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Niggertude
By Vince Rogers
For decades, Niggers, Negroes, Black
People and African-Americans, have been struggling with
what to call themselves, ourselves, yourselves and my
self. Negro which probably makes the most sense, was
rejected in order for us to name and define ourselves,
rather than be named by Europeans. The word Negro best
describes our peculiar reality as Africans whose most
unique cultural trait is that we were displaced from our
homeland by Europeans and resettled around the globe by
them not by ourselves.
In reality most of us here in this
part of the Diaspora, at this point in time, have been
shaped more by negative American cultural forces than by
positive African cultural forces. Despite being
essentially American, we continue to seek to identify
ourselves in a culturally distinct way such as
African-American, as if it’s the least we can do to keep
our ancestors and the rest of the Diaspora from being
ashamed of us.
In reality though, although
uncomfortable with the word Black or Negro most of us
have very little in common with Africa, if not an
outright disdain for her. Nevertheless, African-American
currently holds the distinction of being displayed in
front of the most check boxes on Federal forms and job
applications today.
Throughout history, our attempts to
name ourselves have been problematic at best. I prefer
Black because it makes the strongest statement. To be
honest though, identifying people by color who range
from canary yellow to raven black is kind of silly. If
the use of the term Black has accomplished anything, it
proved that Caucasian people are silly enough to call
themselves White, despite there not being a white one in
the bunch. I recall when “African American” was
introduced; there was rejoicing that we had settled the
name problem once and for all. Then came along those
that didn’t want to be identified with the African part
and those who wanted nothing to do with the American
part. What was wrong with these Niggers, I mean Negroes?
By the way does anybody know where the committee meets
that decides this shit?
Nevertheless as Chris Rock has
alluded to, based on a myriad of cultural, political and
economic influences, some of us are more or less
Niggers, including the wealthy hip-hop impresarios who
have muddied the etymological waters even further, by
making the word something that’s okay for a fourteen
year old White girl to shout at the top of her lungs
while rockin' with the hype man at a rap concert.
To try to justify this cultural
contradiction (because God knows the last thing we
should want to do in this era of the Cash Money Rights
Movement is to criticize wealthy Black people) the
separate and distinctly spelled terms “Nigga or Niggah”
have been introduced to justify the use of the word as a
term of endearment. This has been done in much the same
way the titles “Be’yach and Ho” were marketed to make
misogyny palatable so women would buy more records in
the 90s.
Sadly enough though, one of the
reasons we find ourselves in such a pickle is that even
our most respected scholars have been complicit
throughout the years in the process of embracing Nigger
Culture or Niggertude and explaining it as part of some
false African cultural continuum. This has been done
either because they did not understand the
anthropological phenomena that truly explained certain
Black cultural behavior or because they couldn’t find
solutions to certain problems, so they sought to embrace
or excuse the behavior. Maybe they just didn’t want to
give up their own hog maws and chittlins, Friday night
jump offs at the strip club and Saturday night sparring
sessions with their woman, before going to praise the
Lord on Sunday morning.
The entire industry of “Soul Food,”
black hair care products and the majority of consumption
of jewelry, car accessories and pork products by Black
people is a direct inheritance of the culture of
slavery. What are we really or as my homies in the hood
would say “What’s really happenin’”? Are we products of
our own design or the product of second class
citizenship and an inferior self concept forged through
adaptation to adverse conditions. Are we simply a people
who’ve had to make cultural sacrifices and bargains to
survive or are we just Jigaboos whose real legacy is now
and always has been tellin’ jokes, sangin and gettin’
crunk?
The truest advice given by every
guidance counselor and self help author to their
audience is to do what you love or what you’re good at.
It is often argued that the Black man can do anything
that all of the other races excel at and for that matter
it is a known fact that we invented the majority of the
arts and the sciences. Why is it then that now even the
most successful among us from Oprah Winfrey to Robert
Johnson have made their marks as entertainers and
entertainment promoters, not physicists and
mathematicians? The real question though is rather than
try to prove we can be just as good at geophysics and
aeronautics would we be better off taking total control
of areas like sports, entertainment and the arts? We
have spent centuries apologizing for our affinities for
athletics and entertaining, when if we controlled those
industries it would provide enough resources to employ,
house and feed us all.
Our scholars and academics, motivated
mostly by shame and faced with the contradictions to
their tales of Kings and Queens, have devised a canon of
bad science to attempt to explain the existence of Rudy
Ray Moore and African griots in the same time space
continuum. They have done so for lack of the ability to
find answers to our problems that provide valid
explanations for our unique anthropological case study.
We are displaced Africans scattered throughout the
Diaspora by Europeans. This has created distinct
cultural-social-economic problems, which cannot be
solved easily, painlessly or without a multifarious
regimen of diagnosis and rigorous curative measures.
As a matter of fact, it is even
theorized now that our inability to adapt to this
climate and the American diet is the real culprit that
predisposes us to higher levels of hypertension and
other health maladies. Even after we have had centuries
to adapt, just living here is a physiological threat to
us. I am often reminded that even the wealthiest amongst
us, such as Reginald Lewis and Johnnie Cochran, who
could afford the best of medical care and had almost
unlimited resources, met their natural demise at
inordinately young ages. So if living here is killing
us, we can’t go “back home” and White people have proven
to have a history of unleashing genocide on various
populations when the going gets rough, what is the
answer? Is it hopeless?
