The Origin of Nigger - A New Theory

It is generally accepted that Nigger evolved from the word Negro in the south, back in the days of slavery. Basically, the name stuck as an derogatory term. Let's take a closer look at the implied evolution of this term...

So we have black slaves working for white masters. Presumably, the masters initially referred to the slaves as Negros. For whatever linguistic reasons, Negro evolved into Nigger. While slavery was abandoned, the name Nigger, was not. It began to carry reference to times gone by when blacks were slaves, i.e. lesser beings by design. People's tone and usage of the term made it's meaning more and more derogatory over time; ultimately making it the easiest route for any white person to piss off a black person. This is the popular story as I understand it.

In the unpredictable realm of the evolution of words, this seems to be a reasonable and believable explanation/recount of history. I however, am not so satisfied. If the term Nigger evolved from Negro, why is it so negatively powerful? Negro/Black/Dark or whatever, seems rather benign and mundane to pick up such injurious power. In the very least, it seems unlikely. I find something to the effect of the following course of events more plausible:

A Master and Slave are together one day and the Master turns to the slave,
"Zeke, you know what your problem is? Why you people won't ever amount to more than slaves?"
Zeke paused, giving the Master his full attention, curiously awaiting the answer...
"Your problem is that you're IGNORANT. You don't know nuthin. You're stupid."
The Master continued, "... Now get back to work." and he walked away. The statement stuck with Zeke and he continued to think about it.

The next day Zeke was working along side his cousin Joe and said,
"Hey Joe, I was talkin to Massa yesserday n he said sumtin funny."
"So, what he say?"
"He say we wrong cuz we nigorant."
"Niggerant?"
"Yeah, niggerant."
"Well, you might be niggerant, but I ain't no niggerant."
"Yes you are."
"No, you da nigger, ain't me."
"You a nigger."
"No, you da nigger."
"Yooz a nigger too."
"Nigger."
"Nigger."

Their Master had been listening to the conversation and stepped up with a stern voice but smiling, "You're BOTH NIGGERS! Now get back to work! ...Niggers." He chuckled to himself as he walked away.

"See... Nigger..."
"Nigger."
"Nigger."
"Nigger..."

Because it did sound like Negro, the Master continued to refer to his slaves as Nigger and Niggers as a little joke to himself. The slaves, though they didn't really know what it meant, they knew it was negative, and it pissed them off more and more. As such, a racial slur was born.

Nigger is a mispronounced, offshoot of Ignorant. A similar mispronunciation can be found in the word Ask being pronounced as Axe. Regardless, the specifics could have gone down a million different ways, my point is the same: The term Nigger did not come from Negro, it came from Ignorant and should be defined and treated as such.



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