Def Jam Poetry: Julian Curry: Niggers Niggas & Niggaz

Julian Curry speaks in this poem about the issues surrounding the "n" word, in all it's variants, and asks why it's considered OK to use it by young black men and women.

He argues that with the prominence of gangsta rap, particularly Jay- Z (also 50 Cent), these rappers using this word liberally in their music makes it socially acceptable. Listening to the poem, is this the case? Or is it that audiences aren't told that the filtered representations fed to them repeatedly aren't true; that they are created with the aim of making money for the artist, record executives and share holders, media owners etc, so they begin to accept these reps as true and act accordingly? (Hegemony, Concentrated Media Ownership)

There is another side to this. In the 1990s there was a movement to "normalise" the word. Some people believed that by redefining the term positively, by reclaiming it and using it in conversation neutralises it. By removing the hate- filled, derogatory context the word loses its power.