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January 14, 2006
Rules for the "N-word"
Though I've always found the intricacies and relationships of people from a social welfare and political standpoint interesting, I rarely get passionate about social welfare or political discussions. Those two topics are something I never intended to put up on my website, so I had some internal debate before I added the Social/Political topic to my categories list. Well... what's done is done.
The reason I added the category is because I came across this great article by Vincent Williams, a black social/political columnist. The article, entitled The N-Word, dives as little into the social impact of the word from a literary perspective. It concludes with his "Official 'Nigger' Usage Rules":
"Rule No. 1: White people can not use the word under any circumstances. Quoting Mark Twain—who I decided to give a pass, because “Nigger Jim” is the hero of Huckleberry Finn—or, say, Richard Wright is an acceptable exception. Quoting Li’l Flip or Mike Jones is not. Yes, dude, I know it’s totally racist that you can’t recite 50’s latest magnum opus about getting bitches, getting money, getting shot, and the many, many other fine ways he’s Uplifting the Race. But I lost my land, my language, my god, and my mind, and, in return, you can’t sing the hook to “Gold Digger.” You got the better part of the deal.
Rule No. 2: The word should never be used as a synonym for black people.
Rule No. 3: “Nigga” is still the word “nigger,” and all other rules apply to it.
Rule No. 4: If you must use the term “the N-word,” understand you sound ridiculous.
Rule No. 5: Use of the word for satirical, ironic, or commentary purposes is acceptable if it doesn’t break one of the previous rules. But you better have a point."
Posted by aeon3 at January 14, 2006 04:40 PM