- Nigga
-
This article is about "nigga" as a colloquial reference. For the racial slur, see Nigger. For the Panamanian singer known as Nigga, see Flex (singer).Listen to this article (info/dl)
This audio file was created from a revision of Nigga dated 2008-11-14, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. (Audio help)More spoken articlesNigga is a term used in African American Vernacular English that began as an eye dialect form of the word nigger (a word originated as a term used in a neutral context to refer to black people, as a variation of the Spanish/Portuguese noun negro, a descendant of the Latin adjective niger, meaning the colour "black").[1][2][3][4][5]
Contents
Use in language
In practice, its use and meaning are heavily dependent on context.[5] Presently, the word nigga is used more liberally among younger members[6] of all races and ethnicities in the United States, although its use by persons not of African descent is still widely viewed as unacceptable and hostile, even when used without intentional prejudice. In addition to African Americans, other ethnic groups[7][8] have adopted the term as part of their vernacular.
There is conflicting popular opinion on whether there is any meaningful difference between nigga and nigger as a spoken term.[9] Many people consider the terms to be equally pejorative, and the use of nigga both in and outside African American communities remains controversial.[10] H. Lewis Smith, author of Bury that Sucka: A Scandalous Affair with the N-word, believes that "replacing the 'er' with an 'a' changes nothing other than the pronunciation"[11] and the African American Registry notes, "Brother (Brotha) and Sister (Sistah or Sista) are terms of endearment. Nigger was and still is a word of disrespect."[12] The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a civil rights group, condemns use of both nigga and nigger.[9]
Some African-Americans express considerable offense when referred to as a nigga by Caucasian people, but not if they are called the same by other African-Americans, or by some other minority, as a term of endearment.[9] In this case, the term may be seen either as a symbol of brotherhood,[13] similar to the usage of the words dude and bro, and its use outside a defined social group an unwelcome cultural appropriation. Critics have derided this as a double standard.[7]
Non-rhotic English-speakers, such as speakers of many British dialects and African American Vernacular English, pronounce "nigger" and "nigga" identically, as their accents do not distinguish between these two words.
Cultural influence
The term "nigga, please", first used in the 1970s by comics such as Paul Mooney as "a funny punctuation in jokes about Blacks,"[14] is now heard routinely in comedy routines by African Americans. The growing use of the term is often attributed to its ubiquity in modern American hip hop music.[15][16] Examples include: hip-hop group Niggaz Wit' Attitude (N.W.A.), A Tribe Called Quest's "Sucka Nigga", Notorious B.I.G.'s song, "The Realest Niggaz", Jay-Z's "Jigga That Nigga" and Snoop Dogg's "For All My Niggaz and Bitches". Ol' Dirty Bastard uses the term 76 times in his Nigga Please album (not including repetitions in choruses).[16] This is reflected in the term's wide use in modern American gang culture. According to a Texas Monthly article about Houston gangs, many Hispanic street gang members call each other niggah.[17]
However, its use has spread beyond North America. The Portuguese comedy group, Gato Fedorento, uses the word nigga in an audio sketch, where the four individuals (all Caucasian) say they are niggas ("I'm nigga, nigga; are you nigga, nigga?"), and end up admitting that they do not know what nigga means, although "people say it's amazing" (since the word isn't familiar for most Portuguese people, and is seen in the sketch simply as a strange-sounding word). Da Weasel later sang a song named "Nigga" in Gato Fedorento's last episode of season 5.[citation needed]
Comedian Chris Rock's routine "Niggas vs. Black People" distinguishes a nigga, which he defined as a "low-expectation-having motherfucker", from a "black person". In contrast, Tupac Shakur distinguished between nigger and nigga: "Niggers was the ones on the rope, hanging off the thing; niggas is the ones with gold ropes, hanging out at clubs."[18] Tupac, who has been credited with legitimizing the term, said his song N.I.G.G.A. stood for "Never Ignorant Getting Goals Accomplished."[19]
Use in trademarks or brand names
The Lanham Act does not permit registration of trademarks containing terms that may disparage persons or bring them into disrepute.[20] Registration by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) of terms that are historically considered disparaging to groups of people has been allowed in some circumstances. Self-disparaging trademarks have been allowed in some cases where the applicant has shown that the mark as-used is not considered by the relevant group to be disparaging.[21]
In 1995, two Houston, Texas men filed a trademark application with the PTO for the words "Naturally Intelligent God Gifted Africans," and its acronym. The application was rejected, as were numerous subsequent applications for variations of the word nigga. Most recently, comedian Damon Wayans twice attempted to trademark a brand name called Nigga, "featuring clothing, books, music and general merchandise."[15] The PTO refused the application, stating "the very fact that debate is ongoing regarding in-[ethnic]-group usage, shows that a substantial composite of African Americans find the term 'nigga' to be offensive."[16]
See also
References
- ^ Pilgrim, David (September 2001). "Nigger and Caricatures". http://www.ferris.edu/news/jimcrow/caricature/. Retrieved 2007-06-19.
