The Nigga Word: A Black Millennial Perspective on Its Healing, Usage, and Continuity

For some the word nigga is a term of endearment and for others this word reminds them of the shackles and chains still pressed upon them by white America. However, no matter how the word is perceived, one thing is indisputable: it's for and by us. This paper attempts to come at the NIGGA word from an angle that prioritizes and centers a black perspective on what people are doing with the word in our community – as opposed to engaging in the tired argument of who should say it and who shouldn't. I have attempted to explore the way in which the nigger and nigga words have permeated the social culture and interactions of Black Millennials. I believe us, the Black Millennials, to be doing something intentionally different with this word than any group before us has, and the motivation behind this thesis is to discover exactly what that difference is. To achieve a substantive and downright interesting exploration of the topic and its nuances, my research is an amalgamation of real time, lived experiences and thoughts of Black Stanford Millennials in combination with data derived directly from the mouths, minds and fingers of the Black Millennials worldwide. I studied the Black Twitter trending conversation #NiggerNavy, and engaged in focus groups of Black Millennials here at Stanford, to ultimately discover the usage patterns of the nigger and nigga words and gauge their – what I believe to be – healing power, through solidarity and understanding, in our Black Millennial Community. I hope this thesis succeeds to open up more conversations of this nature in cross-cultural communities. I also want it to be an avenue that asks what this freedom that Black people express on Twitter says about the future of the merging of Black Culture and digital/technological culture.

What follows this abstract is their...OUR nigga story.