The Nigger Bible

The Nigger Bible is a book by Robert H. deCoy, originally self-published by deCoy and then reissued by Holloway House in 1967,[1] and again in 1972 (ISBN 0-87067-619-9).[2] Described as a "key statement" in the Black Power movement,[1] it is a social and linguistic analysis of the word "nigger" and of the origins and contemporary circumstances of the black peoples of America.

Content

The form is varied and might be described as a series of reflections. In the preface, Dick Gregory (whose autobiography was entitled Nigger) writes: "In abolishing and rejecting the Caucasian-Christian philosophical and literary forms while recording his 'Black Experiences,' this writer has removed himself from their double-standard, hypocritical frames of reference".[3]

It attempts to tease apart the cultural, philosophical, and scriptural origins of what the author calls an "Alabaster Man", one that experienced the conclusions and prejudices at the root of their oppression. It examines, among other texts, the Christian bible and its terminology. the book explores the power of words, and re-interprets and critiques core western religious and philosophical constructs, including those that are central to much of the modern African-American religious experience. In one of the chapters he discusses "the genealogy of Jody Grind"; Eugene B. Redmond remarks deCoy is one of many African-American writers who "continues a tradition by seeking out folk epics and ballads as sources of poetry".[4]

DeCoy re-examines the word "nigger", demystifies it, and attempts to embed critical thinking skills about black personality types and categories. The author deconstructs the Christianity of "Niggers" (including, in his view, Black Muslims) as well as the values of the New Left. The book contains an analysis of the cultural and racial significance of Mardi Gras.

DeCoy also published Cold Black Preach (1971, ISBN 0-87067-627-X). The Black Scholar summarized: "Noted author of the explosive best seller The Nigger Bible takes on the black preaching establishment".[5]

Chapters
Preface by Dick Gregory
Foreword: The First Nigger Testament
Introduction of his Testament, or Bible, to "the sons and daughters of my Nigger children", pointing at a genesis: "What you are. Who you are. And my vision of how you came into Being".
  1. The Word Was Not for a Nigger
    The first two chapters start in an epistolary manner; they are addressed to "My Nigger Son" and "My Dear Nigger Son". Subsequent chapters are addressed sometimes as if to one son, sometimes more broadly to children and brothers. This first chapter introduces the "Alabaster Man", whose "fault and sins" are only partly to blame for the current situation; the more general problem is that Judeo-Christian scripture excluded Africans, in that Genesis opens with the word from which they are excluded; rather, DeCoy explains, a "Scripture of Truth" starts with experience. DeCoy adds that the word "Negro" "was manufactured to describe those Niggers who would waste their existence in the hopeless void of eventually dying as Christian Caucasians" (25-26; Coward 29), and Kyle Antar Coward saw a parallel with similar comments by H. Rap Brown in his 1969 memoir Die Nigger Die! (Coward 30).
  2. (1) Words in Testament to My Nigger Son, (2) The First Dictionary of Nigrite Words
    In this chapter DeCoy examines the word "nigger" (and deCoy lists over forty derivatives of the word[6])
  3. Separation is "The Nigger Salvation"
    DeCoy rails against those who support integration and introduces the idea of a segregated "Nigger Community" within the United States in which black communities are self-governed.
  4. What A Nigger Needs Most is a God
    "Black captives" need to realize that they are automatically excluded from Judeo-Christian concepts of God.
  5. (1) Prelude to a Nigger Genesis, (2) deCoy's Song of Genesis
    DeCoy prepares the "Children of the Niggeristic" (53) for a scripture that accounts for the "Original Act of Copulation" (54). The subsequent Song of Genesis explains how God had sex with the virginal Earth, her buttocks in the Gulf of Mexico and her knees and thighs resting on the Appalachians and the Rocky Mountains, the "throbbing head" of his "lumbering black penis" creating the Mississippi river (56-59). Their offspring, in shades between black and white, issue forth and occupy various parts of the earth. The "original sin" is their tribalism and the ensuing conflicts between "families, tribes, clans, races, ... [and] nations"(66).
  6. A Sermon to My Nigger Soul: (1) The Prayer, (2) The Text
  7. What is this Power of Positive Thinking?
  8. History Does Not Happen, It is Made
  9. The Departure or "The Northward Flight of the Niggers"
  10. Proverbs and Notes to My Nigger Son
  11. Letters to the Nigger Children: (1) Discard the "Act of Christening," (2) Justice is a "White Woman," (3) Epistles to My Nigger Beings, (4) Niggers, God, Church and Ministry
    A set of letters denouncing the Christian naming, which is a kind of enslavement in a religion and language that excludes blacks; relating a vision in which Lady Justice explains to the author (after he "took her") that she passes as white (163); explaining in a series of short epistles that, for instance, Black Muslims are no different from Black Christians (166-67), and that being a "Negro" is merely being in a constantly conflicting "State of Mind" whereas being a "Nigger" is an original and stable "State of Being" (169-70); urging blacks to do away with a religious "middle man" (priests, Christ, organized religion) that splits the believer from God (174-75)
  12. A Drama in Nigger Neurosis
  13. A Journey Back to the Mother City
  14. The Mardi Gras! (1) National Observance of the Nigger Dream, (2) Oh Come to a Mardi Gras Morning
  15. The Black Blueprint
  16. Two Parables: (1) Dream of the Alabaster Daughter, (2) Super Spade at the Pearly Gates
    Dream: A first-person story told by a white woman to a colored nurse at a mental facility, in which she relates how she had a sexual relationship with a black servant, and then shot him when they were discovered together.
    Pearly Gates: "Super Spade" Jackson, at the gates of Heaven following a nuclear holocaust on Earth, discusses black history with St Peter, explaining the difference between "Niggers" and "Negroes", and that God should pay no mind to a "Black Cabinet" which consists of the kind of "Negroes" (including members of the NAACP) denounced by DeCoy.
Biography of Robert H. DeCoy

References
  1. Bould, Mark (2007). "Come Alive by Saying No: An Introduction to Black Power SF". Science Fiction Studies. 34 (2): 220–40. JSTOR 4241523.
  2. "The Black Book Roundup #7 Spring 1981". The Black Scholar. 12 (2): 31–69. 1981. doi:10.1080/00064246.1981.11414172. JSTOR 41068053.
  3. The Nigger Bible (1972), p. 14.
  4. Redmond, Eugene B. (1971). "The Black American Epic: Its Roots, Its Writers". The Black Scholar. 2 (5): 15–22. doi:10.1080/00064246.1971.11431031. JSTOR 41163469.
  5. "The Black Scholar Black Books Roundup # 9". The Black Scholar. 13 (2/3): 49–80. 1982. JSTOR 41066882.
  6. Fabio, Sarah Webster (1968). "What Is Black?". College Composition and Communication. 19 (5): 286–87. doi:10.2307/355893. JSTOR 355893.

Bibliography
  • Coward, Kyle Antar (2007). 'Nigger': Interpretations of the Word's Prevalence on the Chappelle's Show, Throughout Entertainment, and in Everyday Life (MA). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina.
  • deCoy, Robert H. (1972). The Nigger Bible. Holloway House.
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