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Tonight, CNN did a call in for opinions on "Should the "N" word be abolished". For those that don't know, its the word that starts with "N" and sometimes ends in r but other times ends in a. The "a" is supposidly not offensive. In some circles if you are black, you are the only ones allowed to use it. In other circles, if you pronounce the a its OK for whatever race. CNN had comedien Paul Mooney on to support the use of the word. He basically stated that black people "own" the word and it's OK to be used by black people. Referring to it as a term of endearment.
I am the son of a white father and black mother. My first memory I have about my father talking to me about race went something like this: "Son, you are black. The world will see you as black and nothing else. Its unfortunate but that is the way the world is. I dont love you any less. Be proud of who you are. You will be treated like a black man. The world will mean and unfair. Just work hard, stand up for what's right, and be proud." I grew up in a predominately black neighborhood in NYC. I was treated as I was black (just light skinned back then, multicultural was a long ways away). Yeah, I had the oreo and zebra jokes (thanks to The Jeffersons) but embraced by the black community. How could I use the N word being half white? I realized, I couldnt. Ive been called "My Ni&*#%" and all of the other phrases but never felt comfortable participating in the party. I was even asked why I didn't use it and that it was OK if I did. It wasn't out of fear. It felt wrong. As some use "embrace the hate" theory, in an attempt to redefine the word, still others do not use the word in their vocabulary at all. I chose the latter at a very young age. Why? This word was used to describe the worst. It was used to perpetuate wretchedness and black people that use it today continue to perpetuate the wretchedness and profit from it on TV, movies, and music. For example, Kayne West during one of his concerts told the white members of his audience to sing along to "Gold Digger" and "gave permission" to them to sing back the chorus "she aint messing with no broke N#$%^". The word will never be a term of endearment or love to me.
I recently went back to my old middle school and the class was having a discussion about the history of the word. Knowing my background, the teacher asked me to comment. I kept it short and simple. I concluded by telling the class how proud I was to be in their presence and how bright a future they have. I had a Richard Pryor moment. I asked them to look out the window and then said "Do you see any N$%$@s?" They said "NO". I said "That's because there are none".
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http://www.abolishthenword.com/homepage.htm
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Good stuff to think about. I won't comment on whether it's a good thing for blacks to use the word; I don't feel it's my place to suggest what they feel or think concerning it. I think it's like most anything in life. If you're respectful, and decent, that's the most important thing. Anything can be abused of course. And I would just suggest to keep in mind, not only being respectful of yourself and others, but try to be aware of how it effects others, and why.
Nice post. Not being from the US, the word Nigga may have an anthropological meaning like in Ethno-Racial Classification but I think if you are born modern than it just makes this stuff obsolete. Only people following outdated belief systems seem to care about these issues. The one that I find strange is the insipid "Afro-American." Like Blacks are only half American and therefore only entitled to half the Liberty. The word black is a little touchy in the white community, probably the shame induced over Apartheid South Africa. So the word Black sounds like "BLECK" and they "dont like it" They could never think that people like yourself are a symbol of cultural unity.
Personally, I think it's time the white race got a truly offensive slur. "Honky" and "Cracker" just don't cut it. Suggestions?
W.A.S.P. or "not in my backyard" N.I.M.B.Y. Example Nimby's are for nuclear power. Just as long as it is Not In There Backyard.
My coworkers were discussing that very same thing, and brought it up to the only black woman in the room (who is generally okay with jocular discussions of race).
Me: Hey, what's a white stereotype? We don't have a really good racial slur.
Her: Uhh... well when I was little my mom said when you get wet you smell like Chee-tos.
Cheetos eh? I thought we smelled like balogna.
Well, my favourite is Snowflake. There's also redneck and hick, but they aren't that great. Or you could call a German a Jerry, an Irish a Mick, an Englishman a Limey.I think both "honky" and "cracker" were offensive at some time/place, but they've lost their sting. And in general, I think American white people do not make race a sufficiently important part of how they self-identify to be truly offended by a racial slur.
I Spy's strategy is better: take a plain-language description of someone, like "White Anglo-Saxon Protestant" and act like it's vulgar.
That's pretty funny.
I like "snowflake" but it may be too pleasant, reminding whitey of holidays with friends and family.
I think "milk baby" might have some potential.
If you direct it to a girl maybe, but if you go up to a strapped and loaded white man, with tattoos on his testicles, and whiskey on his breath, then a snowflake would be quite effective. Or so I would think.Point made.
