Redefining the Labyrinth: Track 11

Redefining the Labyrinth was a project I began while teaching at a local Memphis High School. With the current uproar about all that is wrong in the Memphis City Schools, I thought it would be interesting to post the work generated by four high school seniors, who are products of a system that everyone assumes is not capable of developing and producing productive students who can compete in this socioeconomic culture. I edited the book and contributed essays to give the book a shape and form, but it was the work of the students that allowed for the completion of this work. The artwork was completed by the student author DeVarius Fisher and the idea to make the name of each chapter an allusion to a song in Hip-Hop was a collaborative effort. I will post each student essay here on the blog. There is also a Question and Answer section in the book. If you would like to purchase a copy click here.

 
 
 

Track

11

Featured Artist: DeVarius Fisher

The Nigga Nature

Hip-hop music has an established language that has influenced the African American culture. This influence continuously inspires our community in a negative way. This is an issue that is mainly affected by things that happen in entertainment. The word nigga is spoken continuously by rappers and other entertainers alike. Who says that it is only a word? It is the root cause of how unconscious nihilists develop in society. The word nigga should not be said because the media market profits from glorifying the word in a negative way, which continuously contributes to the behavior of African Americans in society.

The word nigga often inspires African Americans to live for the moment and get things that do not appreciate. This is a precarious situation that continues to grow and hurt the entire African American race. The word is spoken continuously in the media market, and is used without consideration for how it affects the behavior of people. After viewing these images, and hearing these things, we often establish egos that need things that are seen in the media to be pacified. This often leads to African Americans becoming unconscious nihilist. We sometimes go through life without any inspiration or hope for doing things in society. All forms of entertainment are flooded with hedonistic images that glorify this word as being a great thing. African Americans usually think of life as a constant state that will never get better or change. Typically, we think that the only way we are accepted by our peers is to be from the hood. The word nigga is the root cause for how African Americans live, how we are treated, and how we struggle in this society.

African Americans usually persuade other African Americans to continue to do what our culture has done for the last couple of decades which is refusing the things that lead to a struggle. In school, a student may think it’s cool to be disruptive. Because of this, black students are the worst students in America from kindergarten to high school. Instead of encouraging each other to do better in life, we often take short cuts in trying to get things that we need to pacify our egos. The word nigga is used at a substantial rate because of a conscious effort to use the word and because of the influence of prominent figures in entertainment who express how it is cool to assert yourself in negative ways. There is no hope in a teen trying to be different in the Black community. African Americans cannot blame anyone else for their problems because we are continuing to stay the same instead of trying a different approach in society, one example is how we are continuing to say the word nigga. If the prominent figures in entertainment acknowledge that African Americans hurt themselves by continuing to use the word we would do better than we are doing now.

African Americans may think that saying the word nigga is empowering and allows us to remember what we’ve fought through. The things that revolved around the word nigga will never be forgotten and we do not need something that is so degrading to our culture to remember. Some people may say that entertainers say it all the time and they do not get any shame, so it must be okay to use. We should follow our prominent leaders and they should not be our leaders because they have a lot of money, but we should pay more attention to people who assert themselves in a positive way in our local communities. We should appoint leaders who do not involve themselves in the status quo and who give inspiration to those who are hopeless. African Americans say that using this word is our way of turning something that was once bad into something that is good, but is it really? African Americans live up to the image of being a nigga.

African Americans are not aware of how much the influences of the hood affect them. Our culture has a high affinity for the figures seen in entertainment, which often only shines light on the negative images. The nigga influence continuously shapes our community in a negative way. The word nigga is spoken continuously by many entertainers, and it may be just a word but it could be the root cause of why we remain the same as a culture and why we are continuing to fall behind in society. The word nigga should not be said because the media market profits from glorifying the word in a negative way, which continuously contributes to the behavior of African Americans in society.

DeVarius Fisher is a sophomore student at Mississippi State University. He is founder of EternaLove a multimedia company that is multifaceted in its approach to business. Check him out on Facebook. Buy his apparel here.