Recently, a (white) comedian referred to himself as a house nigger. The storm of liberal political correctness was deafening; not the roar against the racist prison system; not a roar against the impoverished cities like Camden; not the rage against the bias against immigrants, none of this raised a storm, quite like Bill Maher in his use of the term, House Nigger. Yet, during the months since, several courts have acquitted cops for the cold blooded murder of African Americans. African Americans are incarcerated at six times the rate of Whites. African Americans and Latinos make up over 60% of the US prison population. Our inner cities of Camden, Memphis, Detroit and other inner cities… have poverty rates that are consistent with Third world economies. I am more concerned about this kind of poverty and systemic racism that someone making a comment about, “house nigger.”
Bill Maher apologized for his comment, but the context of what he said, appears correct. House Nigger is now not just a racial term, but now it is, “Someone who sells themselves out for a better position… say than working in the field.” With the condemnation of Bill Maher using the term “house nigger,” referring to himself, every liberal commentator started flogging themselves with their cat of nine tails of political correctness. It is kind of strange to seeing liberals, progressives, tearing themselves to pieces over the “house nigger” comment, but not about the endemic racism.
Words, language, and context change. In 1859 a house nigger was a Black person who worked in the main house of a slave plantation instead of in the field. Today is a wage slave. However do we prohibit the world slave? As people are attempting to scrub the word nigger from the English language, it will not make racism disappear. We become the characters in the Harry Potter movie who keep saying, “He who shall not be named?” All the rap songs with the word Nigga/ Nigger – can that only be sung by African Americans? And then, if you are bi-racial, half white- half black, which part of you can you legitimately sing? If you are an octoroon can you only sing 1/8th of the song?
How incredibly ridiculous to be in a room where people are talking about the “house nigger” comment of Bill Maher and no one wanted to use the term “nigger.”
One young lady said, “A white person can never use the N word.”
“Which N word?”
“That N word we can’t use?”
“Which one?”
I don’t call my Black/ African American friends. “Hey, nigger.” Anymore, than I would call up my Jewish cousins and say, “How’s my favorite kike?” But to politically scrub language and literature of the word nigger is weird. Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer rewritten in a sanitized version that doesn’t use the nigger word, changes the story. The thousands of rap songs that kids sing and use the world nigger. So does it mean “Niggas With Attitude – NWA” can never be mentioned? So do we call it, “The N word with Attitude”?
I am less interested in the appropriate or inappropriate use of the word “Nigger, spic, kike, chink, cracker, etc.,” and I am far more interested in how do we address the problems of systemic racism in society.