Thank You, Quentin Tarantino

“...as a writer, I am God. As a writer. And all these characters are mine and they're me and I'm telling the truth. And you know what? He (Spike Lee) might not like it, but there's a hell of a lot of black guys in Compton saying 'nigger' all the goddamn time. You know, in Carson, in Inglewood, that's where I'm from. Not everybody, but there’s a hell of a lot of guys.” - Quentin Tarantino 

Thank you, Quentin Tarantino. If not for your latest film The Hateful Eight I wouldn't know that as a Black man that I am supposed to not only use the word nigger every few words but that I am supposed to be okay with it being said by anyone. Thank you so much for teaching me what it means to be Black as well.

The thing people don't realize the way you do and have shown me through your movies is that being Black is about not trying to be better than your environment, but wallowing in it. Everyone around me saying nigger? Well, hell. I might as well too. And it feels so good when I'm sitting in a theater hearing it said to the only Black man in the film, Samuel L. Jackson. And as an actor his is fine with it so its fine with me because Black people all agree on everything! Jackson recently said “Once again, I'm sure there will be people who want to nitpick this whole nigger thing. But it ain't like that ain't the time.” Exactly. Historical accuracy is what Tarantino films are all about!

In 1998 Tarantino said “When you're talking about the word 'nigger', you're talking about probably the most volatile word there is in the English language. The N-word is a word we can't even say out loud. It has that much power.” Some would say that your use of the word is irresponsible. Sure, there are about four Blacks in The Hateful Eight. Yeah. One gets his dick shot off. The others are brutally murdered along with others that are not Black. Equality and such.

A lot of people think you want to be Black. That it makes you cool to use nigger so much in your films. Remember back in Pulp Fiction, the whole “dead nigger storage” scene? I didn't know your face at the time. I didn't know that was you saying that in that scene. I just thought “This guy likes saying nigger!”

I'm sorry it took me so long to recognize your genius. That you know more about being Black than me and I was born this way! Being Black is about having ancestors stolen from their country, enslaved, raped, murdered, segregated, and now hunted and killed by police. Not the innovations made through science, music, sports, and history. Thank you for knowing us better than we know ourselves.