Nigga, Nigga, Nigga, Nigga

Earlier I remembered small but now relevant anecdote from one day in my sixth grade science class. One afternoon as the towering Mrs. Repko surveyed the class perched atop her high stool, peering behind coke bottle glasses, she noticed a student wearing a then-popular sweatshirt reading “B.U.M. Equipment”. “B.U.M. Equipment?” she sneered. “B.U.M.? Does it mean you’re a bum?” He shrugged. “Well, she replied, “I wouldn’t want the word “bum” on me. You can’t just wear some brand and not know what it means. What would people think of you? And you don’t even know what is stands for!”

This on the heels of Damon Wayans’ recently publicized fourteen-month “struggle” to trademark the word “nigga” for a proposed clothing line. I can imagine the logo now, embroidered in a swirling cursive font of history and culture, labelling the wearer, achieving perfect brand identification. Naturally, the usual nigga conversation has been aroused, this time harmonized within the perfect pitch of recent commentators; Oprah, Kanye, the death of Richard Pryor, even a hilarious story on local news considering a teacher’s suspension for using the word. Personally, considering the fact that nigger/nigra/nigga/nukka has long-now been used in black culture, I find the recent surge in loose usage (which has seemingly replaced the word “um”) bizarre. Briefly, since the fervent adoption of nigga has gotten out of hand, and because I tire of relative non-negro strangers asking me my opinion on the matter, (whatever the nigger matter of the moment is), I share a few points with you now.

1. The mispronunciation of a word (nigger to nigga) does not indeed make it a new word, no matter how deliberate. Neither does attaching a new meaning. Its the same word with a different connotation. That’s how words work. If I’m correct, the phonetic spelling “n-i-g-g-a” came long after the vernacular mispronunciation of it, and prompted by a gaping need to consciously retool the word from whence it came. The defense that “nigga” is a different word was invented by its users and has allowed the “n-word” in whichever incarnation to ride from lip to lip, openly in public.

The idea that nigga is a totally new and different word, and thus, defending the joyous fervor in using it, is just retarded. Oh, did my using “retarded” offend you? Maybe I should have spelled it “ratarded”, because that’s the way it sounds in my head.

2. To continue, the in-group vernacular of “nigger” has been used for ages, certainly before rap music, certainly before white people knew about it, and certainly before the “tit for tat” equality mindset of political correctness set in. I’m not a proponent of nigger in any form of pronunciation however there is something to be said about eradicating in-group language or cultural practices because an out-group doesn’t appreciate or understand it. Black people, however, have a right to bemoan its presence if they so feel like it, just as blacks have a right to disable public use of black motifs and stereotypes.

The idea appears that if white people, or generally non- “down” people can’t use “nigga” then no one should. Fundamentally, this is wrong. Furthermore, it’s also been lamented that “nigga” and “nigger” confuses white people, who, evidenced by their disappointment in confusion, obviously still want to use it.

3. Its very possible that in certain regions of the nation, this day and age finds young black people who’ve never been called a racial slur to their face. Considering the intricacies of race and prejudice are poorly taught or discussed in America, does it surprise you that “nigga” has become so easily divorced from its obvious etymology?

Yours Truly,
Ms. Danielle

 

Gwen Stefani’s Cool Pose

Character Acting: Gwen Stefani’s Cool Pose
excerpted from “Iconography Redefined”

In Gwen Stefani’s recent seat at the black kids’ table she has garnered more than a few comparisons to the original Queen of Pop, Madonna, Ms. Blonde Ambition herself. Although Stefani arguably wins for being more lovable or beating Blonde Ambition at her own game of the synthpop dance album, she learns from the master in the tradition of shameless “Othering.” Aside from the spirited conversations peppered by Salon’s MiHi Anh and Margaret Cho about the obviously bizarre Harajuku girls, Stefani’s appearance recent video “Luxurious” again crosses the lines of inappropriate cultural appropriation.

