In 1922, on a day when an anti-lynching bill was being debated in the House of Representatives, a large crowd of mostly black men and women packed the House’s galleries. There was so much excitement in the crowd that during one of the speeches the people broke gallery rules by standing and cheering. A voice from the floor shouted, “Sit down, you Niggers!” and a voice from the galleries shouted back, “You’re a liar! We’re not Niggers."1
That statement was true then and it is still true today. We may have been taught we were niggers. It may be so ingrained in our culture that we have formed a variant “nigga” as a term of endearment, but we are not niggas nor are we niggers. It is time to eliminate this word that has been used to dehumanize us for centuries. And by doing so, we can achieve two great accomplishments.
First, we can honor the memories of our ancestors who fought tirelessly to attain equality and basic civil rights. And second, by eliminating this word, we can gain a better understanding of ourselves as young black people in the world today.
1 Romero, Patricia. "James Weldon Johnson and the Anti- Lynching Bill.” International Library of Negro Life and History. I too am America Documents from 1619 to the Present. 1970 p.206-207
