The “Nigger Wake Up Call” is Paul Mooney’s idea that no matter what a Black person achieves, they can be dehumanized and treated “like a nigger” at any moment. I will come back to this idea.
So, in about May the internet began buzzing with the latest internet sensation, Kreayshawn, releasing the song “Gucci Gucci”. The song, on its surface, appears to be an indictment of conspicuous consumption; yet, it should not be confused with an anti-capitalist critique. In my opinion, it is merely an appropriation of capitalist patriarchy, spoken through a White lesbian identity. For example, the recurring phrase “One big room, full of bad bitches” is wholly consistent with the commodification of women. The “bitches” are muted and passive, while Kreayshawn speaks for them, “I got rooms full of bad bitches; they don’t need Gucci, they don’t need Louis”. These lyrics sound very similar to the pimp fantasy objectification that characterizes the male gaze in a patriarchal society. For the record, I actually like the song…
THE CONTROVERSY OVER THE “N WORD”
Anyway, the controversy isn’t about the materialism, the sexism, or commodification; instead, there is a racial controversy brewing that threatens to derail Kreayshawn’s momentum. One of Kreayshawn’s White associates uses the “n word”.
Spin Magazine wrote a pretty scathing story on Kreayshawn and the White Girl Mob’s use of “the n-word”. I don’t fully agree with their assessment, but it is worth reading. There is a classist element to the label “nigger”, I believe that the word “wigger” (a label for a White person who “acts Black”) is as much a class-based slur as it is a racial one. Here are the important excerpts:
Kreayshawn may not say “nigga,” but she lacks empathy for hip-hop’s upward mobility narratives, replacing them with a thrift-store chic that’s as clueless and up-its-own-ass as Michelle Bachmann’s contrived small-town Iowa values.
None of this should have to be explained, but “nigga” is a word that was born out of a desire to combat the hatefulness of “nigger” — it’s cultural, and that’s why black people, from any social strata, can say the word without question. It has nothing to do with the all-inclusive “struggle,” so White Girl Mob’s dive to the bottom of the white-trash heap in search of a hood pass is completely beside the point.
To me, White people saying nigga/nucca/niggalicious/niglet/ or any other iteration of the word nigger is not worth controversy, we are all bound in the word’s history and meaning. White people invented the term, so of course some of them say it, am I supposed to be shocked? You see, I have had White people call me a nigger before. In hindsight, the most insidious aspect of the experience is the look on their faces as they said it, suggesting that they thought it was the ultimate trump card… as if they had hit me with some unspeakable word that reaches through my DNA and slaps each one of my African-slave ancestors. In my opinion, censoring the word gives White people the impression that they have the ultimate power to destroy my sense of self by simply saying “nigger”. I give myself more credit than that, and I hold all Black people to a higher standard.
Back to V Nasty and the Kreayshawn controversy…
Instead of censoring words, I believe it is more important to ask a person why they want/feel entitled to use certain language. Kreayshawn (and a host of others) have excused and defended V Nasty by saying that “she goes in and out of jail for armed robbery all the time”. This is where they lost me…
The idea that going to jail legitimizes someone’s use of the word nigger is troubling to me. Since being Black gives a person the right to say nigger, and a criminal history gives a non-Black person the same right, then nigger becomes the unity between Blackness and crime. To me, this signifies that despite niggas’ best efforts, nigger will never be fully extricated from its pejorative meaning. No matter how well I dress, how well I think, how I speak, how much money I generate, or even if I become President, nigger is the yoke that inextricably binds my Blackness to social undesirability. That is why Spin Magazine’s take “black people, from any social strata, can say the word without question” is just as troubling a sentiment as V Nasty’s defense. It’s not that any Black person, regardless of experience, can say nigger; rather, it is that any Black person regardless of social strata can be treated like a nigger. In the United States, we are all (Black and non-Black) bound by the word’s power, legacy, and meaning; so, to act like Black people have autonomous control of the word is a fallacy.
Instead of censorship, we need to use moments like this to have critical discussions. Generally speaking, a White person can say nigger free of having their identity being permanently branded as inferior; they don’t have to bear the weight of historical oppression associated with the word, nor do White people have to live under the threat of violence (racially motivated or not) against those who are identified as niggers. A White person will never face a Nigger Wake Up Call. However, this does not mean that they should be banned from saying the word nigger. Sometimes, the word needs to be said because of the context, and censoring it absolves White culture of the collective responsibility they share in unleashing and promulgating the word and its culture of violence. Nigger is an emotive and powerful word that is full of meaning and context… “n-word” pales in comparison and serves to mute the word’s legacy.
I think the double-standard regarding White people’s use of the word nigger is ridiculous. I am not arguing for a flippant and uncritical use of the word, nor am I saying that I am comfortable with White people jumping up and saying it to/around me. I just feel that censorship is never the answer, and forcing everyone to take responsibility for it is a better solution.
The following is another major media firestorm regarding the use of the word nigger.
Here is a Boondocks parody:
RobtheIdealist
