When blacks talk about somebody acting like a "nigga" we limit that to US and we all know it. Let's be real, we do not automatically think of a WHITE ignorant, criminal, poor (yeah sometimes we use it in that way too), person as a nigga.

While we have twisted that phrase into a word that can be used as a term of endearment, the reason why that happens is because of the bond created by the original racism INHERENT in the term. When you say "that's my nigga" to another black man there are are a bunch of historical references at work including the fact that we (as black people) are bonded together in this struggle against THEM (no matter different we are from each other).

The jive talking pimp on the corner is as much of a "nigga" as the Harvard educated entreprenaur. And we can't ever forget that. THAT was the point of August's play. When the investigator asks (paraphase) "who gives you the right to be judge & jury of what kind of blacks are allowed to exist" that was the moral. The Investigating Major (?I forgot his rank) sanctioned the imprisonment and basically EXECUTED another black man because HE thought that brotha was too "niggerish" and embarassment to the black race. Then the other soldiers turned around and did THE SAME THING TO HIM.

Meanwhile the rest were running off to fight a war to save the life of the jews. They never questioned whether EVERY jewish life in those concentration camps were WORTH saving..they weren't all pious & good people. Some of those jews may have been child molesters, rapists, thieves, whatever...but the point was that no matter what, they were human beings that deserved respect. In the play we were willing to die to protect ALL jewish humanity, and to prove our worth to caucasians but sat around killing each other in the name of getting rid "the nigga".

There is something sick about that...and that was the whole point.