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#REDIRECT [[House slave#United States]] {{R from merge}} {{R to section}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2018}}
'''House Negro''' (also '''house nigger''') is a historical term for a [[house slave]] of [[Africa]]n descent. Historically, a house Negro was a higher status than a [[Field slaves in the United States|field slave]] or "field Negro" who worked outdoors, often in harsh conditions, and might perform tasks for the household servants. House Negro is also used as a [[pejorative]] term to compare a contemporary [[Black people|black person]] to such a slave.
==History==
The term "house negro" appears in print by 1711. On May 21 of that year, ''[[The Boston News-Letter]]'' ran an advertisement that "A Young House-Negro Wench of 19 Years of Age that speaks English to be Sold."<ref name=OED>{{cite encyclopedia |title=House |encyclopedia=Oxford English Dictionary |year=2009 |version=Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-956383-8 }}</ref> In a 1771 letter, a [[Province of Maryland|Maryland]] slave-owner compared the lives of his slaves to those to "house negroes" and "plantation negroes", refuting an accusation that his slaves were poorly fed by saying they were fed as well as "plantation negroes", though not as well as the "house negroes".<ref name=OED/><ref>{{cite journal |title=Extracts from the Carroll Papers |journal=Maryland Historical Magazine |publisher=[[Maryland Historical Society]] |date=June 1919 |volume=XIV |issue=2 |page=135 |url=https://archive.org/details/msa_sc_5881_1_54 |accessdate=January 18, 2018 }}</ref></blockquote> In 1807, a report of the [[African Institution]] of London described an incident in which an old woman was required to work in the field after she refused to throw salt-water and gunpowder on the wounds of other slaves who had been whipped. According to the report, she had previously enjoyed a favored status as a "house negro".<ref>{{cite book |title=Report of the Committee of the African Institution |date=1807 |publisher=William Phillips, George Yard, Lombard Street |place=London}}</ref></blockquote>
[[Margaret Mitchell]] made use of the term to describe a slave named Pork in her famed 1936 Southern plantation fiction, ''[[Gone With the Wind (novel)|Gone With the Wind]]''.<ref>{{cite book |title=Gone With The Wind |author=Mitchell, Margaret |date=1936 |publisher=Macmillan}}</ref>
[[African-American]] activist [[Malcolm X]] commented on the cultural connotations and consequences of the term in his 1963 speech "[[Message to the Grass Roots]]", wherein he explained that during slavery there were two types of slaves: "house Negroes" who worked in the master's house, and "field Negroes" who performed outdoor manual labor. He characterized the house Negro as having a better life than the field Negro, and thus being unwilling to leave the plantation and potentially more likely to support existing power structures that favored whites over blacks. Malcolm X identified with the field Negro.<ref>{{cite book |author=Malcolm X |authorlink=Malcolm X |editor=[[George Breitman]] |title=Malcolm X Speaks |origyear=1965 |year=1990 |publisher=Grove Weidenfeld |location=New York |isbn=0-8021-3213-8 |pages=10–12 }}</ref>
==Contemporary use==
The term has been used to demean individuals,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/obama-a-house-negro-says-alqaeda/2008/11/20/1226770648951.html |title=Obama a 'house negro', says Al-Qaeda |work=Sydney Morning Herald|date= November 21, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://project21.org/P21PRRall704.html |title=Black Group Condemns Cartoonist for Racist Strip About Condoleezza Rice |work=Project 21 press release |date=July 19, 2004}}</ref> in critiques of attitudes within the African-American community,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.blacknla.com/news/articles/djinthehouse.asp |title=The Bridge: In the House |work=Blacknla.com |author=James, Darryl}}</ref> and as a borrowed term in contemporary social critique.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/sec/ |title=The Secretary: Capitalism's House Nigger |author=Roche, Kathi Roche |website=Women's Liberation Movement on-line archival collection, Special Collections Library|publisher= Duke University}}</ref>
In New Zealand in 2012, [[Hone Harawira]], a Member of Parliament and leader of the socialist [[Mana Party (New Zealand)|Mana Party]], aroused controversy after referring to Maori MPs from the ruling [[New Zealand National Party]] as "little house niggers" during a heated debate on electricity privatisation, and its potential effect on [[Waitangi Tribunal]] claims.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7623209/Harawiras-N-bomb-directed-at-National-MPs|title=Harawira's N-bomb directed at National MPs|author1=Danya Levy |author2=Kate Chapman |date=September 6, 2012|publisher=Fairfax NZ}}</ref>
In June 2017, comedian [[Bill Maher]] used the term self-referentially during a live broadcast interview with [[US Senator]] [[Ben Sasse]], saying "Work in the fields? Senator, I'm a house nigger. No, it's a joke." Maher apologized for the comment.<ref name="NYT Maher">{{cite web|author1=Dave Itzkoff|title=Bill Maher Apologizes for Use of Racial Slur on 'Real Time'|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/03/arts/television/bill-maher-n-word.html|website=[[New York Times]]|accessdate=June 11, 2017|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170611062829/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/03/arts/television/bill-maher-n-word.htm|archivedate=June 11, 2017|date=June 3, 2017|quote= Mr. Maher said: "Work in the fields? Senator, I'm a house nigger. No, it's a joke."}}</ref>
In April 2018, Wisconsin State Senator [[Lena Taylor]] used the term during a dispute with a bank teller. When the teller refused to cash a check for which there were insufficient funds, Taylor called the teller a "house nigger". Both Taylor and the teller are African Americans.<ref name="WISN 1130">{{cite web|author1=Dan O'Donnell|title=State Sen. Lena Taylor Cited for Disorderly Conduct'|url=https://newstalk1130.iheart.com/featured/common-sense-central/content/2018-04-09-state-sen-lena-taylor-cited-for-disorderly-conduct}}</ref>
==See also==
* [[Aunt Jemima#Slang|Aunt Jemima]]
* [[False consciousness]]
* [[Houseboy]]
* [[Mammy archetype]]
* [[Uncle Tom#Epithet|Uncle Tom]]
* [[Useful Jew]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Ethnic slurs}}
{{African American caricatures and stereotypes}}
[[Category:Pejorative terms for people]]
[[Category:Anti-African and anti-black slurs]]
[[Category:American culture]]
[[Category:African-American culture]]
[[Category:Stereotypes of African Americans]]
[[Category:Words coined in the 1710s]]
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