I challenged Ben Horowitz over the weekend to stop using the word nigga in any context, even as part of quoted lyrics, but he seems unrepentant and doesn’t care if he offends millions.
If a Black person repeatedly quoted anti-semitic words and lyrics, would they be allowed to get away with it as Horowitz has?
Horowitz is a Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur, blogger and venture capitalist. The co-founder and general partner of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, he has a history of pairing hip-hop lyrics with his writing on tech and investing, particularly hip-hop lyrics with the word nigga.
I just decoded “"I do this for my culture / To let them know what a nigga look like when a nigga …” @RapGenius http://t.co/Ewcal9Jr
— Ben Horowitz (@bhorowitz) December 19, 2012
@EghosaO Sorry about that. It was supposed to be obfuscated (n*&@#a). I will fix on my blog and ask Techcrunch to do the same.
— Ben Horowitz (@bhorowitz) December 19, 2012
@bhorowitz all good, then. thank you. #blackandproud
— Eghosa Omoigui (@EghosaO) December 19, 2012
After being challenged and questioned by Black fans on his promiscuous use of the word nigga in his blog posts, Horowitz apologized in 2012 and said he would “obfuscate” some of the letters.
However Horowitz continued to use the word in his writings and received some backlash when he used the word nigga several times as part of quotes in his book, “The Hard Things About Hard Things,” published in 2014 (Harper Collins).
Um…y'all act like Ben horowitz didn't quote someone saying nigger a few months ago from his book and try to defend it as rap lyrics lol
— Icy Pesos=Troll Bae (@yolo_pinyato) September 20, 2016
I get what you're saying & where you're coming from, but it could also be used as an excuse for people to say nigga.
— Iheanyi Ekechukwu (@kwuchu) June 15, 2016
Recently, talk show host Bill Maher apologized for using the term “house nigga” and offending millions of Black people on the HBO political talk show, “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
Actor and hip-hop artist Ice Cube had a brilliant response to Bill Maher crossing the line.
“I still think you need to get to the root of the psyche because I think there’s a lot of guys out there who cross the line because they’re a little too familiar, or they think they’re too familiar,” Ice Cube told Maher. “Or, guys that, you know, might have a black girlfriend or two that made them Kool-Aid every now and then, and then they think they can cross the line. And they can’t. You know, it’s a word that has been used against us. It’s like a knife, man. You can use it as a weapon or you can use it as a tool. It’s when you use it as a weapon against us, by white people, and we’re not going to let that happen again … because it’s not cool … That’s our word, and you can’t have it back.
“… It’s not cool because when I hear my homie say it, it don’t feel like venom. When I hear a white person say it, it feel like that knife stabbing you, even if they don’t mean to.”
“I like your show and I like you. But I think this is a teachable moment, not just to you but to the people who are watching.” –@icecube pic.twitter.com/qscEBqAu4H
— Bill Maher (@billmaher) June 10, 2017
Horowitz has a Black wife and hangs out with Kanye West and Nas, so he may feel he has more flexibility and street cred with the word than your average white guy.
What he and Maher are missing is that as soon as a white person uses this word in any form, the word is instantly “weaponized” when associated with whiteness — any whiteness.
Here are some of Horowitz’s responses when I challenged him over the weekend to stop using the word:
the quotes in the book had to be licensed and published in the form specified by the artist.
— Ben Horowitz (@bhorowitz) June 10, 2017
No, I was trying to give the artist credit for the original idea and did not have the right to change it.
— Ben Horowitz (@bhorowitz) June 10, 2017
Horowitz would be wise to learn from his partner, Marc Andreessen, who apologized for offending millions of Indians after India rejected Facebook’s Free Basics-Internet.org push in the country. Andreessen, who is on Facebook’s Board with Peter Thiel, had a silly argument against India’s ruling for a free Internet. His words were seen by many as essentially supporting white supremacy and colonialism.
One of many problems with Silicon Valley is its “bubbleness.” It is severely detached from reality and believes it knows what’s best for others. Silicon Valley likely doesn’t care if Black people are offended with the word nigga being weaponized by one of their top liberal venture capitalists.
Donald Trump gave the bubbleheads a wake-up call but we will likely need another financial collapse in Silicon Valley for them to realize that creating and investing in elegant mobile phones, fun mobile apps and creepy advertising tools doesn’t give you the right to use the word nigga, in any context.
