What is the difference between ‘nigga’ and ‘nigger?’

Stephan R. Frost,
Contributor

About week ago I was sitting in the barbershop waiting to get my haircut when this white boy sitting in the barber’s chair was using the word “nigga.” I decided to ask him why he felt so comfortable using the word.

He replied, “It’s just a word, it doesn’t have the same meaning as the word ‘nigger.’” I asked him what the difference is between nigger and nigga, but he could not give me a solid answer.

To me, as an African American, the word ‘nigger’ is a victim of a prejudiced person who is economically, politically or socially disenfranchised. While on the other hand the word “nigga” is a phrase black people use with each other to define a real cool homeboy or homegirl. It’s the latter of the two definitions that the African American community has allowed to evolve over the years into a term of endearment.

“Do I think it’s okay?” asks alumna of Howard University Catrice Johnson. “Absolutely not. But how can we get mad at white people using the “N” word when black people as community call each other the “N” word?”

Although I agree with Johnson, I think it’s deeper than just listening to rap songs.  I believe the white guy in the barbershop felt comfortable with referring to black people as niggas because a lot of the black barbers in the shop were referring to him as “my white nigga.”

If you’re not black but you hang around black people and you have adopted the “black” life style that person will feel it’s okay to use the “N” word.

Just because you listen to black music or dress in hip hop clothing and hang around black people does not give the right to use the word “nigga” even if you feel that it doesn’t have the same meaning as the word “nigger.” I have a lot of different friends from all different racial backgrounds and when I hang with my Latino friends I don’t refer to them as “wetback” or when I am hanging around my Asian friends I don’t refer to them as “bing bing” because I know those are prejudice terms to use towards each of their ethnicities.

Dario Dunbar a UC Berkeley undergraduate majoring in Sociology with a minor in Ethnic Studies stated in an email “other ethnicity’s using the word “nigga” is just like people who are not gay using the word faggot or dike, gay men among themselves use the word faggot as a joke just like lesbians call each other dikes as a joke, but when someone outside the gay community refers to gay men and women as faggots and dikes the gay community gets offended. It’s the same for black people when other ethnicities use the word “nigga.”

A “nigger” is what a “nigga” is. There is no way of getting around it, this generation of people can try to change the N-word into a term of endearment but it does not change the fact that when you think of the N-word, whether it ends in –a or –er, the first thing that comes to mind is a negative image of a black person.

Why would the African American community try to turn a word that has been used to degrade African Americans into something positive? It is about time for us to wake up, not just as in the African American community but society in its entirety.

The N-word is not cool and we should never refer to one another using it. It does not matter whether it ends in an –a or an –er.