Wigger

Wigger, also wigga, whigger and whigga, is a term for white people who emulate the mannerisms, language, and fashions that are generally stereotypically associated with African-American culture, particularly hip hop/rap culture.Template:Sfn The word is a portmanteau of "white nigger".

Dictionary.com defines the term as a slang derogatory reference to "a white youth who adopts black youth culture by adopting its speech, wearing its clothes, and listening to its music."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Another dictionary defines the term as "offensive slang" referring to a "white person, usually a teenager or young adult who adopts the fashions, the tastes, and often the mannerisms considered typical of urban black youth."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The term is generally considered a derogatory term reflecting stereotypes of African-American, black British, and white culture (when used as a synonym of white trash). The wannabe connotation may be used pejoratively.

Phenomenon

Template:Refimprove Bakari Kitwana, "a culture critic who's been tracking American hip hop for years", has written "Why White Kids Love Hip Hop: Wangstas, Wiggers, Wannabes, and the New Reality of Race in America".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1993, an article in the UK newspaper The Independent described the phenomenon of white, middle-class children who were "wannabe blacks".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The African-American hip hop artist Azealia Banks has criticized white rapper Iggy Azalea "for failing to comment on 'black issues' despite capitalising on the appropriation of African American culture in her music".<ref name="Tan">Template:Cite web</ref> Banks has called Azalea a "wigger", and there have been "accusations of racism against Azalea" focused on her "insensitivity to the complexities of race relations and cultural appropriation".<ref name="Tan" />

Robert A. Clift's documentary titled "Blacking Up: Hip-Hop's Remix of Race and Identity" questions white enthusiasts of black hip-hop culture. The term of art wigger "is used both proudly and derisively to describe white enthusiasts of black hip-hop culture".<ref name="Stuever">Template:Cite news</ref> Clift's documentary examines "racial and cultural ownership and authenticity—a path that begins with the stolen blackness seen in the success of Stephen Foster, Al Jolson, Benny Goodman, Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones—all the way up to Vanilla Ice (popular music's ur-wigger) and Eminem".<ref name="Stuever" /> A review of the documentary refers to the wiggers as "white poseurs".<ref name="Stuever" />

In his book Colored White, historian David Roediger discusses the term "wigger" at length.<ref>Roediger, David R. (2002). Colored White: Transcending the Racial Past, pp. 221-226. University of California Press. Template:ISBN.</ref> He argues that it originated from multiple sources in both the black and white communities, and stresses its multiple meanings, as in this passage: "Where my older son went to junior high school, wigger was at the same time acceptingly applied by Blacks to whites, disparagingly applied by racist whites to other whites, dismissively applied by whites adopting Black styles to whites who were seen as doing so inauthentically, and used approvingly by white would-be-hiphoppers to describe each other".<ref>Roediger, cited above, p. 226.</ref>

In political writer Mark Satin's short story "My Revolution", a wigger thief is portrayed from the point of view of an elderly white pawnshop owner (who is himself a tax cheat).<ref>Satin, Mark (November 2024). "My Revolution". New English Review. Retrieved August 12, 2025.</ref> Outraged by multiple robberies, the owner installs an illegal nighttime security device, which electrocutes a young man breaking into the shop. From jail, the owner comments: Template:Blockquote

Lawsuit

A 2011 class-action lawsuit in the United States District Court for Minnesota alleged that the administration at a predominantly white high school showed a "deliberate indifference" in allowing a group of students to hold a homecoming event called "Wigger Day" or "Wangsta Day" since at least 2008. A plaintiff named Quera Pruitt sought declaratory judgment and $75,000 in punitive damages from the defendants for creating a racially hostile environment.<ref name="Redwing">Template:Cite web</ref> On July 24, 2012, the parties settled out of court with Pruitt being awarded $90,000.<ref name="redwing2">Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

• Blackface
• Acting white
• Chav
• Cultural cringe
• Multicultural London English
• Negermusik
• White nigger
• Negrophilia
• Template:Slink (including "blackfishing")

References

Works cited

• Template:Cite book

External links

• BBC explanation of the term
• "Wigger" by Dutch singer Anouk
• "White White Baby" video Jim Carrey parody of Vanilla Ice's Ice Ice Baby.