Damn “NIGGA” Damn!

by today's Urban Chameleon contributor Black Man formerly known as Nigga

Surreal the trip had been already. I found my self here in South Africa surrounded by self-proclaimed “coloreds” and my homie from the “D” in an upscale restaurant in one of Cape Town’s finest dining establishments. We were discussing the frustration of coloreds and black s alike in South Africa at the fact that Mandela had not done more to punish South African whites as he took power. Many South Africans of the browner persuasion felt that they had been sold out. They felt like African Americans would not have stood for such a passive take over. They cited the rhetoric of Malcolm X and the resumés of revolutionaries like Huey Newton and Angela Davis with the thoroughness of the deepest Afro-American history scholar. They put the African American civil rights struggle on a pedestal and languished their own leaders’ inability to be as effective, as aggressive, as revolutionary.

My man and I asked many questions and learned a great deal about our South African sisters and brothers over bottles of South African wine and faire. Our bellies and minds full, we paid the bill and prepared to exit, my homie and I nearly running, because we still could not believe that a meal of that quality could cost so little. Surely the waiter would be after us to let us know he’d made a mistake and forgot to charge us the proper amount.

As we walked to our car a black South African man approached. Clearly the brother was homeless. His hustle was watching the cars parked along this dark but busy street ensuring that cars were safe from the rash of smash and grab robberies that occur often in cities like Cape Town where “the haves” have in great abundance and the have nots, well, you know.

He overheard my man and I talking and his eyes lit up.

“Hey! You guys are American!” he said excitedly.

“Yes” we affirmed, “What’s up brother?”

“Oh wow!” he said giving us dap. “You guys are the real, the real NIGGAS”

My homie and I looked at each other is shock. “Nah b. We brothers.” I said coolly.

“No man, you guys are the REAL NIGGAS. Like for real.”

“No man. We not niggas, we brothers”

“No, its ok” he assured us, “You’re real niggas. Not like these guys from West Africa that come here and think they niggas, you guys are the REAL NIGGAS. I want to be a nigga like you too!” he said with a big smile.

We continued to object. “Listen man, we NOT NIGGAS. We brothers. You can be my brother” my homie said as relaxed as possible.

The man’s face stayed frozen in an excited, yet naïve smile. He seemed to want us to affirm his “nigga’ status. Our “colored” friends joined in, they had picked up on our defiance of being called niggas in the middle of a Capetonian street,

“No, Nigga is a compliment”, they said. “It's a term of endearment. Its not what you think.”

I was floored. Were these not the same people running down the Civil Rights movement as though they were being voiced by Skip Gates? The surreal had become even more real.

“Yo, being a nigga is NOT cool. Its not a compliment” I said as calmly as I could

I could see the confusion of a thousand hip-hop songs, stand-up comedy sets and exploitative black movies crashing all around. Nigga is so much a part of black American dialect that sometime we say it without realizing it. We only hear it when it rolls off of a foreign tongue (literally or figuratively).

Our friends and the homeless man are probably still confounded to this day. Afterall, their use of the word nigga in relationship to my man and I was a means of identifying with us, their American brothers. Truly for them the word was a term of endearment and a gesture to show their affinity towards all things Afro-American.

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Chris Rock’s Good Hair…Internalized Racism or the Beauty Industry?

by today's Urban Chameleon contributor

A group of us gals went to check out Chris Rock’s film Good Hair this past weekend, which surprisingly sparked interesting debates.

I say "surprisingly" because after 30ty sumptin’ years of being Black, a woman and living with hair I went into this film thinking there is nothing new that could possibly arise in conversation.

I expected to chuckle at Rock’s commentary and every now and then throw the movie screen a little church affirmation, “Hmm hmm.” Although I should have known better because Black women can always conjure up a new variation of the discussion around hair, it’s in our DNA. But how about Oprah’s recent interview with Chris Rock about “Good hair” and opening up the conversation to now include white women who color their hair blond. Is this to say we’ve all suffered the same oppression? Really?

There is no doubt about it that all women are oppressed by the beauty industry, not matter what race most try to achieve some level of unachievable beauty. But let’s not allow this to convolute the issues because Black hair is and will always be its OWN issue. It’s tied to our lineage and the battle between us and our hair is a reflection of racism from WAY BACK, slave days, way before a beauty industry even existed and the truth is we’ve internalized it.

A girlfriend of mine argued that she didn’t feel like we initially began straightening our hair to look white but rather it was about being able to manage our hair. But isn’t the idea of “managing” a colloquial term? Why does Black hair have to be managed?