In costume and attitude, she clearly adopts motifs from an ethnic Other. By glamorizing aesthetics associated with a working class Mexican-American socio-economic culture, (gold jewelry, baggy clothes, silk wrap nails, bright colors, dark wardrobe and makeup) and mixing them with historic iconography of the Mexican upper class (her braided Kahlo-esque corona, suitably ribboned and flowered), “Luxurious” uses various representations of Mexican and Mexican-American subcultures to create a generic “Latin” overarching visual thesis, reducing the differences therein. For most of the music video, Stefani wears a blue flannel button down shirt and a red tough-girl pout outlined by dark brown liner. Overall, here are aesthetics that are stereotyped as economically disadvantaged, racially marginalized and generally disenfranchised. The brown lip liner and blue flannel shirt are motifs made nationally recognizable with the introduction of West Coast rap in the 1990’s. In this setting, the lyrics take on a working class connotation:

Working so hard, every night and day
And now we get the pay back
Trying so hard, saving up the paper
Now we get to lay back

Altogether, in this video coolness is linked to the fantasy of working class authenticity. It is cool to play working class Mexican, to play Asian, to play Black and to imagine how these types make themselves feel special. I don’t find the music video necessarily offensive, but classically bold, thoughtless and indicative of a tradition of dominant culture’s “slumming it” to enhance their own image and credibility. Aside from using Latin types, Stefani’s image as a solo artist has been punctuated by an instantly familiar non-white swagger, slang and hip-hop informed mock-bravado. Stefani’s cool pose appears most when she is being particularly “bad”, “cool” or “tough” as in “Rich Girl” or “Hollaback Girl” where she is brazen and publicly disruptive. There is no such attitude or Othering in videos such as “Cool” where she is the object of white male affection and projects an image of mainstream glamour, although she could very easily relied upon glamourous iconography of black, Asian and Latin cultures. In this video although Stefani co-opts Italian opulence and golden-age cinematic motifs, as a supremely “neutral” self-described “mutt” she somewhat naturally inherits these canons of white representation. She can rely upon the visual history of whiteness as tools to reaffirm her Caucasian position once returned from erstwhile racial transgression. Not to mention, known for her trademark porcelainic skin and ultra-blonde hair Stefani assumes “neutral” hyper-whiteness, invoking a sense that she is the most qualified of canvases to paint cultures over thanks to her stark monochromatic palette. A person of color could not easily afford or pull off such transgression without ridicule or comment. The right to reproduce white American iconography belongs most immediately to white people; on the other hand to perform this American visual history as a woman of color is to make a radical transgression, as in the case of reception to Barbie Doll/Betty Page inspired image of Lil’ Kim. (Men of color in popular culture have greater success reinterpreting white iconography as evidenced in the persistent motifs of the Scarface/Goodfellas/Godfather gangster legacy repeated by male rap artists.)

Like Madonna who seemed inimitably cool in her day, part of Stefani’s visual allure is the ability to reinvent herself by boldly performing “types.” She is cool because she seems soi-disant , to defy music industry fabrication, counter culture. However, her brand of coolness is hardly so, neither is it new to music, and the portrayal of “types” is just to reinvent the wheel. Both entertainers employ mild camp in the use of ethnic stereotypes and make kitsch of both popular and niche iconography across cultural and international lines. Over years of transformations, Stefani has stood for girly defiance, unconventional glamour, and brash personal style. Like Madonna, she has usually depicted white female rebellion through affecting boyishness/masculinity and non-whiteness. As an ever-changing character, she can turn on coquettish vulnerability and bad-ass tough. At almost forty, she is still the cool girl that suburban teenagers wish to be but are afraid to dare. Coolness, in general, is often born from the successful appropriation of taboo cultures identified by the middle class, such as what I call popular blackness, the poor and working class, hip hop, the loud and impolite. By encompassing other cultural and gender codes, she takes the risks whose venture ensure her coolness simply because to do so is taboo. Gwen Stefani, like Madonna, is that suburban girl that pulled it off and got away with it.