house nigger, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

house nigger n.

also h.n.

[the slavery-era division between ‘house’ and ‘field niggers’, i.e. those who worked as indoor servants and those who worked in the fields; the former were seen as ‘softer’ than the latter]

(US black)

1. a black person employed, often as the ‘token nigger’, i.e. token black worker, in a mainly white organization.

[1856		Eve. Star (Washington, DC) 16 Jan. 1/5: She said to him he’d better let Big jake, one of the house niggers, hold it for him].
1974		N. Heard Cold Fire Burning 43: To call myself an American was to be labeled a Tom or house nigger.
1981		Maledicta V:1+2 (Summer + Winter) 100: The old epither house nigger for a black sycophant recently was euphemized and coded to h.n.
1993		R. Shell Iced 32: Still answerin’ to the White man. Still his lackey. Still his house nigger.
1994		P. Baker Blood Posse 31: Fucking house nigger, living to please the white man.
2000		New Yorker 3 Apr. 🌐 He started berating her and Sing Sing’s two black captains as ‘house niggers.’.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] ‘Workin’ for the man, brothuh? You they house nigger?’.

2. a black person who is seen as preferring white friends and opinions to those of their own community.

1994		C. Major Juba to Jive.
2005		B. Coleman Rakim Told Me 225: ‘I finally said: “You're one of those handkerchief-head house negroes, tap-dancing for the white establishment. You ain’t got nothing to do with us black folks”’ .

3. a subservient person, a ‘yes-man’, irrespective of race.

1979

E. Torres After Hours 145: House nigger, that’s all he is.