad nigga has fallen to the apparatus in such a way that it reproduces the system and its expectations rather than defy it.
Modernized commodification of black inferiority appears with minstrel-like animalistic stereotypes of black bodies by black people. In order for oppressive systems to
reproduce, both oppressor and oppressed have to play the societal roles given to them.
In the colonial context, whites have to be seen as superior and blacks as inferior. The propagandized images are that black men are oversexed, dangerous, unintelligent fools destined for criminality. Black women are oversexed breeders, mammies, or angry; and they both need the white person to attain human status and thus autonomy.
Does our commodification of these words in song, movies, and everyday language only add to our oppression and thus stress? Ask yourself these questions:
Was the use of these words necessary for the song/movie to be good?
Count how many times the words are used?
How do the images I’m seeing contribute to stereotypes?
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