Love me some Mike Tyson (the boxer). Tyson fights were basically family weekend get togethers when I was growing up, but Mike the Celebrity???? problematic. It is weird to see the soft shoeing from somebody who was so blatantly railroaded by white society, but I'm sure part of that is not having a pops, and him being raised by his trainer/guardian. Especiallly when you think about how he was at one time heavy into the NOI. My boy Mike been compromised and he is tired o fighting. I'll probably get a little misty eyed when its his time. Not because I'll be sad he died, but because I know how much pain that brother had to go through to become who he was. It seems like all our FBA icons have to overcome insurmmountable odds to become superstars, but at heavy psychological costs.
As for the word "nigga" it won't have as much power when we finally stop being the bottom caste in global society. But I can't tell you how many times I look at Black kids crazy when I see them let their white and Mexican peers use the word so flippantly. I used to work with a vietnemese cat up here in Norcal, and he would go from wanting try and say it on the low to joking "man I'm glad I'm not Black." every time the conversation went to police brutality. This dude was a refugee from Vietnam but he was siding with the people who bombed the hell out of his country. to quote Mooney, "everybody wanna be a nigga, but nobody wanna be a nigga." and to quote Akala, "why do non-Blacks want to say the word so badly?"
