A Remix From the Archive of the TNI-Mixtape: for Richard Sherman

courtesy Ayanah Moor"This seems like it's the accepted way of calling somebody the n-word nowadays. It's like everybody else says the n-word, and then they say thug, and, 'Oh, that's fine,'" -- Richard Sherman
A Remix From the Archive of the TNI-Mixtape: for Richard Shermanby Mark Anthony ‘thugniggaintellectual’ Neal | NewBlackMan (in Exile)
More than a decade ago, as part of a generational cohort of young Black men who entered the Academy, who were literally raised on the beats and rhymes  of Hip-Hop, I have began to think of myself as a “ThugNiggaIntellectual.”
Though I don't claim to have ever been a thug and have never accepted the status of a "nigger," the distinct New York styled Black masculinity that I wear means I have known thugs and a bunch of "niggers." I share a space with them each time I'm profiled in grocery stores, or chillin' with my homies Gramsci and Jay Z at Starbucks. Folks are seemingly fearful, confused  and disgusted, as if a "nigga" ain't supposed to drink some expensive coffee and have a laptop. 
But it's the latter part of that term "Thug…Nigga...intellectual" that perhaps raises the most eyebrows—“You're an intellectual?” recalling the voice on KRS-One’s “My Philosophy”  
In a society that seemingly doesn't have the language to adequately describe the value of living the life of the mind, there certainly isn't much language to explain the value of a "nigga" like me reading and writing about organic intellectuals, the transnational import of entrepreneurial Gramscian thugs (most folks just wanna call them gangsta rappers), and the role of social media in our political lives, while listening to 2 Chainz’ “Feds is Watching” and Gregory Porter’s “On My Way to Harlem” and  sipping on an Chai latte at three o'clock in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, more presumably worthwhile "niggers" are driving buses, bussing tables, and busting rocks somewhere up state. All I got to do is walk in the door, and given the looks and stares and grunts and of course the stupid questions ("are you a DJ?"), I might as well had been thugged-out with a 9mm in one hand and the 40oz  in the other. So why complicate all of this by actually referring to myself as a "ThugNiggaIntellectual?" Because, like Posdonous said a decade  ago, I'm damn complicated.
The figure of the "Thug Nigga" racializes the cuddly, user friendly thugs that have been popularized in American culture, whether in the form of the hard-boiled detectives found in the dime-store novels of a half-century ago, leather-jacket clad cartoons like Henry Winkler's "Arthur Fonzerelli" ("Fonzie") on Happy Days and Sylvester Stallone's "Rocky Balboa," or stylishly cerebral thugs like the late James Gandolfini's "Tony Soprano." 
When all is said and done, the "Thug Nigga" is a dangerous "nigger" and America has never romanticized about its fear of angry "don't give a f*ck niggers" (see the Prison Industrial Complex).
Many young Black men choose to embrace this notion of "thug-niggerdom" as a way to gain power and visibility in a society that has had designs on them from birth to use them to fill  the scrap heaps of social obscurity. And it's all image. Real thugs and gangstas don't perform in music videos or on subway rides to Brooklyn.
But the image of the "Thug Nigga," given the general demonization of Black men in American society, strikes a certain chord of fear in the places where Black men are neither expected to be visible or be heard. Richard Sherman is just the latest reminder.
***
An earlier version originally published at Popnatters.com (2003)