Is the N word still necessary?

It may be another 20 years but the N word {nigger} will become acceptable speech in the USA. It is worldwide to indicate a tough guy, good friend, 'hommie', super-cool persona or artist. A successful singer artist from Panama calls himself Nigga everywhere but the USA, where he is known as DJ Flexx. His most recent effort under the Nigga brand fluctuates between number 1 or 2 in Spanish speaking countries. In a recent interview, where he was challenged as to not understanding the word, he stated he knows the controversy and therefore he changed his brand for audiences in the USA. He is not black.

I am black. At first, I was angry learning that this singer had usurped not only a term but a musical form sang mostly by blacks until recently. Then I realized how difficult it would be to redefine the concept to places where the type of discrimination that exists in the USA produces a poverty that by another country's standard would be considered middle-class. I realized he was calling himself what he was doing musically, and what musicians have done since the ability transmit African rhythms worldwide whether it is bembé, soca, reggae, jazz, rap, etal. Over time the music is denuded, stripped of unintelligible Africanism it reformulated under such names as 'smooth jazz', or 'salsa' that help in diffusion.

Color and suffering are not so easily dilutable. Black worldwide whether in Panama or Japan still denotes poverty, violence and starvation; with, of course a few exceptions, of those who have managed to overcome their visual presentation and transcend even the most racist mind. I watch films from all over the world and black characters still reflect the worst of society. This is particularly egregious in films from Latin American countries that pretend not to have large populations such as Uruguay or Colombia. Brazil is an exception since blacks make up a majority of the population. All these places have their own deragotary terms for their black populations, niche in Colombia, chombo in Panama, prieto in most of Caribbean, while in other places such as Nicaragua the large black populations are so isolated they are ignored.

I am also from Panama, like Nigga; but unlike Nigga, suffered under the term chombo. The implications are the same as nigger but not worse. The etymology of the word chombo stems from prisoners used mostly as slave labor who had their sun charcoaled arms (chombos) exposed. Many of these workers were from the West Indies. It was used derisively to discrimate. It was used against me. It still angers me when a non-black person uses it, but because of the popularity of blended Jamaican and Panamanian music called reggaeton, it is now a term of endearment if not exaultation. There is an artist called El Chombo, and he is mixed, and would be considered black in the USA. In Panama, could be a chombo, but never denigrated for it like many other people. The distinction between there and here is people mix and move on.

Nigger is a purposeful white mispronunciation of the Spanish word negro, and for many years Negro was considered appropriate language in American speak. Colored or Negro were the acceptable terms; black was unacceptable and so was African. Nigger was always around even in the Panama Canal Zone thanks to the USA citizens that managed the area. It was always dirisive, denigrating and discrimantory. It connotated racism to the highest degree; and, yes, even more than chombo, niche, prieto, congo, etal. Black then African became the mantra in nomenclature but even that after time began to sound like Negro or colored. Angry black men making music without orchestras or bands spoke the word used mostly as self-depracation to mean 'you ain't no better than me, you still black and to white folks you still a nigger'. Even in this context the meaning is a demeaning one, and of course every culture and race has similar terms of denigration and self depracation.

But this word in particular still denotes people descendant of slavery that was the most repressive in the American continent. It may have been because of the climate and fauna which allowed slaves brought from Africa to slip into the hills and jungles and free themselves from slavery in the tropical countries. They could still drum in candombles, cabildos and restructure their speech and languages; inclusive their religious practices which today people enjoy as salsa dancing. In some places, like Panama, the runaway slaves like Bayano became a source of national pride in spite of or maybe because he savagely butchered the white Spaniards to the point they had to sign a treaty. He won then and so did black people in other places like Ecuador, Mexico, Jamaica and Haiti who enjoyed such victories. So even if someone tried to devastate your ego with a denigrating term, you could take pride in it that they could not.

The southern USA had slavery as its economic backbone for agriculture. If a black person so much as dreamed of escaping lynching was the cure. Nigger comes from this source. When a white person says it, I remember the first photo of a lynching I saw. I happened upon it by accident and it still horrifies me to this day. I am not ready for nigger to be common place in daily speech. It still swims in my head for either self-ridicule or self commentary at someone. I restrict it to only close black acquaintances and then mostly as a parody or paraphrase. I listen to rap music and accept it there, but not in pop music or general speak. I can accept another black person, who is a stranger, even using the term 'brother' in anger towards me, but saying nigger means we are going to fight physically or spar verbally.

A perfect example in music of why nigger still connotes hate and racism: Will Smith and other rappers do not use the term, and they have only limited succes musically (Will Smith of course figured this out early enough to switch to filmwhere is undeniably a huge success). Well, considering that without white people buying rap music the industry would not have the success it is enjoying today, it could considered corollary this is what white perceive about blacks as much as they perceived the black face performances of a hundred years ago when even black performers had to wear black face to perform. This is a challenge for rap artists, but then norms change and accommodations are made that make an insult become a praise. Making a change simply for correctness never accomplishes much except ignore the source of the problem.

I believe the word is unnecessary. It still binds to slavery the contemporary existence of blacks. It still allows people who hate blacks to be comfortable in their hate. It keeps a stereotype alive to the point a continent is ignored getting the least capital even though it has most resources. The rapper Trick Daddy feature on the Urban Mystic's recent cd delivered, "slavery is no longer an excuse" when referring to the change blacks must make to advance. If Richard Pryor, who had a similar epiphany a generation before when travelling to Africa, could stop using this term (and he made a lot of money on the term) then the rest of us certainly can start today. Because when it becomes common place, slavery and lynching will be forgotten but the engendered poverty it created will remain.