The nigger is a white invention that reveals the projector.

Evidence

We have invented the nigger. I didn’t invent him; white people invented him. I’ve always known, I had to know by the time I was 17 years old, that what you were describing was not me and what you were afraid of was not me. It had to be something else, you had invented it so it had to be something you were afraid of and you invested me with….I’ve always known that I am not a nigger. But, if I am not the nigger, and if it’s true that your invention reveals you, then who is the nigger? I am not the victim here….So I give you your problem back. You’re the nigger, baby, it isn’t me. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again, 336

Categorization

• CANDY: The punchline ‘You’re the nigger, baby, it isn’t me’ is a quotable, sharp inversion worth sharing.
• SEED: This is the core quote for an essay defending the late Baldwin’s inversion thesis as the essential one, not the liberal optimism of the early essays.