Re-Cap:

What's good?  The weather finally broke this week.  Today it was about 70º but there was still piles of snow all over the place... only in Edinboro, right? Of course.

Since the weather changed I guess it's about time for me to change some of my daily activities.  Like I started running again... and realizing how out of shape I am lol.  So I figure if I keep at it I'll be back on my dean in no time. 

Deep Thought: The N-Word

Its crazy how many people agree with the first guy and act like the second guy.  I’m one of those people I can’t lie.  A bad habit I picked up in middle school or high school that I haven’t really tried to break. I’m going to work on that though.  The justifications for using, the “N-word,” have basically been “it is a term of endearment” or “we use it to take the sting out of the real meaning” or “its igga not igger.”  I see it like this the word “nigga” isn’t a negative connotation toward blacks “nigger” is.  This is hard to explain since they are both on in the same but in my brain they are two different thangs.

Over the years the n-word has changed radically and in the same respect stayed the same.  First of all it has started to become color blind.  There are non-blacks who say it and get away with it because we feel they have come from the same struggles so they are part of us.  Perfect example is Fat Joe.  Fat Joe drops the n-bomb in a couple of his songs but it is accepted, but he isn’t black he’s Cuban.  Why is that?  I’ve been told because he grew up in the hood with black people and went through what the black people who were living in poverty with him went through so in a sense he is one of them.  But when J-Lo said it in “Jenny From tha Block” she was criticized by the masses.  Why is that? She was from the hood? Maybe it was because she was with Ben Affleck at the time.  I guess she lost her n-word rights ha ha.  So what if a white person is in Fat Joe’s position?  Is it still acceptable?  In some respects I would guess.  Like if he just said it around the homies he grew up with who know him, everything is copasetic.  But if he says it around black people who have no idea who he is or anything it’s almost guaranteed he will get beat up.  I guess in that case it’s just using it in context, knowing where you are and who you are around.  But how can the younger generation of black youth get mad when somebody calls them that? They dance to it right? They call each other it right? To me it seems like there is a double standard.  If you grew up in the hood its ok but if you didn’t its not, right? So if a black guy was raised by upper class white people grew up with upper class white people would it not be right for him to use the word? 

Before I couldn’t really sum up how I feel about the word until I heard what Chris Rock’s mom said, “There is a difference between black people and niggers (as).  Black people are the ones who go to work from 9 to 5 to earn their money. And niggers (as) are the ones waiting for them to come home so they can rob them.”  If that isn’t the best way to some it up I don’t know what is.  So if you put that in the correct context a lot of artists are using the word correctly.  When they refer to themselves as niggas they aren’t lying.  When they talk about robbing people and shooting people they are indicating that they truly are niggas.

Now that raises a question.  Is the n-word still a race thing or can anybody of any race be one? Think about it. Can white people be niggers? Can Hispanics be niggers? The way it is used today the answer is yes.  What measures blackness?  It seems that the more you fit the black stereotype the “blacker you are.”  It’s like the more ghetto you are, the less accomplished you make yourself, the more ignorant you sound, the more time you spend committing juvenile acts opposed to academically bettering yourself the more black you are.  But that is a common misconception.  That doesn’t make you any more black than your brother that makes you more of a nigger than he is.  I’ve heard over and over white people say to black people I’m blacker than you.

So basically I have come to the conclusion that “being black” (outside of actual skin color) is an illusion. It seems that some have been programmed to believe that the worse you are doing the blacker you are.  And on the opposite side of that if you are doing well for yourself you are “acting white.”  What is that!?  Some weaker minds, due to peer pressure will actual not do as well as they can so they can be accepted.  Being black or being a nigger is just about saying the same thing as being ignorant.  Now they are words that are fancied up to sound good.  But it’s an illusion. A mirage.