Examining the benefit of embracing
authentic Negritude and rejecting that which is
Niggertude is one of the greatest challenges to us
finding our place as a people on this planet. I always
find it funny when scholars with no real anthropological
basis or research just assume certain shit must have
some roots in African culture and try to make up some
bogus connective story to explain certain Nigger shit we
should be trying to run away from - like shooting up in
the air at nothing on New Years Eve. They give
explanations like “Oh that goes back to the tribesmen
throwing their spears in the air to celebrate the
harvest.”
On the other hand even the bougiest
Niggas still feel something when they hear the drums and
have a certain reverence for a sister with her head
wrapped – that has an anthropological basis to it,
that's Negritude. Is the Greek step show really the
ancestor of the South African boot dance? Would the
Egyptians really want the credit for hair weaves? Why
haven’t the Ashanti chiefs sued Lil Jon for royalties on
the Pimp Cup? Is Egypt really the place we should be
trying to connect to, or is it just easier to embrace
than Chad?
Identifying, embracing and furthering
those aspects of our culture which are edifying is the
key to ensuring our continued existence as a people and
empowering the entire African Diaspora.
Niggertude is the shit we can't seem
to shake no matter how many Brooks Brothers suits we
wear. Niggertude is borne out of the conditions we are
yet to recover from after centuries of wallowing in this
cesspool of racism, oppression and inequality. It is
imperative that we eschew the evils of Niggertude and
cease to identify these phenomena as part of our
culture.
These are the real issues that nobody
could seem to get to the heart of, during Bill Cosby’s
recent campaign of self hatred. Although Michael Eric
Dyson sought to reveal Mr. Cosby’s motivations, he
offered very few solutions of his own. Cosby was mad at
the Niggers ‘cus they weren’t doing their part to become
African-Americans. Dyson was mad at Cosby because he
realized Cosby was just saying what he was saying
because he was ashamed of Niggers. However, even though
Cosby hates Niggers, he pointed out many issues that
needed to be examined.
Despite his good intentions, Dyson
had no plans to empower Black people or Niggers because
he was at the core cut from the same elitist academic
cloth as Cosby. Niggers were like “Why are y’all Niggas
all in my business. You’n know me?” The situation did
serve to shed light on the fact that educated rich
Niggas can be as far from true Blackness and incapable
of Black Love as the Boyz n da Hood. Neither group is
building community, empowering the Diaspora or fostering
healthy Black love and unity.
The dialogue that ensued (if it can
be truly called a dialogue, since few people stood up to
challenge the Venerable Cos) did reveal another issue
that has been brewing under the surface for some time
though. Black people in the “Ivory Towers” and
African-Americans in the corridors of power seem to feel
as besieged as Negroes on the second shift and Niggers
in the trap. In this day and age everybody says that the
only struggle we now face is economic - so why do people
who have "made it" feel as lost as people in the ghetto?
I think it's because the soul can tell when it is lost
even when physical conditions are fine.
I often ask myself why homeless cats on the streets can
seem happy as hell sometimes. I think maybe it's because
a certain comforting freedom comes from not kissing ass,
selling out and punking out everyday. On the other hand,
some people with the most stuff seem to feel the most
lost because they have to give the man an emotional rim
job everyday just to eat. If the issue were only
economics, so many of us wouldn't feel hopeless,
powerless and insecure. Deep inside we desire unity and
cultural connectedness but most of us can’t decide which
group to unify with – the Niggers, the Negroes, the
Blacks or the African-Americans.
Because we tend to unify around superficial vestiges of
class rather than cultural imperatives, many of us have
had the experience of being unable to find common ground
with anybody or have been betrayed by our own various
adopted tribesmen. Once the middle class Black man or
African-American gets his money stolen by his business
partner or comes home and finds his golfing buddies dick
in his wife’s mouth, he realizes he was dealing with a
Nigger too. Niggertude doesn’t just affect the Black
bourgeoisie however. Niggers are stealing old ladies
checks in the ghetto. Niggers are fucking each other
over for promotions at the job. Niggers have been lured
into a state of paralysis reading endless lists of books
about the Illuminati, and Masons and Coentelpro, while
devising no stratagems to combat the effects.
Lastly but not least well educated, well heeled, well
connected Niggers are holding meetings somewhere
deciding what else about our culture we should be
ashamed of, what else we are willing to sacrifice for
economic gain, and what else should be important to the
rest of us Negroes.
posted 12 April 2006
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Vince Rogers Bio was raised in Atlanta’s
Bowen Homes housing projects and went on to attend
Morehouse College as an academic scholar. He is most
proud of being Editor of his high school newspaper the
Frederick Douglass North Star.
Winner Black
Enterprise Magazine/BMW "America's Ultimate Drive"
Writing Contest / Official Inaugural Selection(s): "I've Known
Rivers" The Museum of the African Diaspora Story
Project / Presenter; Hip Hop's
Defiant Divas Conference, Vanderbilt University
Contributor: Clean Sheets Magazine; TimBookTu;
Taj Mahal Review /
http://waxvainglorious.blogspot.com /
http://vincevision.blogspot.com /
www.vincevision.com / Vince Rogers / P O Box 50602 / Atlanta, Georgia
30302-0602 /
vincevision@yahoo.com
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update 4 October
2008 |
