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“I even hate when you say the word “nigga,” but that’s just me, I guess. Some shit just cringeworthy, it ain’t even gotta be deep, I guess.”—Kendrick Lamar, ‘Euphoria’. 

Apparently, people who identify as Black, even if they are not a part of the Diaspora of lost tribes of Melanated Black People in America, are more eager than ever to add the infamous N word to their vocabulary. Never forget that Black People accepted the title of Black because the indigenous Melanated people that came to America in ships from Africa had their identity, their tribes, and their language stripped from them, and their families torn apart and divided amongst white American slave owners. It is true that Africans sold their people to white slave owners, however, Africans were not made aware of the brutality, barbarism, and terrorism that they were sending their people into. Once those Africans boarded the ship, the terror from beatings, raping’s, killings and name calling commenced. 

The word Niger, which means Black, eventually evolved into the hostile epithet that is, nigger. At some point in Black History in America, nigger evolved into nigga, which many Melanated Black People declared was supposed to be a softer way of using it, all whilst still mostly being used in derogatory ways. Some Melanated People say the word “nigga” sans the hard E R, is defined as a buddy or a friend. While some Melanated People say if they do slip up and use it, their intention is to be derogatory towards any group of people. 

Kendrick Lamar recently inflated the conversation of the N word usage in his diss track “Euphoria” he wrote to Drake, who is the child of a white mother and Melanated Black American father. Kendrick mentions that he hates Drake’s use of nigga and that it is cringeworthy to him. It was as if Kendrick mentioning this electrified the synapses of many Melanated Black people and sparked conversations of how and why Melanated Black people in America allowed this verbally abusive word to become so popular amongst non Melanated Black people and why didn’t Melanated Black people protect the culture if they were so pressed to frivolously use it and include it in popular music in which listeners recite word for word. 

Two weeks after Kendrick sang to Drake about wanting to not hear him say nigga no more, a prospective Baddie on creator and executive producer, Natalie Nunn’s ZEUS Networks Baddies Caribbean was beat senselessly in a brawl on Episode 3, following her incessant use of the N word directed towards a house filled with Melanated Black American Women. Bad Girls Club OG’s, Normal Culture Brand creatress, Jelaminah “Jela” Lanier and The Clermont Twins, Shannon and Shannade, and a few other Baddies calmly attempted to reason with Gretchen by simply asking her not to say the N word and how uncomfortable it made them when she, who does not look like them, uses the word. Gretchen, a white skinned Puerto Rican, claimed that being Puerto Rican and where she’s from in New York, grants her the privilege to incessantly use the N word. The women that asked her to refrain from its use, were patient and kind in their request, to which Gretchen responded with, “I understand all that, but I don’t give a fuck.” She then proceeded to aggressively use the word to verbally attack the Melanated Black American women in the house. Gretchen maintained how she “wasn’t using it in that way”. However, in her private confessionals, she admits that she used the N word because she felt attacked. “When I get upset, I use the N word.” Before Jela chooses to jump on the girl again, Gretchen emphasizes to her once more, that she uses the N word when she is mad. All of those reasons for Gretchen’s use of the N word, are racist. 

One of the most significant questions stemming from these current conversations is, why are non Melanated Black people so obsessed with and determined to say the N word? If Melanated Black people in America chose to use the word amongst themselves, why are non Melanated people, even if they have a blood related relative with Melanated DNA, so desperate to say it? These people justify their usage of the word by elaborating with ideas such as, “Well I’m Puerto Rican,” or “I am Dominican, and we have African blood in us because of the Taino Indigenous Peoples, so we can say it.” Then there is the entitlement and euphoria of those who are mixed with a white mother or father and their desperate desire to use the N word due to their drops of Melanin. It’s never, “Oh, I found out I’m Black and man I realized I can run faster and jump higher,” or “I have Black in me, I feel like my intelligence is heightened and I’m more fearless now.” And it’s most certainly never, “I want to say the N word because I am a Nigger/Nigga.” When people discover they have African in their DNA, it seems as if the first thing they are excited to do with this newfound Blackness is to say the N word. 

If a Melanated Black American asks you not to use the word, why wouldn’t the person simply stop saying it, versus justifying why they should be allowed to use it? This notion is even more reason why, they not like us. 

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Zeus Network