Spin: Calling yourself ni**a is a part of black American culture

[Asicz]

Facts and evidence > over your little opinions and emotions



Library Congress


Audio Recording of former slave by
Interview with Uncle Billy McCrea, Jasper, Texas, 1940 (part 2 of 2)


Interview with Uncle Billy McCrea, Jasper, Texas, 1940 (part 2 of 2)





they brought them hound in and brought three nikkas with them hound, runaway nikkas, you know,
caught in the wood. And they, right, right across, right at the creek there, they take them nikkas and
put them on, and put them on a log lay them down and fasten them. And whup them. You hear
them nikkas hollering and praying on them logs. And there was a nikka bring them in. Then they take
them out down there and put them in jail.

 

[Freedman]

Shows the power of our influence on American culture. We turned a derogatory word used against us into a staple of pop culture.

 

[Supper]

"nikka" is just a natural southern AAVE pronunciation of "******".

We don't enunciate r-controlled vowels, hence why "whore" became "ho"(yet today we treat them as two separate words).

But, I don't believe phrases like "my nikka" came until much later, possibly among northern urban AAs. Though, I could be wrong.

But, yeah it's apart of the culture at this point, for good or for bad.

 

[Ya' Cousin Cleon]

I just find it funny people go so hard at people using a term of endearment as so problematic, but don't think for a second calling black folk "c00n" "bedbuck" "wench" "mammy" "tap dancin'" at the drop of the hat completely reasonable

 

[Asicz]

Shows the power of our influence on American culture. We turned a derogatory word used against us into a staple of pop culture.

I'm not sure the origination of ****** was derogatory. I think the word negre and negro come from Spainard colonists to the Americas . Negro just means black.
The Anglophone white colonists in North America in their pronunciation turns it to ******.
****** is not even derogatory until mid 1900s according to wiki.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/******

The word originated in the 18th century as an adaptation of the Spanish negro, a descendant of the Latin adjective niger, which means black.[1] It was used derogatorily, and by the mid-20th century, particularly in the United States,

 

[Asicz]

"nikka" is just a natural southern AAVE pronunciation of "******".

We don't enunciate r-controlled vowels, hence why "whore" becaome "ho"(yet today we treat them as two separate words).

But, I don't believe phrases like "my nikka" came until much later, possibly among northern urban AAs. Though, I could be wrong.

But, yeah it's apart of the culture at this point, for good or for bad.

I wonder if that influence white southerners speech pattern or vice versa or mutually.

 

[Secure Da Bag]

 

[Supper]

I just find it funny people go so hard at people using a term of endearment as so problematic, but don't think for a second calling black folk "c00n" "bedbuck" "wench" "mammy" "tap dancin'" at the drop of the hat completely reasonable

Those terms actually have worse connotations for us imo, being that they are plantation based slurs, they are direct slights on AA heritage completely unchanged from their original spelling or pronunciation. Where as the etymology of nikka goes all the way back to the iberian peninsula before the transatlantic slave trade was even thought of.

I personally stay away from those.

 

[Asicz]

Like even some of my father's siblings dropped nikka casualy and they are born in The 40s.

 

[Asicz]

I'm not convinced at all that negus has led to creation of negre/negro/******

 

[Secure Da Bag]

I'm not convinced at all that negus has creation to negre/negro/******

Ethiopian > Portuguese > Spanish > UK > US ... > n-word.

 

[Supper]

I wonder if that influence white southerners speech pattern or vice versa or mutually.

I doubt it in this case as white southern drawls do enunciate r-controlled vowels, quite heavily. Hence, why the hard 'r' in when they use the n word.

Ironically it's actually whites in the tri-state who don't enunciate r-controlled vowels like southern blacks.

 

[BigMan]

It is apart of AA / American culture, other black groups outside the US only started using the word nikka because of American influence. Previously in other countries ****** was always used perjoratively

 

[Asicz]

It is apart of AA / American culture, other black groups outside the US only started using the word nikka because of American influence. Previously in other countries ****** was always used perjoratively

This makes absolutely no sense to me.

 

[BigMan]

This makes absolutely no sense to me.

Which part