I'm 39, and the first time I was ever called "nigger" as an adult was about 6 months ago-- in Germany. I'd been hiking in a place called Potsdam when this guy walked to me called me a "nigger."
My reaction? Well, I ended up being a guest of the German government for five days. Ansd that was only the first time. I was called nigger a lot while I was in Germany. That and a lot of people felt the need to "Seig Heil" me. And I won't even get into the weirdness of being referred to as a "Negro" while I was in the Netherlands.
But it was a strange irony that I had to travel to Europe to reminded of the power of the word "Nigger."
I was in Europe for about six months. I walked and biked from Berlin to Dresden back to Berlin to Hamburg to Bremen to Oldenburg to the Netherlands to Begium to France. My fianl destination being Paris.
It was in Paris, at an English laguage book store that I bought "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain. Believe it or not, I had never read the book. I just never got around to it.
But I can now say I've read it, and I can say for the record Mark Twain is one hell of a writer and a hell of a social commentator. Mr. Twain uses the word nigger quite liberally in the book, but he uses the word quite appropriately.
And I'd like to share a section of the book where he uses it quite materfully when spoken by Huck Finn's father:
"Oh, yes, this is a wonderful govment, wonderful. Why, looky here. There was a free nigger there from Ohio—a mulatter, most as white as a white man. He had the whitest shirt on you ever see, too, and the shiniest hat; and there ain't a man in that town that's got as fine clothes as what he had; and he had a gold watch and chain, and a silver-headed cane—the awfulest old gray-headed nabob in the State. And what do you think? They said he was a p'fessor in a college, and could talk all kinds of languages, and knowed everything. And that ain't the wust. They said he could VOTE when he was at home. Well, that let me out. Thinks I, what is the country a-coming to? It was 'lection day, and I was just about to go and vote myself if I warn't too drunk to get there; but when they told me there was a State in this country where they'd let that nigger vote, I drawed out. I says I'll never vote agin. Them's the very words I said; they all heard me; and the country may rot for all me—I'll never vote agin as long as I live. And to see the cool way of that nigger—why, he wouldn't a give me the road if I hadn't shoved him out o' the way. I says to the people, why ain't this nigger put up at auction and sold?—that's what I want to know. And what do you reckon they said? Why, they said he couldn't be sold till he'd been in the State six months, and he hadn't been there that long yet. There, now—that's a specimen. They call that a govment that can't sell a free nigger till he's been in the State six months. Here's a govment that calls itself a govment, and lets on to be a govment, and thinks it is a govment, and yet's got to set stock-still for six whole months before it can take a hold of a prowling, thieving, infernal, white-shirted free nigger..."
"I have never laughed so hard in my life. And it reminded me of listening to my father's Richard Pryor ablums (And for the record, Richard Pryor is probably the most brilliant user of the word nigger-- but this diary is about Mark Twain). I never imagined that "Huckleberry Finn" was so edgy and on point in terms of race. I remember thinking Mark Twain was like Quentin Tarantino, or rather Quentin Tarantino is like Mark Twain. Consider this scene from the movie "True Romance"
Clifford Worley: You're Sicilian, huh?
Coccotti: Yeah, Sicilian.
Clifford Worley: Ya know, I read a lot. Especially about things... about history. I find that shit fascinating. Here's a fact I don't know whether you know or not. Sicilians were spawned by niggers.
Coccotti: Come again?
Clifford Worley: It's a fact. Yeah. You see, uh, Sicilians have, uh, black blood pumpin' through their hearts. Hey, no, if eh, if eh, if you don't believe me, uh, you can look it up. Hundreds and hundreds of years ago, uh, you see, uh, the Moors conquered Sicily. And the Moors are niggers.
Coccotti: Yes...
Clifford Worley: So you see, way back then, uh, Sicilians were like, uh, wops from Northern Italy. Ah, they all had blonde hair and blue eyes, but, uh, well, then the Moors moved in there, and uh, well, they changed the whole country. They did so much fuckin' with Sicilian women, huh? That they changed the whole bloodline forever. That's why blonde hair and blue eyes became black hair and dark skin. You know, it's absolutely amazing to me to think that to this day, hundreds of years later, that, uh, that Sicilians still carry that nigger gene. Now this...
[Coccotti busts out laughing]
Clifford Worley: No, I'm, no, I'm quoting... history. It's written. It's a fact, it's written.
Coccotti: [Laughing] I love this guy.
Clifford Worley: Your ancestors are niggers. Uh-huh.
[Starts laughing, too]
Clifford Worley: Hey. Yeah. And, and your great-great-great-great grandmother fucked a nigger, ho, ho, yeah, and she had a half-nigger kid... now, if that's a fact, tell me, am I lying? 'Cause you, you're part eggplant.
And I think this scene is a brilliant piece of writing. It made me laugh. Made me think too.
I'm probably going to sound like an old fogey, but I hate hearing black people call each other "nigga." And it a crazy world we live in where even white kids do it. And people tolerate it.
But it is an even crqzie world we live in where people would suggest that a book like "Hucklebery Finn" should be banned. Because I would want my kids to read it, so they would understand why their dad went to prison because some German dude called him that.
MORE THOUGHTS I was thinking, I've seen a Disney-fied version of Huck Finn, and reading the book made realize that if you made a Huck Finn movie that was true to the book, it would probably be R-rated. Which makes think Mark Twain is really an edgy guy.