Tell me this, please. How can a nigger with white skin, born to two white parents, call a black man a nigger, who identifies the purveyor of said comment, as a nigger, according to his/her understanding and/or application of the word?

Yeah, it's a screwy issue. I think the idea was to disarm the insult in the term by adopting it themselves. Mostly they deform the word, with a "er" ending it's an insult, with an "a" ending it's a term of endearment between friends. Often when a white was involved it became wigga to adopt them in but still recognize the difference.

Personally I think it's all pretty silly. People don't understand the distinctions and it just keeps the term in common use instead of letting them die out to become something we just don't call each other. I grew up in the DC area in the mid to late 70's as this stuff was developing and never much liked it myself. Was more or less the crazy white kid Dave mentions in another clip

Boy, was that ever off out there, dratty, the whole, "a" ending and "er" ending thing, you sound like a cracker-ass, no melanin-havin', wonder bread eatin' whitey!

Not quite

White enough, but I grew up in the lockups and such in the DC area, for skipping school to avoid a gang situation to start with believe it or not. Lived with them most of the time between ten and fourteen years old then on the streets for a few years after that. That all ended back in the early 80's, though with the work that I do I'm still pretty close to it and research related stuff. Racial disparities in the system, causes and effects, stuff like that.

Like I said it never made any sense to me either but that's the way they've explained it. One of the ways at least. For a while the term seemed to be dieing out, then the rap and such brought it back. They should have left it to die.

everytins is politikol

Yo Drattus, I don't see wigga as a word in use except as parody. And when cats say "wigger", they're not being inclusive. It's a term driven by the same us-and-them mindset that created the term "white trash" - to wit, the concept of a white person who behaves or appears to be no better than a nigger himself. It's a concept born of the normalization of whiteness and the fetishization of coloured "cool" and basically it reduces everyone to little cut-out dolls of different colours.

I'm a white Nova Scotian who grew up loving rap music from the age of nine (late 80s) and I heard that word a lot and it was not intended as inclusive. Today when friends of mine use it in any circumstance, I grill them. They think it's because I'm sticking up for whatever white person they're denigrating - hell no. There can be no "wigger" unless "nigger" is a valid and debasing term, therefore "wigger" is racist against BLACKS.

LOL @ trying to analyze the word "nigger". Everybody knows how it works and who can use it when and where etc. There's really nothing to discuss.

African-american, now there's a stupid (or at least overused) word. How about a black person whose parents are from Haiti, who was born in Kuwait and now lives in USA? Haitian-kuwaiti-american-with-ancient-african-family-roots? How about just black?

lgtoast, it's not exactly like there's rules they have to follow. What seemed a simple "I've seen it used this way" observation, in answer to a specific question, somehow got more involved than I imagined it would.

You've never seen people who were "friendly" toward each other but refer to each other with what would to normal people be an insult? I've seen the term used both ways and I explained it the way it was explained to me by the people I lived or worked with or around. Not by the impression I had from the music. I work close to the streets, didn't have to depend on the music. Prison inmates and such do at least as well, as would gang members, drug addicts and so on. That's the stuff I work with or study daily and have for years. Grew up with the stuff, took a break for some 15 years or so while I worked construction and found a normal life for myself, then when I got injured I went into reform of what I knew was screwed instead of getting retrained in something I didn't think was as important. To some people "hey asshole" is an insult, to others it's a greeting between friends. To some pointing to "that wigga over there" is an insult, to others they are pointing at one of the few whites they seem to like. Depends on the crowd and the person.

I'd tend to agree with ajkido and had already said it, people know what the word means at the core and it was a mistake for rap to help bring it back into use. Whatever games people want to play with it past that didn't make sense to me the first time around and there's no point justifying it now.

ajkido> the odds are good that the person you describe, although certainly not african-american, is also not culturally "black" either. America has created the conditions for the development of an indigenous culture that has only the barest vestigial ties to its geographical provenance. Depending on where that kid's family moved to in the USA, who their neighbors are and how they integrated or assimilated or didn't into their new home, would determine whether "black" is a culturally valid or reductive but descriptive designation.

I'm not sticking up for the use of any other epithets, but as a white person it's not my place to direct black people in its use. It's my place to tell other white people to fuck off with it and that's about it.

Apologies for getting defensive, lgtoast. I already did it in pm but should do it here as well. I just felt like I was being asked to defend something I'd already said myself I saw no use in, I don't like the term either. I have seen it used that way though. Not in rap, don't listen to the stuff myself and never have, but by people who were either on or pretty close to the streets. Doesn't make it common or the only way to use it but it's common enough to explain how a situation can happen which is what was asked.

Might be more than a little insult intended as well though, like I said above it's the same type of people who greet each other with things like 'hey asshole' They can still be a friend though, often are.

*findthumb

A different thumbnail image for this video could not be found for findthumb request by jonny.

fun.

dave tells you the answer in the context. he uses the n-word interchangeably with 'son' or 'bitch', paired with a wide smile as an 'elbow-to-the-rib' personal way to address someone.