"Comedian Damon Wayans tries to trademark the "N-Word." It was bound to happen sooner or later but who would have thought it would have been a Wayans. Word is "In Living Color" funny man Damon Wayans has been attempting to trademark the word "Nigga" for well over a year now. While the US patent and trademark offices have repeatedly declined his request Wayans is bent on dressing consumers in clothes brandishing the term. According to his applications he also wants to use the word for other enterprises including "books, music and general merchandise," as well as movies, TV and the internet. Trademark examiner Kelly Boulton most recently turned him down citing a law that rejects words that are "immoral or scandalous."
To quote Tupac "I'd rather be a N-I-G-G-A, so we can get drunk and smoke weed all day". With a term that causes so much anger, tension, and discussion among Black folks nowadays, I CAN understand why someone would want to patent the term and make a profit off of it. I mean, controversy will sell. At the least it'll get Mr. Wayans some attention. However, I can't believe that it's a Black man who thinks this is a good idea. This is akin in my mind to a Chinese guy patenting the word "chenk" (no offense anyone).
It's a thin line between saying "what's up my nigga" and walking around sporting "nigga" t-shirts, shoes, and socks like that's really okay to do. I think that Damon Wayans might find that his bright idea of patenting the word nigga (if it ever goes through) will backfire and he'll see that the people who jump all over this stuff probably won't even be Black. I wonder how he'll feel then when he's got people of "other" ethnic backgrounds running up to him with the word "nigga" over their apparel. Personally, I'd feel like an a$$ and I'd feel like I did a disservice/disrespect to my culture. But hey, that's just me. Maybe Mr. Wayans, the comedian, thinks that would be funny. Man, some stuff just isn't funny! And more importantly, money isn't everything.
1. Would you buy this stuff?
2. Do you think he has any intentions other than making money?
3. Why do I feel like I should be questioning his character and integrity because of this?
I'd love to learn more about his reasons for wanting to do this because this is my initial reaction based on what was printed in an article I read on sohh.com. Hopefully there's something positive and ground-breaking he's trying to do with this potential patent. That remains to be seen though...
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