ouch!

I had a real "makes you think" moment with this story recently. As a white hip-hop fan its interesting to ponder the use and abuse of "the N word". You can talk "reclaiming" all you want, and dig out that old copy of Midnight Marauders and spin "Sucka Nigga" a few times but shit like this can still smack you hard enough to smart.

Without further ado:

My name is David Sylvester and I recently completed a charitable bicycle trip in Africa, riding over 7000 miles from Cairo, Egypt to Cape Town, South Africa . The trip made me the first and only African American to cross two continents on a bicycle. I have plenty of great and fascinating stories. Many are funny, others bittersweet, some are poignant, but all are entertaining. Surprisingly one story has stood out and if it was not for the fact that I have a picture of it, many would never believe it. and it is for that reason that I am sharing it with you.
While in Lilongwe, Malawi, I came across a store by the name of “Niggers” —that’s right “ Niggers”! The other riders, who were all white, could not wait to inform me of this to see my reaction. Initially, I thought that it was a very bad joke but when the other riders were adamant about the existence of the store, I had to see it for myself.
What I found was a store selling what the owner called ‘hip hop’ style clothing . It was manned by two gentlemen — one of them asleep! (Talk about living up to or in this case down to a stereotype) I asked the guys what was up with the store name. After hearing my obvious non - Malawian accent and figuring out that I was from America, the man thumped his chest proudly and said “P-Diddy New York City! we are the niggers!”

Like I said, you can read more on it here, and the site in general is worth a read too. I'm not here to make any grandiose statements one way or another about how black folk ought to address each other, and I'm definitely not interested in adopting an anti-hip-hop pose. Just something to think about when you feel like squirming a little.

wisdom from the mouths of babes.

If only everyone reacted to these tactics as sensibly.