- ^ Being a Nigger is Not Cool
- ^ Abolish the "N" Word
- ^ J. Douglas Allen-Taylor. “The Word 'Nigger'” Metroactive News & Issues. April 1998.
- ^ a b Randall Kennedy. Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word, Pantheon. 256 pp
- ^ Jeremy Cooke. Racial slur banned in New York, BBC News, 1 March 2007
- ^ a b Kevin Aldridge, Richelle Thompson and Earnest Winston. "The evolving N-word." The Cincinnati Enquirer, August 5, 2001.
- ^ Kendra Pierre. 'Nigger,' 'Nigga' or Neither?, Meridia, May 1, 2006.
- ^ a b c J. Douglas Allen-Taylor. New Word Order, Metro, April 9, 1998.
- ^ Alex Alonso. Won’t You Please Be My Nigga: Double Standards with a Taboo Word, May 30, 2003.
- ^ Smith. H. Lewis."Why The N-word Is Not Just Another Word." The Black Commentator. January 25, 2007. Issue 214. Retrieved 01-26-2007.
- ^ Phil Middleton and David Pilgrim, "Nigger (the word), a brief history!." African American Registry. 2001. Retrieved 03-14-2007.
- ^ Kevin Aldridge. Slurs often adopted by those they insult, The Cincinnati Enquirer, August 5, 2001.
- ^ Darryl Fears. Jesse Jackson, Paul Mooney Call for End of N-Word, BET.com, November 27, 2006.
- ^ a b Darryl Fears. Patent offense: Wayans’s hip-hop line, The Washington Post, March 15, 2006.
- ^ a b c Rogers Cadenhead. Actor Tries to Trademark 'N' Word, Wired, 23 February 2006.
- ^ Skip Hollandsworth, Southwest Houston After Dark," Texas Monthly, December 2006
- ^ Katy Guest (10 June 2007). "Big Brother: A brief history of the 'N' word". The Independent: p. 1. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/big-brother-a-brief-history-of-the-n-word-452465.html.
- ^ Desiree Hunter (24 February 2007). "Racial slur takes center stage at Stillman". The Tuscaloosa News (Tuscaloosa, AL).
- ^ 15 U.S.C. § 1052.
- ^ Anten, Todd (2006). "Self-Disparaging Trademarks and Social Change: Factoring the Reappropriation of Slurs into Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act" (PDF). Columbia Law Review 106: 338. Archived on 2006-11-24. Error: If you specify
|archiveurl=, you must first specify|url=. http://web.archive.org/web/20061124014213/http://web.archive.org/web/20061124014213/http://www.columbialawreview.org/pdf/Anten-Web.pdf
External links
Categories:- Ethnic and religious slurs
- African-American culture
- Reclaimed words
- American slang
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
