An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States

clunky but decent lines and referring to the Native brotha as “nigga” a few
times. The Native brotha came out with some fire. They went for another
round. Both rhymers got better. I was struck, however, in the second round,
when the Native brotha said something like, “I will destroy you, nigga.”
I, having just finished my second year of university and thinking I knew
everything, awkwardly looked around (think Issa Rae from the show
Insecure) to see if my brother or cousins heard it. They continued to watch
the battle. I couldn’t listen anymore and was bothered. My family was
unbothered. I asked them about it later and they seemed to have collectively
concluded that hey, we all niggas! I thought to myself, Damn, can this
Native nigga actually say “nigga”? Maybe I was the nigga trippin’! 20 I tell
this story to reveal the complexities of the N-word and the politics of who
can say it, who has said it, and who might want to think carefully about
saying it outside certain community boundaries. To my non-Black folks,
I’m not saying don’t say it, cause, you know, some Black people are cool
with non-Black people saying it. Other people wanna be grown and pretend
like the N-word passport allows them entry and usage in every Black group.
If you’re non-Black and out here slinging the N-word, I would highly
recommend you understand that the laying on of hands might come your
way—and I ain’t talkin’ bout the preacher praying for you at church!
According to critical sociolinguist and activist Geneva Smitherman,
“Language plays a dominant role in the formation of ideology,
consciousness, behavior and social relations; thus contemporary political
and social theory must address the role of language in social change.” 21
Discourse and language are important factors in oppression, and also
liberation. This concept applies to a discussion of the terms “n*gg*r/nigga”
and “r*dsk*n.” The conversation vexes me.
It baffles me when I hear Indigenous people uncritically assert, “You
wouldn’t say the N-word, so why would you say the R-word?!” What if I
told all my Indigenous peers that Black folks do, in fact, use the N-word?
Would that change your question?
Let me break down the uses of the N-word. There are two versions:
“n*gg*r” and “nigga.” The former is racist; I don’t need to explain anything
else about it. The latter has some nuance to it. Black people use it in a
variety of contexts. Some are okay with it and some are not. There are a
variety of opinions about it.