A word of consummate ugliness, "Nigger" has once again crept into our national consciousness, this time as a result of a short video of a Philadelphia Eagles player using it (and a threat of violence against same) at a Kenny Chesney concert (talk about disconnects). Here is the distasteful video.
I will not resort to the fashionable "N-Word", as if 1) your tender ears and eyes are incapable of dealing with the word spelled out or 2) as some would have it, my pigmentation renders me unable to use the word in any of its culturally appropriate uses.
The player in question (Riley Cooper) is not only guilty of extremely bad behavior and horribly uncivil conduct, but bad judgement, as 70% of the league in which he plays is black, many of whom quite a bit bigger than he, and now incentivized to address the issue with him, physically. I leave it to the NFL, the Eagles, his teammates and his opponents to deal with Riley Cooper. I seek here only to make a proposal for my fellow Americans to consider, whatever race they may be.
I do not wish to be lectured on the origins of the word and its dehumanizing impact. All of that is stipulated.
I propose that the word is so hateful, so beyond civil discourse, and so painfully evocative that we all stop using it, and that we ostracize those who do. All of us. Irrespective of our race. Can we all agree on that?
Because if we can't--if one segment of our population is both psychologically devastated by the use of the word AND determined to protect its own culturally approved versions of its use--then we will not see its use disappear, especially as black culture in the United States has such significant crossover appeal. I simply cannot and will not accept that a word--this word--the word "Nigger"--can only be used by black people. There simply cannot be a list of approved users and uses.
Now I get that Mr. Cooper used the word in its most heinous form. And I get that the threat of violence he attached to it adds to its stench. But what about that young white boy who has a group of black friends, where the word is thrown around casually? What happens when he uses it among a group of black people with whom he is not acquainted?
There is too much room for misinterpretation, mis-perception, and misalignment. If the black community wishes to continue to use the word in its culture, music and literature, than the word will be used, and used widely.
So, just stop it. Stop using the word. Use something else. And so should the rest of us.
I did like it when the Rosa Parks of the 21st century, Rachel Jeantel, explained to us all the difference between nigga and nigger. Good try honey, but I chalk it up to just bad diction on the part of black America, kind like that ask-aks thing.
ReplyDeleteWhile we are (sort of) on the topic, I'd like to address the issue of our nation's capital's NFL franchise name. Yes, I'm talking about the 'R-wordskins.'
ReplyDeleteThere has been no shortage of pained liberal voices lamenting the insensitivity of those who think such a word could be anything BUT hurtful so I have come up with a name that will be the least costly (i.e. minimal letters to change, keep most of the fight song lyrics and meter) and least hurtful to people about whom liberals claim to care so much (despite policies that scream to the contrary). Anyway, here it goes:
Hail to the Rednecks!
See, if you just speak about the color of a section of a person's skin, you can use it freely and with as much dripping vitriol as you like.
I always chuckle at how often the far more civil and enlightened liberal white left uses the word "redneck" adjacent to the word "racist" in their near-epilectic episodes of sanctimony.
I say use whatever the hell word you want. If you offend someone you care about, well, then you deal with the consequences of that. If you offend someone who can whip your tail, well, then you deal with the consequences of that as well. If you make an ass of yourself for shooting off your mouth in a way that is inappropriate for the company or culture that you are in, well, then deal with that company or culture not welcoming you back into it.
But let's not start legislating what people can and can't say (I know you weren't legislating and that you wouldn't--others would happily pick that task up for you though). In this topsy turvy world where it's perfectly okay to choose whether a child can be ripped from the womb and have it's spine cut with scissors until it dies but not okay to choose what size drink to buy, or what word to say, we hardly need to give the social engineers any misconception that we need to get their permission before we live our daily lives.
Oh, notwithstanding my rant, excellent post.
The word nigger as most may know came from the Spanish word for black "negro" as is all too common in the southern part of our once great country the pronunciation was mangled to come out as negra and then further mangled to nigger none of which had any negative connotations or evil intent. The great hullabaloo about the use of the word nigger must go down as one of the greatest public relations coups in history played out on the guilty white liberal consciences. Oh my goodness what ever happened to that childhood saying that we all learned; "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." Concentrate on reducing the school drop out rates and the unwed mother birth rates that will do much more for the African American community than will the absence of the word nigger in the modern lexicon.
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