Many of the gripes you proposed are extremely valid: it can’t be taken seriously, the language is outdated/ littered with slang, and not everyone “black” speaks like this. So yeah, it’s problematic.

That being said –

I dig the site and I’m glad I stumbled into it. Being a black English major myself, I found that coming from a AAE speaking background left me with a unique set of challenges. I don’t know if your familiar with the term codeshifting, but it basically speaks to the double consciousness and how black people have to learn to maneuver in both worlds — which as a writer can prove difficult — w/o practice. I find myself second guessing my writing all the time, as of late, because strunk and white is a distant memory and I write, more often than not, how I talk (which could probably be attributed to how often I text).

That may be an interesting article. That is if you haven’t already addressed some of the challenges that come along with being a black English major — or even a black academic in general. That could be interesting. Hmm.

I’d actually be interested in writing it, if you accept guest bloggers.

But I digress.

Nice Post

MicRNS

Rocket TV – When black Americans are called ”African-Americans”, there is generally no association to the African continent being made. No more association that you’d hear of an ”Afro-Jamaican”. Only 3% of Americans have ever stepped on African soil and black Americans actually proportionately are less likely to have done so than whites (i.e. less economic resources).

The reason black Americans are called African-Americans is because throughout history, the terminology has changed with political correctness. A century ago, it was acceptable to be called ”Colored”, but not black. Than that changed to ”Negro”, which obviously derived from black in Spanish. By the 1970′s, African-American began to sound more appropriate, but so do ”black” and negro and colored than became an unacceptable term to use. Generally speaking, most Americans say black over African-American. It is only within political or professional contexts that African-American is said.

In areas where there are black immigrants and their recent descendants too, it can be used as a way to differentiate between African-Americans (an ethnic group that traces 250+ years on average in the US) from West Indians and Sub-Saharan African immigrants.

In the UK, the word has never been used by anyone in the context we’ve used it, because it has simply never been there. If it did exist there, at best, it’d be imitating the music they hear from us. It’s not used in casual usage though. And to be honest, it just doesn’t roll with a British accent very well, even in hip hop. Even if the ”toughest” black British dude you know used the word ”Nigga” in a US city, all the ”ghetto” black people would laugh at him and call him white.

As far as Katt Williams goes, he is just a crappy comedian. I’m sorry, but if you don’t have any material that you need to use the word that much, it’s not funny and it’s not entertaining. Although a bit irrelevant too, he does look very homosexual, so maybe he views it as a way of overcompensating for his masculinity.

”Saying all that, I do not understand why african americans use the word, maybe it is to hold on to some form of culture as theirs was taken away ages ago or as most rappers would say today ‘turn a negative word into a positive one’.”

This would be nice to think in theory. However, in reality, sadly this is really not the case. The reason why people currently use it has absolutely nothing to do with ”preserving culture that was taken away from them”. The reason they say it is because people who came before them say it. The reason it can’t be corrected is because the people who use it disproportionately are the most uneducated, unskilled and disgruntled people in society. They have lots of things they could do to correct themselves before they worry about that. This is a feature of poverty. Not being African-American.

”If that is the case, people of all colours should be allowed to use it, if of course there is no intentional harm as saying only dark skinned people can say it is in itself racist.”

And it is. It’s just used with more care. There are a lot of white and non-black people who use it. They just have enough of the ”trashy ghetto swag” to not upset the wrong people. Or at least be very good at imitating such. By nature, most people are not controversial and confrontational. Most will not abruptly challenge someone for using the word if not used maliciously.

”Lastly, i would like to say that people in general should understand that africans and african americans are very two different people even between africans there are soo many differences. Having the same skin tone and features does not equate us.”

People very much know this. Generally speaking though, I’d say the majority of Americans, including African-Americans, have never met someone from the African continent once in their lives. Only about 4-5% of our immigrants come from the African continent and some of those people include non-black North Africans and to a smaller degree white South Africans. These people tend to live most in select affluent cities (or in the case of Somali’s, where the government placed them as refugees). And although a large amount of English speaking Caribbean people from their islands move here, the overall population of that region is so small, that they also are not that large of a group. They are also mostly only focused in certain cities like New York, Boston and Miami too.

So ”black” to most Americans just equals African-Americans because that is all they ever met. Unlike in the UK too, due to our bureaucratic system which only involves admitting immediate family sponsorships and professionals (usually master degrees and above), Africans who move to the US are very affluent and educated. This leads them to usually not live in the same areas as where African-Americans do, unfortunately.