My Dominican friend was even telling me how when a baby is born into the family the women all ask, “How’s the hair?” Meaning is it nappy or the good hair, the kind that blows in the wind.

One guy recently told me that his family would look at him crazy if he brought home a girl with locks.

There is no doubt that a large number of the Black community still judges you on your hair type and length- could internalized racism not be more clear? However I wonder if the beauty industry and maybe even Oprah help to disguise this for like the “N” word over time we forget history and find new meaning.

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How do we feel about the use of the “N” word today?

By today’s Urban Chameleon contributor

Editor-in-chief of HOTUC

HaJ

What began as casual dinner conversation the other night soon turned into a round table debate on whether or whether not the “N” word should be apart of our vocabulary.

One minute a group of about six of us were laughing, choppin’ it up when someone coolly used the “N” word and the next thing you know another person reacted, “GOD I HATE THAT WORD!”

The person who used the word told him to get over it and stop with the “Black consciousness” as if to say that that fad got played out in the late 90’s.

The “Black Conscious” brotha was then put in the spotlight to defend his position, a position most of us are well to familiar with and even still agree with, which is that the word stems from hate, a derogatory term used to keep Black people down.

A counter argument was made by another, a Latino guy at the table, “Why not change the meaning of the word and take the power out of it?” which is the same point I heard Jay Z make on Oprah just a few days later. Oprah said that she and J would have to agree to disagree, as she could not change her hurtful past relationship with the word.

In thinking more about the suggested solution I can’t help but to wonder if changing the meaning of the word just disguises the negative effect of its origin, which is that we were called the “N” word so much that we eventually began to call ourselves the name in some situations to even assume approval from the slave master and to put down our own kind. I call this slave residue- more on that another time. By changing the meaning of the word will there be rules that apply? For instance does everyone now get to use the word? Because if not that means power still exists in the word…and are we ready for that trade off?

A friend of mine who despises the word in a different conversation brought up the point, “Would Jay Z refer to Barack as his Nigga?” She didn’t think so. Therefore what does that say about how Jay Z looks at his fellow brethrens? Another friend countered this point by mentioning that 1) the term is usually used in the setting of familiarity and 2) more importantly, Barack does not come from that culture. This I thought was a great point as we often assume a person is suppose to behave a certain way based on skin color rather than perspective/ culture as I have Asian and Latino friends (from the culture) who use the word and my reaction is the same as listening to a Jay Z album, immune.

Although I personally choose not to use the word despite growing up in the same culture for my two very proud Black conscious parents who share Oprah’s generation would have had my head. I do however recognize that some of my fellow Urban Chameleon brethrens and sistrens—chameleon back and forth with their use of the word from corporate to ‘hood and do I mind? Honestly no. Because these are Urban Chameleons who like Jay Z know that they are not niggas. What I do mind is that not enough people in the ‘hood who use the word know this.

The problem with trying to redefine the word as something else is that this only works for people informed in the first place and then you have the problem of this being an open invitation for other cultures to eventually use the word (if not already)… and let’s be real the “N” word is too complex for rules. If everyone is not operating with the same level of understanding it leaves too much room for misinterpretation and may just perpetuate a problem that was never fixed.

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Jay Z on Oprah

Urban Chameleon news

It's moments like this where you kick yourself for moving out the 'hood! I cannot believe I was not there when Jay Z brought Oprah back to Marcy projects just blocks away from where I grew up. "From Brooklyn to the Boardroom" as Oprah put it (an Urban Chameleon line I might add) I'm just mad that I was in the boardroom when my ass shoulda been in Brooklyn!

Well if you missed, experience it here





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How dare you name your cat THAT!

by today's Urban Chameleon contributor

The other day my white girl friend called me to run one of her “Do you consider this to be racially offensive” question by me. I find that quite a number of people of color experience this...

Anyhow, she had just gotten a new cat that they named Knickers but was having second thoughts after her mom told this woman at work about the new cat and its name. The woman was like, “Oh my goodness, they can’t name their cat that. People will get offended!”

I still didn’t quite get what she meant but you know how you need to try on a name so you contextualize it by using it out loud in a sentence.

“Come here Knickers, sit Knickers, stay Niggers.” Ohhhhhhhhhh I get it.

HAHAHAHAH. I see. It’s too close to the “N” word. Now I love how my friend was trying to explain to me the problem with out ever using the actual word. Good ‘cause I would have beat her ass with a bottle. I’m just kiddingnoI’mnot. Hmmm is this one of those situations where people are being too sensitive? The name seemed harmless to me.

I guess we’ll know if god forbid that cat runs away and she is out late that night calling out “KNIIIIIIIIIIIII-GG-ERS.” She better get her articulation exercises going.

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