On the Phrase “Jerry Rigging” (And a More Racist Equivalent Phrase)

Polar Bear: There’s such a thing as Black stability. I went to college with a postal worker and had multiple black coworkers that remind me of the same black guy. Simple men that were easy to get along with.

More like Black practicality to me  rather than stability. But practicality itself is rather stabilizing, no? Black people are pragmatic. They have common sense. That’s one thing I really like about Black people.

You know that phrase called jerry-rigging? Well, another name for that is nigger-rigging. I know, racist. But people around me (My peers, not my parents and their friends – are you kidding?!) have been using that word my whole life in reference to their own actions, so I’m not even sure if it’s an insult.

I mean is it really a racist insult? A White person says he nigger-rigged something. Ok? That means…what? It means he’s acting like a nigger, right? That’s why I’m not even sure it’s all that racist. It’s sort of Whites calling themselves niggers, which doesn’t seem all that racist.

Incidentally, we Whites do call ourselves and each other niggers. It’s a lot more acceptable than calling Black people that word. I just called my friend a nigger or called myself a nigger? How is that racist? I mean it’s an insult when you use it against a Black…when you use it against a White, what does it even mean?

It’s like straight guys calling  each other fags, which is a lot more common nowadays than calling gay men that. How is that hatred of gays? I just called my friend a fag as a joke. That means I hate gay guys? Come  on.

Anyway, back to the subject.

Even people who almost never called Black people niggers would use that phrase nigger-rigging.

“How did you fix it?”

“Oh, I just kinda nigger-rigged it. It’s good for now at least anyway.”

Usually chuckles follow because that word is always sort of funny for some reason.

To nigger-rig or to jerry-rig (let’s switch to jerry-rigging – enough with uncomfortable words) something means a cheap, adaptive, half-assed yet workable and ultimately ingenious sort of a half-fix that is “good for now” but is not a long-term solution for the problem. It’s just a cheap, temporary fix.

It’s not a half-assed fix because you are lazy. It’s half-assed because you don’t have the materials on hand to fix it properly. But it’s a temporary fix that “works for now.” There is also a hint of ingenuity, inventiveness, cleverness, and adaptability in it. Which is why, despite the racism, the phrase is ultimately a compliment to Blacks.

Black people perhaps historically being often short on the money and materials needed to do a proper fix on something would then master the art of jerry-rigging (hence the version with the slur) not out of laziness but out of the necessity of the moment. Necessity being the mother of invention after all. Why do it? Because you don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good, that’s why.

What I like about the idea of the association of Blacks with jerry-rigging is that it suggests that Blacks are inventive, clever, adaptive, and ingenious in a sense (in a practical, not world-class inventor) way. And if you know Black people well, you know that is indeed a characteristic of them. Jerry-rigging isn’t good for long-term fixes. What’s it good for? Short-term fixes which are needed for…what? How about survival? Black people know how to survive. I’ll give them that.

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11 thoughts on “On the Phrase “Jerry Rigging” (And a More Racist Equivalent Phrase)”

  1. I mostly use the term nigger in reference to Whites. Spill mustard on yourself, you’re a mustard nigger. I don’t believe the term originally specified Blacks.

    Blacks are big on their own survival. Look at Black African leaders living like rap stars while their people suffer/starve. The same mentality exists with a lot of Blacks abroad. If you watch prank shows, Blacks will often run away. Even the muscle-bound Jimmys will run if it gets too out of the ordinary. They will look out for #1 and survive.

  2. Has anyone ever definitively pinpointed exactly where the word nigger came from? Is it German in origin? Or interestingly enough, maybe it’s African in origin. I just know that I hear young black people using the word more than any other group of people, almost exclusively amongst themselves. For a good while now, young Mexicans have been using the word as well. It’s always reliable as a trigger mechanism.

  3. Huh, “half-assed”? That would describe the life of so many whites working at jobs “way beneath them” – cause there not willing to take electrician exams. But rest assured – many of these guys are racist and want a pity party on social media.

    1. For Chrissake Jason, don’t you know what jerry-rigging means? Not to mention the alternative with the slur. You never jerry-rigged anything in your whole life.

  4. If Jerry-rigging or nigger-rigging is slang, why can people take it to court as racist, when apologizing should work.

  5. Even people that aren’t friends of the White working can see the PC crap has gone too far. Now every misunderstanding is seen as racist. Removing a thug’s graffiti is now a hate crime, but beating an old White man for being White is not. For those PC anti-Whites, perhaps it is karma. Half-cocked wasn’t enough. God Bless those who always stood against PC to the fullest extent without giving an inch.

  6. Both German and Black women can get very fat. I was people-watching at a fair yesterday, and the groups of Black women were the fattest. Mexican women are thicker than non-Hispanic White women on average but not sloppily fat. Asians are skinniest on average with very few fatties. I know a skinny White woman that looks corseted or as if her ribs have been removed. She’s very attractive. Fattest woman at work is Black.

    The most fit woman at work is White. Most fit woman I’ve seen online are Black. Black women could and sometimes do turn their fat into muscle and have very strong looking builds. Nothing shines like polished obsidian but most lie unpolished.

  7. This is BS I came for Jerry-Rigging info and got hate.
    Jerry-Rigging is the early Macgyvering as Germans were great engineers, and it was to fix something not the proper way but still works.
    Why try to change the meaning?

    1. Macgyvering is jerryrigging is nigger-rigging is all of the other stuff. Yes, the last term is racist, however, to me it implies an acknowledgement of the adaptability of Black people. And Blacks are very adaptable IMHO. So perhaps it’s also a complement in a way.

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