I'm very concerned about black oppression in the US and Africa. But given the inadequate results of the Civil Rights movement, "Ya'll oughta be nicer", just doesn't get it for me. It implies Southern slang explains the historic repression of darker-skinned people world-wide in every country. It removes genuine public a analysis of the many reasons Civil Rights have failed and acknowledgement of the bi-partisan support that allowed such an international problem to be ignored or discredited. Racially the US places well-educated people of Asian descent well at the top of the food-chain followed by Whites, and Black/or darker Hispanics in the deep well of despair.
I have a problem with the picture above because it doesn't address the fact the word 'Asian' makes up almost half the world since India and China are both considered Asian. It compares a racial distinction of mostly the affluent from overseas who can afford a trip to the US, to those from Central America can walk across the border and people who were historically impoverish or imprisoned by authoritative social aggression specifically due to race. It also ignores the fact that hard labor is not providing a living wage that once allowed families to transition from poverty to wealth.
Programs that focus on behavior instead of skill do not question that education is just another corporate model for justifying racism. Should we spend more money on Head Start taught by White girls, while the poor reap the low-wage benefits of Welfare to Work programs that do little to improve the status or conditions of poor neighborhoods. Would these programs be improved if they were taught by darker skinned Asians or maybe the biggest bang for the buck is just raising the minimum wage.
NY Time has a number of graphics on the things economist actually look at when tracking the issues of people and social structure (why isn't skin tone in these pictures)?
http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?query=%22class+matters%22&srchst;=m&d;=&o;=&v;=&c;=&sort;=newest&n;=10&dp;=0&daterange;=full&frow;=10
A closer look at mobility is one of my favorite because it demonstrates the likelihood that once someone makes it to the bottom, the climb to the top is unlikely. A person at the top can reasonably stay there.
Today education divides wealth and labor, I wonder if education is doing more to oppress the poor because it is better suited to implementing social control over labor.
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/national/20050515_CLASS_GRAPHIC/index_01.html
I have this feeling that your father (and mother) is/are proud of the outlook you've taken on. Massive kudos.
Being white, I've never understood the "N' word myself. I felt dirty and like a less of a person even thinking it. First hearing it in songs caught me off guard and it made me think about the overall purpose. I figured it was a way to just embrace and covert the hate of old to love of new - and I didn't see the logic.
I have a feeling though that because it is so rampant in hip-hop, urban poetry, and street slang - we wont see the end of it for a long time.
Still though, kudos to you.
Thanks for the post. My father passed away May 5, I needed that.
I'll come right out and say that the word is offensive. There is no way around that fact.
But, in a free society people are allowed to choose what words they would like to use to express themselves. If we choose to hamper peoples freewill and expressions we are setting ourselves up to take a long wet ride down a slippery slope.
I'm not of the defensive side of derogatory terms, but I hope the undertone of this Op-Ed piece might bring out a stronger discussion than rather if this particular word is naughty or not
I've noticed that people who tend to curse a lot and speak vulgarly also tend to use the n-word a lot. I saw another CNN report which asked if the use of the n-word defines a hate crime. There's an upcoming trial where this issue will be argued. It's a novel defense but I don't think it will work.
Of course the word is offensive and anyone that uses it, regardless of background or ethnicity is therefore offensive....to anyone with a smattering of rational sensibilities. It's ok for you but not for me? You've got a problem right off the bat then.
It is perpetuated by those that use it, either by some feeling of some birth 'right' to use it, or to be intentionally offensive or feel something funny or hip is inherent in doing so.
The world has moved along quite a bit over the decades and yes, progress is slow and for some perhaps never happens. Safe to say there will always be offensive people.
However, the idea of banishing a word seems hardly feasible - unless people have the good sense to moderate themselves. You know, take responsibility for their own actions? High hopes.
Banishment though...not sure how. Harkens back to the days of Lenny Breau and when a person could get arrested for saying the "F" word.
I fail to see how anyone could think a return to such practices would be a good thing.
First off, great post. I've gained insight reading it that I didn't have before.
I think today, maybe because of the "embrace the hate" mentality, the use of the "N" word has lost much of it's racial motivations. Like kids scrawling swastikas on walls with spray paint, it seems to be used because it's something bad and taboo, not as an endorsement of the painful history and hate behind it. But, to me anyway, it's still a racial slur, and offensive. It's not part of my vocabulary, and won't be part of my children's vocabulary. Can we abolish it? No. But educating people on the history of the word, and the pain and suffering that it was associated with might go a long way to making them think twice before using it so freely.
Abolishing the word is against the first amendment of the United States Constitution. There's no doubt about it.
It would only be against the first amendment if a law was made to abolish it. However, just like slang terms go to die because lack of use (i.e fresh, excellent) if people make a concious effort not to use it maybe it will be as insignificant as those words are nowadays.
The N-word has been socially constructed to mean a variety of things. Originally, it was purely a desparaging term, meant to insult or degrade a group of people or an individual.
