Time to Discuss how Casual Use of the N Word is Impacting Us

I'll be completely honest.  From the time I could talk until I turned 18, I used the n word everyday all day.  In fact, all my friends used it the same way.  My mother used it.  My father used it.  Even my 70s something grandmother used it.  It was so much the norm that as I've grown to apply analysis to everything that we do, I understand that the commonality of the word has made many African people believe its usage has no tangible impact on us as a people in 2019 and beyond.  I know this because that was what I thought back in the 70s when I was using the word before many of the people using it today were even thought of.  

The point of the above context is to clarify that African people using the word to describe each other is nothing new and its not something only the youth do.  Its ingrained in us and this is an international phenomenon.  What's missing is why and how this occurred?  

Despite the beliefs of many of our youth these days (based on viewing conspiracy youtube videos and other questionable sources), the overwhelming majority of our people in the world - I'd say 99.9% - are products today of early forced migration thousands of years ago, the transatlantic slave trade, and colonialism in Africa. Today, those last two elements define African existence in the world  everywhere from Australia to Africa, and everywhere in between.  What I mean by define is our lack of power as a people and the subsequent disrespect we experience with everything we do, is a result of the fact Africa is weak and disorganized.  Without a strong Africa, there is no way we can and will be strong anywhere on Earth.  My point is the state of Africa is the reason we suffer, not because we have been in the Western Hemisphere for thousands of years as the conspiracy theorists claim.  And, its also the state of Africa that defines why and how the n word became so common and casual. 

White supremacy is a myth/concept created by the enslavers of humanity to justify their pillaging of Africa and the rest of brown humanity.  They had to come and steal everything, including us, because we did not have the capacity to develop on our own.  This thinking and philosophy is the basis of how the entire capitalist empire was constructed and its how its maintained today.  Since, the basis of this white supremacist lie is that we didn't have the capacity to manage our own societies, it was important for these international thugs to engage in a system of dehumanization against us.  Something that would ensure Europeans (white people) subconsciously see us as inferior while we see ourselves that way.  Using the n word to replace our real identity as proud African people was a significant aspect of this international scheme.  This is why African history was never taught in schools or anywhere, not even in Africa. Its also why the history of African people is taught as a subservient history where we are passive and never fought back.  Even today, many people believe this thinking.  For example, there's a popular meme going around that says something to the effect of "I'm not my ancestors" to attempt to make the point that people of today will fight back, as if our ancestors didn't fight back.  

If you have the fighting spirit today, you better believe you got it from your ancestors who fought against our oppression from Africa to the middle passage to the Western Hemisphere.  There is no period of history, no place on Earth, where we did not courageously fight back.  There is so much history of the Maroon slave rebellions, the tribal resistance in Africa, burning of the slave plantations, the Mau Mau, etc., there is no excuse for people in 2019 to be talking about "I'm not my ancestors."  Yet, we engage in self defeating and disrespectful messaging because most of us know absolutely nothing about our proud history.  Therefore, we accept, either consciously or unconsciously, the narratives of our people provided to us by enemies.  They tell us that Africa is a wasteland with no potential and no dignity and since we don't investigate these things ourselves, we believe them.  As a result, we don't wish to identify with Africa so we make up things. Or, we just go with what the slave master provides us.  The n word is what they provided us.  And believing we are lessor than.  Believing that there is something naturally wrong with us we permit our children to attend schools (even in Africa) that disparage us as a people.  We support churches where pastors joke about "affirmative action in Heaven" and we continue to believe, whether we want to admit it or not, that we are less than the Europeans.  That they created everything and we just sort of came along for the ride.  

The elephant in the room is that a person robbed of their history is bound to accept the narrative about them provided by those who don't have their interests at heart.  This is our story.  And, instead of castigating our youth for using the n word, my perspective is that at least they have tried to find a way to use it fighting back.  They try to use it as some sort of form of resistance.  The youth are not without blame also though.  They need to start engaging in serious study of our history and stop attempting to take the lazy way out of just cruising through picking up stupid things here and there and being unwilling to honestly admit you haven't put in the hard work.  Still, the issue is clear.  They are attempting to create an identity for us to battle against white supremacy, but there can never be a healthy way where the n word can be any part of that healthy identity.

And, there are signs that this casual usage of the word continues to have an adverse impact on us.  Its even possible to argue that the growing pessimism among our people is based in a belief (or lack of understanding) that our people cannot change the course of these conditions.  This is fatalistic thinking fueled by our lack of knowledge about the degree in which we have always fought back with nothing.  With no hope.  With no support, we have always fought back and we have won, everywhere.  

Like anything in life, the only way you can reroute yourself into a positive direction is you have to surround yourself with positive influences.  You have to remove the toxic people around you and replace them with positive people who lift you up and inspire you.  The n word is that toxic person in your life.  Its the person always attempting to bring you down.  And, every time you use it you are both consciously and unconsciously reinforcing the beliefs that our abilities and capacity will be forever limited and/or nonexistent.  If you don't believe that, just observe any of the unending clown videos being created by the hundreds on social media of us negatively engaging each other.  The way the n word is consistently used between people can be described as anything except a term of endearment.  The term is bandied about in these negative circumstances as the weapon it was intended; to push us down and keep us there.  And, anyone reading this knows that because people you respect you don't refer to as the n word.  

Finally, this issue of non-Africans using the n word is ill relevant.  This capitalist society is as anti-human as you can imagine so of course people are going to take on inhuman characteristics.  African people are less than people in this society so of course these people, understanding that part of being successful in this cesspool society is doing what the people in charge do - disrespecting the people on the social bottom of the society - us - by using the n word.  And, of course they are going to blame social media and hip/hop music for their usage, but they were using the n word long before those channels became available.  Still, that doesn't excuse us from accountability.  Its extremely lame to keep hearing Africans telling us that they can use the n word, but no one else can.  For those of us who have faced down death from white supremacists (and I've had to do that multiple times) when the n word was rained down on us like rain in the Pacific Northwest, you sound like the fool  arguing that "its just a word."  I know if you had faced the word in the circumstances where I've faced the word, you couldn't even be able to fix your mouth to say that nonsense.  I'm especially encouaged to slap people who take this position, then have an experience where they are faced with the n word as I've described it from white supremacists.  Then, these people have the nerve to be shocked.  Sit down and shut up. 

For you its just a word because like everything else in your life, you are an expert with no actual experience with anything.  For the masses of our people, we have been using the word for decades on a common level and during that time we have faced some of the worse treatment in human history.  There is a common denominator there that cannot be ignored.  To key to our salvation is us discovering who we are.  If being African is not important. If building an independent Africa for us is so ill relevant, why are our enemies working so hard to keep us from accomplishing it?