Another Thought Process Edition

It’s OKAY to be a N*@@a?!
Written by: Oa'Toya James

In honor of black history month, I felt that I should take time out to spread a little history.

Have you ever heard of “The Black Wall Street”? I’m not talking about the rapper The Game; I’m talking about actual facts. During the 1920’s in Tulsa, Oklahoma blacks could not live among whites or patronize white businesses. So, Blacks built their own communities. The Greenwood district, with a population of 11,000, owned their own bus line, hospitals, hotels, libraries, clubs, schools, EVERYTHING! It was said that Black dollars invested in the black community produced self-pride, self-sufficiency, and self-determination!

Pretty cool huh! I never heard of “The Black Wall Street.” It wasn’t in any of my history books! (And I’m a college graduate from an HBCU!) It’s important to know your history. If you’re not careful, you could end up making a mockery of it!

“Does your chain hang low?” People went crazy when Jibbs came out with that song. Got caught up in the catchy little nursery rhyme tune didn’t you? But, do you know what the actual rhyme says? The rhyme goes: “Does your ears hang low, do they wobble to and fro, can you tie them in knot, can you tie them in bow, could you throw it over your shoulder like a continental solider, do your ears hang low?”

What are they talking about? They’re speaking of human ears! Confederate soldiers would kill slaves and cut off their ears for souvenirs. They would put them on ropes and wear them around there necks like necklaces. So when they ask, “Do they wobble to and fro, there speaking of the ear swinging on the rope!” As time went on, Confederate was replaced with Continental, to lighten it up a little bit!

I didn’t know that!! Thanks to a blog by incitingariot I was enlighten on this issue. Now don’t we look and sound ignorant singing “Does your chain hang low?”

“Inny, meeny, minny mo, how many girls in club wanna go!” Yung Joc had all the girls saying,
“I know you see it!” That was hot! But, inny, meeny, minny, mo! Catch a N*@@a by the toe! Is not so hot!

And since we’re on the word N*@@A, can I just say that I think it long past due to bury that word! PERIOD! That word was created to demean, degrade, insult, humiliate, shame, disgrace, embarrass and disrespect blacks as a people! And what do we do, we turn around and use it on each other and in our music! It’s okay for us to use it! But Kramer was out of line for his remarks! J-Lo said “I tell them n*@@a’s mind their business …” in “I’m real featuring Ja-Rule. Some rappers (on BET!) said that was cool, she’s Jennifer!” Our ancestors stood against that word, among other things, so we wouldn’t have to go through it! And we have the audacity to choose who gets to say it and who doesn’t! We don’t have that right! We didn’t fight for it!

Steve Harvey made an excellent point: When Michael Jackson tried to come out with the song “They don’t care about us” there was MAJOR controversy. Why? Because the line “Kick me, Kike me, don’t you black or white me” Kike is a racial slur for a person of Jewish decent. They pulled the song from the radio and made Michael rewrite that line before it could be sold in stores! All because of that one little offensive word! The only way you won’t find n*@@a in most rap songs, is if you buy it from Wal-Mart!

A lot of artist are more upset about comments like, “Hip Hop is Dead!” or “The South is hurting Hip Hop”, Then they were about Kramer’s use of the N-word! When black leaders called for a boycott against the word, they didn’t get a lot of support from the rap community. Some rappers say you can’t stop the use of the word! I hope you don’t believe that! Let me show you how much influence rap artists have. Ya’ll all know about Cristal, the champagne. Every rapper talked about Cristal! Jermaine Dupri said that if you didn’t have any Cristal in your refrigerator, you weren’t a baller! Well, the makers of Cristal stated that they didn’t want to be associated with the hip-hop culture. That offended Jay-Z! So he called for a boycott against Cristal! You don’t hear about Crystal any more, do you?

Come on ya’ll we got to wake up! Yeah we’re making money! But at what cost! Our forefathers had to march to be heard. Now we have a voice and an audience, and look how we choose to use it! Rap artist make millions of dollars from the black community, just like the Greenwood District! And that GREAT! But what is the message we’re sending. That’s its okay to be a N*@@a! Where is the self-pride in that!


Everybody’s so upset over Kramer’s use of the N-word. Would it have softened the blow if it had been said over a nice beat!








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