Excerpt From KRS-ONE Book...
"REAL NIGGAS"
A Look At Institutional Racism Through An Intellectual Analysis of The "N" Words
Pages 9 – 11
“This study is about institutional racism and its modern-day effects on the collective consciousness of American society, and how to avoid it. However, it is by looking closely at the terms Nigga, Nigger, Niger and Negro that we see the effects of modern-day institutional racism more clearly. What do I mean by this?
Well, first we must come to the realization that when seriously looking for our Black ancestors within White English colonial language and culture, it is not going to be in the accepted and respected English names and terms that we are going to see our Black ancestors, it is going to be in the derogatory and disrespectful names and terms of European and English languages and cultures that we are going to see our REAL Black ancestry more clearly.
Again, it is not in the accept terms and titles that we are going to see our Black ancestors accurately in White English language and culture; it is in the degrading terms that White English imperialists hurled at their enemies (our ancestors) that reveal the real existence, and most of all, character of our real Black ancestors.
Remember, our Black ancestors were the targets (and thus the enemies) of White English imperialism and robbery.
Therefore, it is by looking at what White English imperialists were calling their enemies (their targets) that will reveal to us the actual character and day-to-day existence of our real ancestors.
As I often point-out, once we set our emotional hurt aside and look directly at the disrespectful and derogatory terms being hurled at us and our ancestors by racists, we will see that we are not responding to the actual meanings of the actual words being spoken, we are responding to the racists using such words.
We are responding to cultural norms; not literal knowledge.
As we will learn in this study, it is not words themselves that are disrespectful or demeaning, most times it is who is saying such words that determine whether such words become disrespectful and/or demeaning.
The game being played on African Americans by institutional racism is a simple one.
The game is to get us to despise and even fear everything about our original Being and culture so that the perpetual robbery of our original Being and culture can continue.
The game is for us to despise and avoid our natural divinity and historical royalty so that we never return to it! We (Africans) are a feeling people, an emotional and proud people; a soul people!
We see the world according to how it feels to us, and it is this genetic trait of ours that is being used against us.
We (as a People) are simply being too emotional over things that require no emotion at all.
We are being too proud over things that don’t require pride.
We are seeking things that our Black ancestors had no interests in, and that which our Black ancestors did have an interest in, we know nothing about!
Basically, we are avoiding our ancestral Being because of how White racists are describing such a Being back to us through their institutions.
Words like “savage”, “pagan”, “heathen”, “primitive”, “barbarian”, “native”, “Nigger”, “Negro”, “Indian” and “Black” are all taught back to us according to the cultural customs and preferences of White English colonists, not according to what these words actually mean unto themselves, or even what they may mean in other cultures and languages.
This however, is one of the main functions of institutional racism toward its captured population; it is to turn the colonized into colonists so that the crimes of colonialism and perpetual robbery can continue.
The colonial idea is to turn us into passive versions of themselves (passive colonists) so that colonialism and robbery can appear normal and right.
As a result, through institutional racism we are being culturally trained to become more and more like the people that robbed and killed our great grandparents, our grandparents and our parents—and thus us.
This however, is what makes the crime of imperialism and colonialism appear normal, and even right; we’ve been trained to go along with it!
This is the game being played on us—African Americans.”
"REAL NIGGAZ: A Look At Institutional Racism Through An Intellectual Analysis of The "N" Words” is available at KRS-ONE.com