Down here, Black and White folks both use the word “nigger.” Not in polite company, of course. And I want to explain it. Do we begin at the beginning? Or do we begin where we are today? It is a slur that demanded the tongues of Black people at the outset, forced to wear the mask of subservience. Some of those tongues turned in on themselves, forked, sucking in poison; some others—more I believe—began to speak on two registers, or three, or four. In case you haven’t noticed, Black American language does that frequently. Our words mean multiple things, sometimes opposing. Of course they would.
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