Students should be against cultural appropriation of black language because it takes away value from black culture, reduces the damage of racial slurs and makes blacks seem uneducated. students should refrain from saying nigga or nigger outside of the black population. When blacks use the term nigga, it signifies unity and common struggle. It has a variety of meanings and variations, some off which are meant as family and friendship. The original term nigger was a neutral term for someone inferior socially and economically, whites turned it into negative meaning during the slave era. When used around slaves learning English for the first time, slaves adapted it and gave it a different meaning to refer to themselves in a community. Whites used
…show more content…
When Africans first came to America, learning English was a necessity to survive; hearing nigger so commonly but not understanding the meaning shaped the way nigga came into context and use. Today’s use of nigga has the same roots to identify common background and symbolize the identity of the black community. Nigga is used in the African American culture today, “… not focused on the racist use of the term, but … as a tool to project an identity as a culturally aware survivor of [displacement]” (Rahman 147). The term nigga creates an identity related to the history and struggle of the black community, that other ethnic terms cannot. Nigga is used to address fellow African Americans and has the same effect as terms used to reference non-formal relationships.
The is a difference between the use of nigger and nigga. Mark Neal admits in his article “NIGGA: The 21st- Century Theoretical Superhero”, he believes “… the term nigga relates to the concepts of blackness as mobile, fluid, adaptable, postmodern, [and] urban…” (Neal 557). When referring to nigger, it is associated with opposite characteristic as those listed. Nigger is used to describe inferiority, barbarisms regarding blackness. Musicians and comedians use the term niggas so lightly, to bring to light the “…appropriation and resignification of the racist strand meaning that has had use among whites” (Rahman
When Africans first came to America, learning English was a necessity to survive; hearing nigger so commonly but not understanding the meaning shaped the way nigga came into context and use. Today’s use of nigga has the same roots to identify common background and symbolize the identity of the black community. Nigga is used in the African American culture today, “… not focused on the racist use of the term, but … as a tool to project an identity as a culturally aware survivor of [displacement]” (Rahman 147). The term nigga creates an identity related to the history and struggle of the black community, that other ethnic terms cannot. Nigga is used to address fellow African Americans and has the same effect as terms used to reference non-formal relationships.
The is a difference between the use of nigger and nigga. Mark Neal admits in his article “NIGGA: The 21st- Century Theoretical Superhero”, he believes “… the term nigga relates to the concepts of blackness as mobile, fluid, adaptable, postmodern, [and] urban…” (Neal 557). When referring to nigger, it is associated with opposite characteristic as those listed. Nigger is used to describe inferiority, barbarisms regarding blackness. Musicians and comedians use the term niggas so lightly, to bring to light the “…appropriation and resignification of the racist strand meaning that has had use among whites” (Rahman