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The N-Word : Comprehending the Complexity of Stratification in American Community Settings Anne V

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The N-Word : Comprehending the Complexity of Stratification in American Community Settings Anne V Union College Union | Digital Works Honors Theses Student Work 6-2009 The N-word : comprehending the complexity of stratification in American community settings Anne V. Benfield Union College - Schenectady, NY Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses Part of the Race and Ethnicity Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons, and the Urban Studies and Planning Commons Recommended Citation Benfield, Anne V., "The -wN ord : comprehending the complexity of stratification in American community settings" (2009). Honors Theses. 1433. https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses/1433 This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Work at Union | Digital Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Union | Digital Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The N-Word: Comprehending the Complexity of Stratification in American Community Settings By Anne V. Benfield * * * * * * * * * Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Honors in the Department of Sociology UNION COLLEGE June, 2009 Table of Contents Abstract 3 Introduction 4 Chapter One: Literature Review Etymology 7 Early Uses 8 Fluidity in the Twentieth Century 11 The Commercialization of Nigger 12 The Millennium 15 Race as a Determinant 17 Gender Binary 19 Class Stratification and the Talented Tenth 23 Generational Difference 25 Chapter Two: Methodology Sociological Theories 29 W.E.B DuBois’ “Double-Consciousness” 34 Qualitative Research Instrument: Focus Groups 38 Chapter Three: Results and Discussion Demographics 42 Generational Difference 43 Class Stratification and the Talented Tenth 47 Gender Binary 51 Race as a Determinant 55 The Ambiguity of Nigger vs. Nigga 61 The Future 64 Chapter Four: Conclusion Conclusion 66 References Appendix Benfield 3 ABSTRACT BENFIELD, ANNE V The N-Word: Comprehending the Complexity of Stratification in American Community Settings. Department of Sociology, June 2009. The N-word’s remarkable durability, combined with American’s willingness to find uses for this epithet, illustrate the extent to which racial unease continues to permeate our culture. Its various definitions and spellings are continuously debated by academia, creating a dynamic topic for sociological evaluation. Overall, the N word is alive and mobile, fluid and engraved in the American psyche, as a symbol. Some propose to condemn the word, while others attempt to rehabilitate and convert its meaning from a negative slur to a gesture of solidarity. The controversial debate of the N-word can be examined from multitudinous sociological theories, encompassing elements of conflict theory, symbolic interactionism, DuBois' "double- consciousness" and intersectionality. The purpose of this study is to examine the usage of the N- word as a clue toward comprehending the complexity of stratification in American community settings. The qualitative results of two focus groups and the quantitative data of a generic survey concludes that vectors of race, gender, socioeconomic status and age intersect, affecting the elimination, preservation or rehabilitation of the N-word. Benfield 4 INTROUCTION How should nigger be defined? Is it a more, or less, hurtful than insults such as kike, wop, chink, honky and gook? Should one race be able to use nigger in ways that are forbidden to others? How can the spelling of one word generate such powerful and dynamic reactions? Is it a part of the American cultural inheritance that deserves preservation? Instead of using the euphemism the N-word, does spelling out nigger offend you? The N-word sustains the entwined ideas of white supremacy and black inferiority, supplements the nation’s popular culture and influences the scope and direction of its legal system. Although the word has ebbed and flowed with cultural norms, it seeps into American society, affecting everyone in latent and manifest ways. Nigger is fascinating precisely because it has been put to a variety of uses and radiated a wide array of meanings (Kennedy 2002: 27). Some propose to condemn the word, while others attempt to rehabilitate and convert its meaning from a negative slur to a gesture of solidarity. The N-word has four diverging definitions and multitudinous uses. First, it is a word whites use to indicate an inferior Black caste, retreating back to the institution of slavery. Second, in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the N-word is used as an affection lever between African Americans, dynamic in regard to people and situations. Third, it is a word designating class differences, referring to lower-class African Americans who do not know