We ain’t niggahs no mo!

400 years of slavery where our women were raped

We were beaten, starved, and lynched

400 hundred years of being degraded

With a word that was formed out of brutality

I can’t understand why the sons of Royalty

Would label themselves as animals

I can’t understand why the root of mankind

Would continue to dishonor those who came before us

We ain’t niggahs no mo!

Term of endearment

Tell that to Malcolm X

Because we are brothas

What family kills itself?

Every time we acknowledge the word niggah

We accept a chain that was intended

To destroy our souls and to delete our humanity

It allows us to see ourselves as less than animals

It helps others justify their guilt

We ain’t niggahs no mo!

Term of endearment

Tell that to James Meredith

Because we are brothas

What family kills itself?

I reject the moniker of hate

It existed in the past

But it does not apply to me

I am a powerful Nubian Prince

Whose legacy was written

Before history was recorded

I am not a nigger anymore

Term of endearment

Tell that to that to those four little girls

Because we are brothas

What family kills itself?

It's time that we realize

That Bob Marley was right

We can ‘emancipate’ ourselves

By throwing off part off the yoke

That binds us to a past of violence

We ain’t niggahs no mo

by Bruce Bean

The poem above was written out of anger. I respect hip-hop and rap artist. I respect their message, but I refuse to listen to most of their music. The reason is simple and it has nothing to do with profanity or their their misogynistic lyrics. It has to do with what leads to their hate of women and that is the use of the word niggahs or any of its variations.

Now, I am not like many people who believe that the n-word should be banned form the planet forever. As a writer, I can see some context in my own life where I would have to write the word because that was what someone said. However, I fault those in the rap community with making the use of the n-word casual among a generation who do not understand its implications.

An example: I took my daughter and two other girls swimming at a public school and saw a group tennis players sitting on the court talking. They were a mixed group and probably representative of todays society. There was only one African-American among the group, two whites, an asian, and a couple of Hispanic kids. They were all males. One of the white kids was speaking and he said "Niggah, fu sho." He said it and then they all saw me and the conversation stopped.

As a teacher, I hear this all the time, but the most disturbing case that I have ever seen involved a student from another country. His parents were West African. He lived there until he was seven years old, yet, here he was seven years later and he had become a niggah to his friends.

I asked him about it and he said simply, it's how I grew up. Now black people have called each other a variation of the n-word for centuries. The question is when will we stop? The word was created to brutalize a people. It was used to rape our mothers and dehumanize our fathers. Yet, young princes and princess's of African heritage use it as if it were a badge. It is not term of endearment. It is a term of hate and you will make it as casual as using the word "Dude" is on a California beach.

Using the word niggah allows rap artist to justify calling our women bitches and hoes and degrading them on stage. Using the word niggah allows us to shoot each other and murder our future. Using the word niggah allows others to justify their brutalization of people of color because they say, "They are just animals anyway." Many of our brothers and sisters have died and niggah was the last word they heard.

Lets cut off this yoke of bondage. I hope my poem did not offend you.