The
word "nigger" is a key term in American culture. It is a
profoundly hurtful racial slur meant to stigmatize African
Americans; on occasion, it also has been used against members of
other racial or ethnic groups, including Chinese, other Asians,
East Indians, Arabs and darker-skinned people. It has been an
important feature of many of the worst episodes of bigotry in
American history. It has accompanied innumerable lynchings,
beatings, acts of arson, and other racially motivated attacks upon
blacks. It has also been featured in countless jokes and cartoons
that both reflect and encourage the disparagement of blacks. It is
the signature phrase of racial prejudice.
To understand fully, however, the depths
and intensities, quirks and complexities of American race
relations, it is necessary to know in detail the many ways in
which racist bigotry has manifested itself, been appealed to, and
been resisted. The term "nigger" is in most contexts, a cultural
obscenity. But, so, too are the opinions of the United States
Supreme Court in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which ruled that African
Americans were permanently ineligible for federal citizenship, and
Plessy v. Ferguson, which ruled that state-mandated, "equal but
separate" racial segregation entailed no violation of the federal
constitution. These decisions embodied racial insult and
oppression as national policy and are, for many, painful to read.
But teachers rightly assign these opinions to hundreds of
thousands of students, from elementary grades to professional
schools, because, tragically, they are part of the American
cultural inheritance. Cultural literacy requires detailed
knowledge about the oppression of racial minorities. A clear
understanding of "nigger" is part of this knowledge. To paper over
that term or to constantly obscure it by euphemism is to flinch
from coming to grips with racial prejudice that continues to haunt
the American social landscape.
Leading etymologists believe that "nigger"
was derived from an English word "neger" that was itself derived
from "Negro", the Spanish word for black. Precisely when the term
became a slur is unknown. We do know, however, that by early in
the 19th century "nigger" had already become a familiar insult. In
1837, in The Condition of the Colored People of the United States;
and the Prejudice Exercised Towards Them, Hosea Easton observed
that "nigger" "is an opprobrious term, employed to impose contempt
upon [blacks] as an inferior race…The term itself would be
perfectly harmless were it used only to distinguish one class from
another; but it is not used with that intent…it flows from the
fountain of purpose to injure."
The term has been put to other uses. Some
blacks, for instance, use "nigger" among themselves as a term of
endearment. But that is typically done with a sense of irony that
is predicated upon an understanding of the term’s racist origins
and a close relationship with the person to whom the term is
uttered. As Clarence Major observed in his Dictionary of
Afro-American Slang (1970), "used by black people among
themselves, [nigger] is a racial term with undertones of warmth
and goodwill – reflecting…a tragicomic sensibility that is aware
of black history." Many blacks object, however, to using the term
even in that context for fear that such usage will be
misunderstood and imitated by persons insufficiently attuned to
the volatility of this singularly complex and dangerous word.
Some observers object even to reproducing
historical artifacts, such as books or cartoons, that contain the
term "nigger." This total, unbending objection to printing the
word under any circumstance is by no means new. Writing in 1940 in
his memoir The Big Sea, Langston Hughes remarked that "[t]he word
nigger to colored people is like a red rag to a bull. Used rightly
or wrongly, ironically or seriously, of necessity for the sake of
realism, or impishly for the sake of comedy, it doesn’t matter.
Negroes do not like it in any book or play whatsoever, be the book
or play ever so sympathetic in its treatment of the basic problems
of the race. Even though the book or play is written by a Negro,
they still do not like it. The word nigger, you see, sums up for
us who are colored all the bitter years of insult and struggle in
America."
Given the power of "nigger" to wound, it
is important to provide a context within which presentation of
that term can be properly understood. It is also imperative,
however, to permit present and future readers to see for
themselves directly the full gamut of American cultural
productions, the ugly as well as the beautiful, those that mirror
the majestic features of American democracy and those that mirror
America’s most depressing failings.
For these reasons, I have advised the
management of HarpWeek to present the offensive text, cartoons,
caricatures and illustrations from the pages of Harper's Weekly,
as well as other politically sensitive nineteenth-century
material, as they appeared in their historical context. This same
advice holds for slurs relating to Irish, Chinese, Germans, Native
Americans, Catholics, Jews, Mormons and other ethnic and religious
groups.
by
Randall Kennedy, Professor
of Law, Harvard University |