Some in the black community decades ago took this word and decided to make something of it because they felt it just wasn't going away. So, n---a took place of n---er. The "you got lemons, make lemonade" deal. If they used it, transformed it, and turned it into a positive expression of solidarity or togetherness, the negative effects of the word would mean less and less.
The problem is, not everyone is comfortable with this partial transformation, such as the author of this article. But, on the same token, for those who have socially constructed the N-word to mean something positive, telling them to stop is just as impossible as getting rid of the original meaning entirely.
It's a no-win situation for the word itself. It's not going to be eliminated, only transformed. Whether we as a society should accept the new social construction is something that only time will tell. Given it's wider and wider appeal by the year, I think those who want to get rid of it entirely have an almost insurmountable battle ahead of them. It's already spread so much.
Abolishing any particular word gives that word too much power. If anything, the more these words are used the more they lose their "shock" effect.
I remember the first time I heard the phrase "son of a @!$%#" on television. It was an episode of M*A*S*H where Hawkeye was royally pissed at someone (who it was I don't remember) so he said, "you son of a @!$%#". Since then that same phrase and the individual word "@!$%#" has just about lost all of its teeth. I'm not comparing the magnitude of the words "nigger" and "@!$%#" just trying to show an example.
As for an equal word for white people that's a tough one. I was involved in a program back in the late 70's, while I was in grammar school in Chicago, that attempted to educate students about race. Our class was bussed off to a school on the South Side while one of theirs was bussed to our school. The one thing that I remember clearly from those days are the students from the South Side asking us "you know how we call each other nigger, do you guys call yourselves honky?" The kids that were white said no and asked "why do you call each other nigger?" And they said, "I don't know, we never really thought about it."
I hope that you can see that the use of this word in the context I did should not be offensive to anyone and is not meant to be. I think we can use negatively charged words in an intelligent way that will take some of their power away.
That was a great article and I admire your father's approach to your upbringing. I only hope, after my kids are grown, that I can be considered that good a father.
Who really freaking cares. I'm white and you can call me anything from white bread to cracker, It doesn't bother me.
Also, isn't it amazing how network television can come out with a series called "cracker" yet if they used "nigga" or "nigger" in a title there would be an uproar.
Also, shouldn't we be doing something about Africa? They still have a slave trade going on over there don't they? If we are the great nation then shouldn't we be leaning on them to change their ways?
I think the reclamation and transformation of "the N word" is a very interesting phenomenon. The power of taking possession of a term used to disparage and making it something positive is incredibly empowering and can go far in building communities.
It's problematic, however, when the new definition isn't adopted by other groups, or others are somehow not allowed the new meaning. When there are still people that cling to the old definition, the hate behind the word will never die. When outside groups are not allowed to use the word in the redefined sense, the hate will never die.
In order for "nigga" to lose any sense of "nigger" it has to be accepted by the vast majority as a different term with a different meaning. As long as "nigger" exists as hatespeech and people still use it as such, "nigga" will always be a word that is divided between two diametrically opposing definitions.
That being said, would I use it? No. I can't recall ever saying the word out loud in any context (including the above where I was talking about it and not using it in an operative sense.) It's a word that makes me squeamish whenever I hear it, no matter who speaks it. Society has a LONG way to go before the connotations of that word are fully neutralized or altered to fit a new definition.
i'm sorry about your father. May all goodness and blessings be bestowed upon us!
It's just a word..............
I used to hate hearing blacks using the word, "nigga" but now I understand it as a term of endearment between them.. They have reclaimed it as their own.
Whenever I hear "racist" people using the word "nigger" it angers me, but I realize that this usage will die out over time and only the most ignorant-of-ignorant asses will use it as a derogatory term for the black man. (indeed, I think that is the case today)
Discrimination based solely on racial background just is utterly stupid. I would hope that America has come to terms with that by now. (although I sometimes have my doubts.)
I truly look forward to the day when we can simply view one another as human beings and not be bound by preconceived perceptions of race and ethnicity.
(and to anyone reading this who is offended by my use of "nigga" or "nigger", get over it. As I stated previously, they are just words. There are far more horrid things going on in this world than the odd racial slur.)
Racism is so subtle, we now think that we can embrace the “N” word and take away its power. However, not enough time has passed for this concept to be effective. The word is viewed as a racial slur born from hate, it will continue to be so until it is put away for a generation, and then maybe it can be embraced at such time in a historical context.
Until the pain of this word no longer lingers in society for any of us, we cannot continue to use the “N” word. Every time we use the “N” word it is a slap in the face of our elders and a blatant disrespect to our ancestors. We have not only lost our minds, but we’ve lost consciousness.