how to behave. Lastly, the N-word is a term used by Whites, Asians and Latinos, as a leveling effect, to emulate the coolness and stealth of African Americans (Williams 2004). The debate of the N word can be examined from numerous Benfield 5 perspectives, encompassing sociological elements of conflict theory, symbolic interactionism and intersectionality; yet W.E.B. Dubois’ concept of the “double-consciousness” exposes an interesting analysis and duality within the term. DuBois’ theory of “double consciousness” reflects Charles Horton Cooley’s concept of “the Looking Glass Self,” in which the reactions of others are used to visualize our self-concept. DuBois’ concept of dual identity is an attempt to make the African American condition understood, contending that African Americans experience a split identity because they are regarded with contempt and pity by the majority American society. The duality of “two-ness” weakens the identity of African Americans by making them straddle the breach between their African and American identity (DuBois 1903: 215). DuBois believes that the juxtaposition of identity makes African Americans succumb to the conformity of internalized racism, inhibiting them from self-identification and the appreciation of their cultural individuality. DuBois’ theory of “double-consciousness” also applies to Caucasian Americans, who continually grapple with the historical white supremacy of the United States and the belief in a genuine democracy. Dubois’s perspective can be applied to analyses and critiques of N-word, exposing and highlighting its duality and dynamic definition. The purpose of this study is to examine the usage of the N-word as a clue toward comprehending complexity of stratification in American community settings. Using focus groups and a generic survey, this study examines how race, gender, age and socio-economic status determine the elimination, rehabilitation or preservation of nigger. This thesis is divided into four sections. Chapter One begins with a historical analysis of the N-word, examining its etymology, development and diverging definitions. Chapter Two examines the methodology of the research design, evaluating the validity of the generic survey and focus groups. Chapter Benfield 6 Three discusses the results of the qualitative and quantitative data, revealing how social classifications converge and affect the usage and connotation of the N-word. Chapter Four draws conclusions about the dynamic social constructions of word, determining how it impacts daily- lived experiences of the uses or non-uses. As W.E.B DuBois, Jabari Asim, Randall Kennedy, Patricia Hill Collins and Joan Morgan have shown, the N-word is certain to provoke strong reactions wherever it is encountered. Its remarkable durability, combined with American’s willingness to find uses for this epithet, illustrate the extent to which racial unease continues to permeate our culture. Controversially, modern generations attempt to redefine and transform the concept of the nigger, warping its negativity into cultural positivism. Many argue that the N-word, itself, is not an issue; instead it is the social, historical and political racism associated with it. Overall, the N word is alive and mobile, fluid and engraved in the American psyche, as a symbol. Benfield 7 CHAPTER ONE Etymology The etymology of the word nigger is often traced to the Latin word niger, meaning black (Pilgrim & Middleton 2001). Niger transformed into the English noun negro and other variants, such as negar, neegar, neger and nigers. Although the word has been part of the English vocabulary as far back as 1555, in 1619, Jamestown colonist John Rolfe noted the first time African captives were brought to British North America. “Twenty negars,” he wrote, had arrived on a Dutch schooner (Asim 2007:10). The merchant Nicholas Crisp, writing in 1637, described one of his ships as built to “take nigers and carry them to foreign parts” (10). Fifteen years later in 1651, two British traders placed orders with the Guinea Company, requesting a new shipment of “lusty negers” (10). Most lexicographers contend that the various spelling of nigger, negar, niger, neger and nigor were initially intended as a neutral term, acquiring a derogatory character over time. No one knows precisely how the N-word attained its prerogative meaning. Dr. David Pilgrim and Dr. Phillip Middleton, Professors at Ferris State University note that the mispronunciation of the word niger by southern slave masters catalyzed to current pronunciation and phonetic spelling of nigger (Pilgrim& Middleton 2001). Linguist Robin Lakoff speculates that nigger became a slur when users of the term became aware that it was “a mispronunciation of Negro and decided to continue using the mispronunciation as a signal of contempt- much as individuals sometime chose to insult others by deliberately
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