The true & hidden meaning of the word Nigger?

Art: Kevin "Wak" Williams

The word Nigger, as of late, has been a word that has been surrounded with a lot of controversy. For many years during slavery and pre-slavery the word Nigger was a word that conjured up lots of pain in the heart of slaves, the decedent of slaves in the Jim Crow era suffered tremendous embarrassment and shame with the use of this word. For the above category of people and those of today's generation in the black community, who paid attention to black history; the word Nigger has a connotation that disgraces a people - a pigmented skin people.

For the decedent of the creators of the degraded use of the words  'Nigger'; the use of this word is somewhat prohibited, especially among public figures. There is no law prohibiting the use of the word Nigger, among the members of the white community, therefore, the use or lack of use of the word Nigger is more of an ethical issue. Most penalties that are imposed on offenders; for the use of this so-call forbidden word: are dismissal from a job, the revocation of lucrative financial contracts or such the likes. The reason to justify such imposition of punishments, are base on claims, that the offenders were insensitive to the struggles, pain and the atrocity that were inflicted upon and endured by the people who fall in this (black community) category.  

In the black community the meaning of the word Nigger is totally lost. Most people think that the degrading name "Nigger" is given to all black people; however, a person is/was not a nigger because he is/was black. This is and was so because the word Nigger had a well known and a well defined meaning. All through slavery there were many slaves who were never niggers; this was so because these strong men refuse to be "Niggers". They did not just refuse to be call nigger but they refused to be niggers; there is a difference. I am also of the impression that the true meaning of the word "Nigger" was also lost among most or the white community, this was so because Niggerdom became so popular, and the complexity of creating a nigger was taken away. 

The use of harsh punishment to break a person (black man) to the extent that they became a nigger was no longer necessary. Nigger creation had evolved to the stage where black children were born, to Niggers parents, who in turn  socialized and cultured those children into being Nigger, even before they were ever oppressed. As a result, the white community did not have the trouble of creating niggers using the old tested and tried method; in the same manner they were forced to during most of period of the slave trade. The white community saw Nigger creation as necessary, if they were to get a good return from their slave investment and to have that investment produced to its maximum.

During slavery, each white person knew who a nigger was and which of the slaves in their asset were "Niggers"; as well as, which of the slaves on the surrounding plantation were Nigger and which were not. It will be amiss for a driver, an owner of any member of the planter’s class to call a man who was not a Nigger a Nigger; this is so because as I said earlier, the word Nigger had a specific meaning, and a well known meaning.

Who is a "Nigger"?

Although a nigger is a captive son, the victims of the Trans-Atlantic Slaves Trade, that was not the only and most important criteria for becoming a nigger. It is also important to note, a woman were and are not considered a "Nigger", but she only becomes a "Nigger" bear the title if her husband or her man was a Nigger. There are many things that were hidden form the descendants of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (T.S.T) and still remained hidden from their descendant’s knowledge today. Like who these people are/were? Where did they come from? Who are their forefathers? Why are they still so dejected years after the official system that so cruelly oppress them was revamped?

This article is not dedicated to answering these questions but the answer to these critical questions will put a lot of our century old mysteries into prospective and a lot of the questions that still troubles the descendants of slave, will be answered. The creation of a Nigger were two fold, the first stage was to break, that male slave by one of the cruel (Extreme and sever public whipping, amputation of limb, castration, rape their wife, daughters even their sons in his presents or even publicly rape him into submission) means.

Many of the methods that were used were very calculated and were inflicted in well methodical manner, as a result, many were broken. There are many who were able to endure the most severe of punishment and remained unbroken: even the public homosexual rape of a man who despised such despicable act. Although such act were instrumental in breaking some of the most defiant slaves; however, there were some special men, whose hate for their captors, the ideology and practice of slavery were so strong, that they never submitted but remain defiance even in the face of such publicly humiliating treatment. There were no type of flogging, no type of rape, amputation or castration that was extreme enough to cause these men to fall in line. They remain defiant and they were adamant that they were not going to serve or revere another but the God of their fathers. Their compliance were done only in the context of a much bigger plan.

The second part of the process that transformed a captive, broken black man into a Nigger is: that once defiant, once valiant, now broken man, must become so fearful of what can be done to him, to the point that he was willing to become an enemies of and to his people, his community even his own family. A Nigger is one who the master could put his confidence in, one who will go up and above the expectation his master had in him; and he did it so he can be kept in the favor of his master. A Nigger betray the trust his community, friends and family put in him, he reveal critical plans that can aid in the escape or any plans that can benefit the slave (Black) community at the expense of the white owners. He was/is and became a stumbling block to the community members and the development of the community in general. 

  

Those who were punished to the extreme and still remain defiant were soon shipped off to other

slave plantation, most of the time to a different country. These men strike fear into the hearts of their owners. Because deep in the hearts of these captive and exploited men, if the opportunity arose, they will kill that man who have violate them, their family and everyone who participated in the atrocities that was inflicted on them. As a result, from the owners prospective, it was not wise or safe to keep such a person around, it was an ever present danger, for that man patiently waited to cease the first opportunity to take his revenge. There were also the threat of them becoming iconic setting new level of resistance, that made the master's cruelty become of none effect. 

Once a man was made a Nigger, the master had no fear of retaliation from that Nigger, he got the best return from that slave and he was assured that that Nigger will socialized all off his children into becoming nigger from their birth: Children who is afraid and don’t question the authority of his master.  

Today a Nigger is self-made, and in this informed era, a Nigger is made through ignorance, they participate in activities that is synonymous with one that was broken, and they daily fine work in the destruction of their brothers, their sister, their communities and their own families. They trade in violence; crime and they trade poison (drugs) among their own kind, in their community, among their friend, and their families. The modern day "Nigger", is one who were voluntarily broken; one who goes up and above what is expected of him on behalf of the same people who forever hated him and his kind. He becomes an enemy of the very ones he should be protecting with a bitter jealousy: himself, his family and his community. A "Nigger" back then was destructive to his community and family and so is the Nigger today.