Nigger. It is confusing on the surface why African Americans elect to use such a historically disparaging and morally repugnant word, as a term of endearment. It defies the most basic rationale, as it objects to all sensibility consequential to this nation’s abhorrent racial legacy.

“Nigger” most likely has its origins with the French language and came into popular use through French involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. Their language yields two terms for “black”: “noir,” which is the chromatic reference to the actual color and “negré,” which refers to a person of color. The northerners of this fledgling nation Americanized the French pronunciation of negré into “nigger,” while the southerners interpreted the spelling into the phonetic version, “niggra.”  

What is essential to understand is that “nigger” has no etymological link to any African language or dialect --- none.   Its use by African Americans is not only a perversion of reason, but also regrettable evidence of how we have incorporated the inferior assignment of this nation’s racial hierarchy into our Afrocentric identity. Furthermore, to those who suggest that clan use of the word is somehow “transformative,” I strongly urge them to consider the meaning and origins of the word “transformation.”

“Transformation” derives from the Latin “t rans” for “beyond,” “forma” for “form” and “tionem” for “condition” or “action.”  In other words, transformation is a condition or action that alters form beyond its current state.   The alteration is so profound that what previously existed can never again be recovered   --- beyond form. Such is the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly or a lump of coal into a diamond. The end product of both can never again return to their original states.  

The colloquial use of “nigger” will never alter the state of African Americans beyond our current form. The word is forever chained to a horrific past that cannot be altered. For this reason, “nigger,” in all of its derivations, is the social equivalent of the swastika.

Originally a symbol from the ancient Sanskrit language, the swastika was preserved in use by the Greeks who adopted it to connote “good luck” and “well being.”  However, since the rise and fall of Hitler and the abominable reality of his concentration camps, that symbol will never again be interpreted with such benign and benevolent meaning. It will forever serve as a repulsive reminder of one of the most murderous campaigns in history; one that devalued the universal humanity of all people not just European Jews.

I can never imagine Jews employing a swastika as a transformative aid for Jewish identity. That symbol has been indelibly branded into their collective psyche as a remorseless reminder of the holocaust of 6.5 million of their own. By comparison, estimates are that 100 million people were extracted from the continent of Africa during the transatlantic slave trade. Only 10 million survived --- a holocaust of 90 million.

Likewise, by now “nigger” should be seared into the spiritual skin of all African Americans, as a permanent burning reminder of the worst atrocity to ever consume our own. It is a word that can never be sanitized of that sin, for that many lives can never be redeemed. It can never escape its derogatory connotation, for it will always be a slave to its legacy. It can never be beyond the form of its original intent, for it will never possess the unanimous consensus for endearment. Ultimately, its continued use by African Americans will never help us transform our self-value, our national identity and our humanistic significance in this country or any place else in the world.

It distresses me greatly that we use that word in any manner of common reference to ourselves. The ancestors we owe our current station to endured all manner of indignities to emancipate themselves from its bondage, and to progress well beyond the lash of its stigma. Each time we consent to utter that word, we desecrate the value, identity and significance of those whose blood and violation brokered our existence today.

Words condition the cause. Historically, the collective cause of Africans in America, a cause now visited upon African Americans, has been and continues to be overcoming the dehumanized valuation of our existence. We will never accomplish this cause until we free ourselves from the bondage of “nigger,” a word that will always condition a “less than” reality.

Should that day come, we would begin to live with the full valuation of our humanity, as we have always dreamed.