Negro please.

Never in your life, if you value your life, call me a Negro. Or the N word. There are other, less painful ways of meeting Jesus. If you like, I can list them for you.

It is a pet peeve of mine that that word is used in popular culture. Fun fact the N word is dropped by Jay Z within 10 seconds of Mariah Carey’s Heartbreaker. He just says it. It adds nothing to the song, but takes everything from it for me. As soon as I discovered it, on one of my favourite songs, I haven’t been able to listen to it since.

I also hate that black people use it on themselves. I went to visit my brother in the States and I heard one man greet his friend with, “What’s poppin my N****?” I was 16 and horrified. We didn’t say that word back when I lived in London and we certainly didn’t say that word in Hampshire which is where I was living at the time, and so it had been years since I’d heard it. I was shocked and offended at how casually they just disrespected each other.

Bit of Etymology for you. N***** comes from the word Negro, which is Spanish for Black, as in the colour, so that is what the Spaniards called their slaves. Its not a nice term, but the literal translation is black.

I’m the descendant of slaves. I’m descended from freed slaves on 3 out of 4 grandparents, and on the 4th, the Smith family. They were what is known as “Liberated Africans” which means they boarded a slave ship, and that ship was turned around by the British when slavery was abolished in the UK. So I do somewhat know what I’m talking about.

In US culture we have normalised using a racial slur, and its coming to the UK fast. I absolutely hate it.

You do not have right to use that word. You especially do not have right to use that word if you were descended from slaves. Kanye West? Jay Z? 50 Cent? All slave descendants, you can tell by their (real) names. Yet they profit from disgracing their ancestors.

The word is uniquely offensive as people fought, people died in civil rights protests for the right to not be called that word. 31 years after Dr King was shot Jay-Z puts the word into a Mariah Carey song. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. No one died to try and get rid of the F word.

Worse still, people are now giving “white people the right to use the word N*****.” Are you, in fact, serious? Do you speak on behalf of all black people now? Because I sure as hell don’t give my consent to ever hearing that word in my presence, let alone being referred to by that word.

I went on holiday to Antigua, a former slave colony. At the point closest to Africa, its called “Devils’ bridge. Slaves used to travel there to commit suicide so their souls would swim back to the motherland. These people chose death over being subjected to slavery. It’s a hauntingly beautiful place.

The funny thing is that the people who use this word are the “blame white people for everything” kind of people. There’s no problem too small that you can’t blame white people. Global warming? White people invented fossil fuels. Stone in your shoe? A white man put it there. Yet they casually keep black people oppressed and wonder why we’re not doing as well as our white peers. You personally are keeping us down.

Growing up we used to sing as children the rhyme “Slave no more”

“Before I be a slave I’ll be buried in my grave.”  

Next time you think of that word, remember the people who did choose to be buried in their graves rather than be subject to oppression. Then honour their choice by not using the word.

Grace and Courage.

Annetta Mother-Smith.