Whether people would like to admit it or not, the children of African and often West Indian immigrants, assimilate into a white or non-black American culture, even though they’ll physically be perceived as black Americans. If I am wrong, you could use accent and speech as an immediate marker.

Going back to the point I made before though, there is a tendency to oversimplify and manipulatively call someone something they aren’t, for the purposes of their argument (i.e. calling Barack Obama African-American, when he is really half Kenyan-American).

So it’s not a matter of black Americans not having self respect, because most do. Perhaps it is a thing about poor Americans lacking self respect in their communities. People gladly call themselves hillbillies, rednecks and I even hurt bsomeone turn the word bumpkin into a positive one time. But this is not reflective of most rural Americans.

I have a good story I’d like to share before finishing writing for the night. I hope the people I’m writing about are reading too. One time I went to this Burger King in southern New Jersey. Most of the kids who worked they sounded ”hood” and were saying the word ”nigga to each other (which was odd because this Burger King wasn’t in the hood, it was in Mount Laurel if anyone knows where that is). Even with customers in presence. It was loud too. Some of the employees were rude. Some were alright. As a group, they seemed semicomptent at their work tasks.

I sent in an anonymous tip to their district manager the next day explaining the situation in extreme detail. Explaining who was saying it. Like what they looked like, the name tags I saw on their tags, ect.

I go back there to eat a week and a half later and they cleaned house! The only people I recognized there were the managers. I had my doubts and thoughts, so I continually went back to verify if this were true and it was.

This was so awesome it should be turned into a Family Guy clip.

I want everyone to just make this internal joke to themselves. How many times have you been to a rap/hip hop club that predominantly black, with a ”hood vibe”, but still a lot of ”non-hood” people in it, including people of all races.

How did you immediately know which black Americans there were ”hood” and which ones ”weren’t?” You don’t even have to look at the crowd they are with. You don’t even have to worry about the words that come out of their mouth. Just the tone and sound to it and their mannerism.

Now here is where it really gets funny. This is one of the few areas where legitimately ”hood” poor folks end up in the same place as middle/upper middle class people with money. The middle/upper middle class people indirectly envy the music and style of people in the hood, particularly in their music. Meanwhile, the poor people at the club waste all their money trying to buy decent clothing or a nice ride to the club, even though it still won’t be as good as who they are trying to impress.

This club doesn’t even have to have one non-black person in it to make you realize everything I’m saying. People know exactly who is who. What I want to know is why do the poor folks try impressing the people who clearly are nothing like them? They won’t marry you. They don’t date you. They probably won’t even have sex with you. And if you were lucky to even get that, they’ll pretend like you don’t exist on Monday morning.

For African-Americans, there are 3 types of people who say the word ”nigga”.

1) People who grew up poor (Not all African-American’s in these areas do this, but there is clearly more tolerance for a lack of self respect in those communities).

2) People who grew up middle class, who convince their group of friends which are mostly white or non-black they are ”ghetto” or the closest thing they know to it, yet would be considered Bryant Gumble in Detroit.

3) People who grew up as the ”upper echelon” in the poor communities. You sometimes see this group a bit at colleges. They aren’t as over the top as the 1st group and have more awareness about how to adjust their voices and vocabulary in particular settings. However, the truth is the people from those actual poor communities often consider them ”white”, ”sell outs” or something they interpret disrespectful as them, so they feel the need to compensate for their ”hood background” around non-hood people. This insecurity becomes obvious to everyone.

If an African-American uses the word ”nigga”, it means they either have no self respect, have no problem with people assuming that of them or are so naive and idiotic that they think others in society won’t think less of them.

Basically, if you say it, everyone, including blacks who don’t use it, will assume you’re either impoverished and stigmatize you even worse than people already uncontrollably do. Or at best, that they’ll assume you’re a person who is insecure about your ”blackness” because people from the ”hood” consider you nothing like them.

I am black. I laid it all out for you.

For the record too, most African-Americans who are comfortably middle class grew up that way. It’s not a Cindarella story. Only in the movies. 26% of African-American’s are below the poverty. It’s within this group that there is a disproportional amount of criminal activity, drug usage and out of wedlock births. The other 3/4 of African-Americans have similar rates of all those rates to whites.

Now they’ll be someone who disagrees with everything I said. But here is what I want you to take from it, if nothing else: Even if you use the word ”nigga” and think it’s okay and you’re not ghetto or poor, society has the right to, will and reasonly should assume you lack self-respect and are trashy. If any employer knew that about you, you’d have a hard time getting a good job.

So go ahead and deny everything I said but you know it is all true.