A few people, including Virtual Bomaniland favorite Big Walt, have asked where my issues with Darrick Z. Jackson–please say the Z.–and his piece on nigga in hip hop.
My big problem with that piece is that he took Richard Pryor’s views and placed them on everyone that uses the term. So Pryor claimed that he said nigga like it was going out of style because it empowered him in some bizarre way.
So what’s that got to do with me?
Jackson can have his take on the use of the word, and he has the right to not want to be called “nigga” by anyone. If he were to ask me not to use the term around him, I would not. However, there’s a certain arrogance that fuels the ascription of one man’s views to a giant group of people.
However, I was erroneous in saying that I don’t agree with him. I really don’t, but that wasn’t my issue with his piece. I have serious problems with his perspective and his rhetorical techniques. His perspective is one of an older gentleman that looks down on the younger generation while ignoring any role that his generation had in molding the youth. I have no idea how old he is–I’d say he’s under 40 based on the spelling of his first name, but I really don’t konw–but he acts as though people my age and younger just magically turned out this way. Further, he offers no solution for changing what he deems to be a huge problem. For Jackson and his ilk–which includes the absolutely insufferable Stanley Crouch–to be useful in their critiques, they must offer some theory on how society became what it currently is. Otherwise, there is no way to construct means to reach the standard of behavior he seems to feel would be proper. The sniping he does from his keyboard is, at best, masturbatory.
And as a general rule, I avoid being around another man’s skeet. Just not my idea of a party.
As for his rhetoric, it’s designed to fool those with substandard critical thinking skills. From the looks of things, Jackson went Googling for the least intelligent quotes on using “nigga” from people whose names would be readily identifiable to readers. I’m curious why a columnist from Boston didn’t find a quote from Randall Kennedy’s book “Nigger–The Strange History of a Troublesome Word.” Or whatever the subtitle of that book was. I don’t agree with what I’ve seen from Kennedy’s book–which I have not read, but izrael has and wrote my favorite of his pieces on–but someting tells me that he offered some logic that Jackson couldn’t dispute.
Basically, when you can only find stupid things other people have said to add to your point, you don’t win anything from me. Perhaps he should have called Phonte Coleman about this issue. I know Phonte a little bit, and I’ve heard him say he doesn’t have any issue with the word “nigga” and doesn’t really care who uses it (nor is he discriminatory about whom he refers to as niggaz). I don’t know if Phonte has done an interview on that, but I know he’d have something smarter to say on the issue than 50 Cent or Russell Simmons.
So why no mentions of anyone like that? Why just go for points that even people like me–who use the term liberally and unapologetically–think are moronic?
That’s not presenting a counterargument. That’s the analogue to snowbirding or cherry picking, waiting by your own goal and waiting for an easy basket rather than running down the floor and playing defense. It’s too easy. I’d like to think that Jackson would like to offer something more challenging than that.
But here’s the best part.
Nothing about the N-word or B-word has helped black people to rise above achievement gaps in schools or helped black males to be respectful to women and responsible to babies they father out of wedlock.
Right. And neither has whacking one’s mack all over a newspaper page. Pot, meet kettle. Kettle, that’s pot.
Both y’all niggaz is black.
Moving on, I think I’ll do this week’s list tomorrow. What’s it gonna be on? I really couldn’t tell you. Been on a serious Sly kick lately, but I don’t know the depths of his catalog like that (I primiarily stick to Stand!, There’s a Riot Goin’ On, and Fresh). Or might be the Police, who I’ve gotten deeper into since I got their entire catalog when I was at my brother’s house.
Leaning toward Public Enemy. Check back tomorrow for more.