Umi grabbed and twisted my lips when she heard me say nigga for the first time I was five and I thought it was just a word like any other word like my ABCs and 123s like the old heads on the corner my cousins from around the way my friends at the park calling me little nigga little nigga little nigga like it’s my name Don’t you ever, ever let me hear you say that word again, you hear me? You’re not a nigger and neither are the boys you hang around with, nor any boy for that matter Do you hear me, Amal?
