The other day I was working out at the gym when I was momentarily distracted by the supreme awfulness of the song that was playing on the in-house music system. Most of what passes for modern music isn’t even fit to burn in a dumpster fire but this was particularly obnoxious. The song was called Freaky Friday and it was these specific lyrics which really annoyed me.
Ohh, I can sing so well
Wonder if I can say the n-word (wait for real?)
Wait, can I really say the n-word?
What up, my nigga? (woo) What up, my nigga?
Big ups, my nigga, we up, my nigga
You pussy ass nigga, man, fuck y’all niggas
‘Cause I’m that nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga
I’m that nigga
It turns out that it’s a black guy singing the song but supposedly in the video storyline it’s a white guy who has been magically teleported into the body of the black guy, which is why he revels in the fact that he can now say nigga.
That’s some really deep shit, man.
The point is that he is now allowed to use the word nigga because he’s now in a black guy’s body. I very much doubt that there was much introspection going on here. I mean, it’s hardly the case that the songwriters, (all 9 of them – seriously, it took 9 people to write this shit,) meant to make a deep statement about the racist irony implicit in the song.
The nigga word has bugged me for a very long time. First of all I very much dislike the fact that supposedly I am “not allowed” to say a word. Remember, I am a proponent of free speech and forbidding people to use a word is an incursion on free speech.
But it goes a step further into severe ludicrousness when it transpires that I am supposedly not allowed to say the word because of the color of my skin.
If you want a definition of something that is racist, then that is a prime exhibit.
Furthermore, black people are supposedly allowed to freely utilise the word to their hearts’ content. Even worse, the people with the black skin are the ones telling the people with the white skin that they’re not allowed to use the word because of their white skin color while the ones with the black skin color freely use the word. Not just freely; they rub it in our faces.
So when I heard this charming little ditty waft so graciously over the speakers in the gym, I was slightly perturbed, you might say. Annoyed even.
It reminded me of a small event that occurred in my life many years ago. A young Jewish guy that I knew told me the following joke:
What’s the difference between a pizza and a Jew?
The pizza doesn’t scream when you put it in the oven.
What really put me off was when the young Jewish guy saw the look on my face he said the following:
It’s okay, I’m allowed to say it because I’m Jewish.
You’re allowed to say it? You’re allowed. Please enlighten me, kind sir – just who is it that is doing the allowing?
A 17 year old little Jewish punk reckoned that he was allowed to say the joke because he was Jewish. I asked him what if I told the same joke. He replied that that would make me an anti-Semite.
The two of us went out that very might with some other people and I made a point to tell the joke to everyone at the same time. There was a hushed silence as they all stared between me and the Jewish kid. I let the silence linger for a bit and then I pointed at the kid and I said to the group that it was okay because he had told me that I was allowed to say it.
The principle is the same as the use of the nigga word. It is about power and control through racial humiliation. Every time that a black person uses the nigga word in front of whites it is done as a source of humiliation. People who use the word in this way are counting on the feelings of indignation that whites will naturally feel when placed in that situation. Even better when the black individual gets to see the whites stand there and quietly take it.
The use of the word in music and film takes this a major step further. Pay your money to watch this film where we use the word that you are not allowed to use because of your skin color. Even better if the guy in the film using it is a white guy as that takes the degradation one step further, (see if you can work it out).
So from now I am going to freely use this word, as well as every other word that I am supposedly ‘not allowed’ to use because I am white.
Fuck that shit, nigga.
This article was originally published at https://pushingrubberdownhill.com/, where Adam Piggott publishes regularly and brilliantly. You can purchase Adam’s books here.