In Taiwan, there is a clothing store named Nigger King. This is actually from a two-year old article from The Real Taiwan and recently resurfaced on Reddit. People mostly take two camps on the issue: offended or amused.

But if you think about it, the people who opened the store (and the folks who shop there) probably have no idea what the word nigger “really” means; I wouldn’t be surprised if none of them knew that Americans once kept negro slaves and that it took over a hundred years before black folks were given remotely the same rights as white folks in America. They know that racism exists but I doubt any of them had actually had the chance to experience it personally.

What they do know is that black culture is a major part of the American culture export and they like it enough to spend money, say, by shopping at Nigger King, to be closer to said culture.

These folks probably have never heard the word nigger outside of modern rap and hip hop music or movies about “gangstas”. When they hear the word nigger, they aren’t thinking about plantation overseers whipping black slaves or white men in fancy hats spitting at a black man who got too close. They are seeing strong, tall black men wearing baggy pants and gold chains while fearlessly strolling down dangerous Harlem streets to a soundtrack of gangster rap. Or maybe it’s a black basketball player leaping over others and scoring points in Madison Square Garden while tons of beautiful women cheer at him. Because they don’t know the racist use of the word and only how it’s used in modern black American culture a nigger is strong, fast, rich, independent and he gets all the women.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that proper research before naming a clothing store isn’t important—actually, in Chinese cultures it really isn’t beyond legal “oops this name is taken” purposes. But it really delights me to a certain degree to know that, out there, there is a group of people who has nothing but positive associations with a word that’s way too loaded and negative around here.

Wing :: Mar.10.2009 :: Posts :: 2 Comments »