PROGRAM SUCCESS – SEPTEMBER 2010
PAGE 19
THE ENIGMATIC N-WORD
By H. Lewis Smith
Even though not all black
Americans refer to themselves as the
pejorative n-word, an alarming proportion
of the Black community uses and/or
supports use of the term. For instance,
ministers invoke the word from their
pulpits, and the NAACP, with the wink of
the eye, looks the other way when
prominent blacks publicly embrace the
word. Many black college professors
support their students’ use of the word.
Minister Louis Farrakhan has glowingly
utilized the word in some of his speeches.
It’s liberally promoted in mainstream
media, such as in the music of rappers and
television shows like The Boondocks. In
grassroots black America, many are simply
so consumed by the word, that they’re
unable to survive a 48-hour period without
H. Lewis Smith
using the term.
In addition, proponents of the n-word offer a myriad of excuses as to why they
self-internalize the word. Some of the “justifications” allude to the idea that black users of
the word are taking the sting out of the term by using it, as well as they are changing the
meaning of the idiom by using it endearingly and changing the suffix on the word from
“er” to “a”. So what does this all mean one may ask; to black Americans who refuse to
succumb to the use and acceptance of the disparaging term, what is supposed to be the
problem with the n-word?
To be candid, blacks who refrain from the use of the word are NOT in denial of
a 300-year-African American Holocaust. Acknowledging the sinister history of the n-word
is not giving power to the word as some claim. However, accepting use of the word does
subliminally give it power; even though one doesn’t realize it at the surface level, when
one is referred to as a “n**ga”, all of the memories of contempt, negativity and inferiority
courses through one’s veins and mental. Just think about it: For almost four centuries some
very heinous and terrible atrocities occurred to Black Americans’ beloved ancestors in the
name of the n-word. It was a term of exclusion, verbal justification for inhumane acts,
including slaughtering, butchering, brutal rapes, death and terrorizing.
To embrace and or accept n**ga as a term of endearment that individual is either
in a continued state of denial or the word has subconsciously over-powered and
brainwashed that individual into his/her “place”. Either way, the progress and rejuvenation
of the black community is stagnant, and the demise continues.
Each time we call one another n**ga or n**ger as terms of so-called endearment,
the memories and spirits of the black forefathers are desecrated and dishonored. Duty is
calling and the time is now for ALL blacks to bestow upon ancestors a better and more
dignified place in the black race’s collective memory than any individual money-hungry
rapper, self-centered comedian, or blind revisionist has accorded them to date.
The history of the word n**ger cannot and should not be overlooked. The word
is so stigmatized that to attempt to redefine it would suggest that an African-American
Holocaust never took place. But the fact is the event did occur. Certainly words change
and evolve, and though it can easily be argued that context can change words, the original
purpose/intent of the word and its place in history cannot change.
The term acts as an unrelenting daily assault on the Black psyche designed to
corrupt Black Americans’ sense of racial unity and cohesion. It molds the character of self-
hatred, engenders self-doubt, self-loathing, and distrust among the group, thus,
pulverizing Black unity and halting Black upward mobility.
There is an 18th century mentality
associated with the term: An old woman, an
escape slave, in a conversation with a
missionary was quoted as saying: “We are
n**gers. We always was n**gers and we always
shall be. We’ve got no souls. We’s animals.
We’s black and so is the Evil One.”
The Bible doesn’t say the devil is
black, protested the missionary. “Well,” the old
woman said, “white folks say so and we’s
bound to believe them, cause we’s nothing but
animals and n**gers. Yes, we’s n**gers!
N**gers! N**gers!”
This 18th century mentality is alive
and well throughout the 21st century black
community. To be succinct, the true and ONLY
reason blacks refer to themselves as the n-word
is because white folks said to do so...where else
did the programming, conditioning and the
word n**ger originate?
The word n**ger is as much a part of
American history as slavery, the Civil War, and
the Boston Tea Party, and it would be naivety to
assume that it can be made to disappear. It is
just as naïve to assume that the term’s satanical
history is some sort of illusion, however, the
word can be made to vanish, banned, abolished
from the speech of all Black Americans as it
should be. Thinking like helpless and hopeless
victims, users of the word see a task such as
eradicating the use of the word from their
vocabulary as impossible. Such an attitude is
unlike that of the 60s when the indomitable
spirit of Black America rejected the terms of
Negro and Colored choosing instead to adopt
the terms of Black and African American.
They chose to define themselves as
opposed to being defined. Just as that spirit of
determination and striving toward self-respect
and progress reigned throughout the ‘60’s,
blacks of today can infuse that same spirit into
defining themselves in a positive light rather
than being defined by some past idea of
inferiority. It is time to leave all remnants of the
past in the past, and move forward with a clear
head and [self-definition] founded on personal
integrity, cultural and individual respect.
H. Lewis Smith is the founder and president of
UVCC, the United Voices for a Common Cause,
Inc. www.theunitedvoices.com, a writer for the
New England Informer Online; and author of
“Bury that Sucka: A Scandalous Love Affair
with the N-Word”. Follow H. Lewis Smith on
Twitter: www.twitter.com/thescoop1