I refuse to be censored when relating the incident concerning three rednecks with tire irons who threatened my boyfriend and me for bike riding together while a mixed couple. This was in the '70s in Chicago. Fortunately, we'd just arrived at a friend's storefront. Fred knew they kept a baseball bat behind the front door for just such …
I refuse to be censored when relating the incident concerning three rednecks with tire irons who threatened my boyfriend and me for bike riding together while a mixed couple. This was in the '70s in Chicago. Fortunately, we'd just arrived at a friend's storefront. Fred knew they kept a baseball bat behind the front door for just such an occasion. He came back out with such a fury that the good ol' boys backed off laughing, like they'd just been playing. We all started yelling at them to fuck off, me likely the loudest. As he piled onto the bed of that jalopy of a truck one shouted back at me, 'Shut up, you whore, fucking with niggers . . . God!" Seriously, you think I would break that narrative to insert a mealy mouthed capital N? Did he euphemize what he was saying to me? If I had to hear it, so do you.
Then, some years later my adorable bi-racial eight-year old son, and I do mean adorable, approached me and asked me very sweetly, "Momma, are you my nigga?" It was obvious he was asking me if I was his sweetheart, for which there was only one possible reply, "Always."
THAT's how you kill a slur, you misuse it, overuse it, use it like an inanimate pronoun till it has lost all its power. Censoring it preserves and amplifies that power. I say, beat the motherfucker to death. Use it to describe your pencil. The family dog. The weather. Get creative, like my child. Let those little children lead us. Always.
Oh, and wait till I tell you what the word 'Caucasian' originally signified -- high priced prostitutes. I kid you not. Ask Nell Painter. See, that's what you do. You flip the word. You don't censor it. You flip it.
Next thing you know, it's a hundred years later and people are mystified why anyone was ever offended at being called a sweetheart, sweetheart.
"THAT's how you kill a slur, you misuse it, overuse it, use it like an inanimate pronoun till it has lost all its power. Censoring it preserves and amplifies that power. I say, beat the motherfucker to death. Use it to describe your pencil. The family dog. The weather. Get creative, like my child."
Hmm, I get where you're coming from, but I don't agree at all here. The problem is, this approach ignores the very real hurt the word currently causes to many black people. It's not just about how you feel about the word, disempowering the word still means considering the feelings of those who it hurts. Which is why, despite the fact that it doesn't bother me, I still censor it.
I'm perfectly able to recognise how stupid it is to treat this word like it's the black person's "Aveda Kedavra," but even I wouldn't want to have to hear it all the time. There's a difference between seeing somebody who wants to use it as an insult for who they are, and treating the word like a toy.
But we're aren't talking about my usage. I never use the word, except in the kind of context I gave at the top. It's mainly the usage of young black teens, like mine were. I don't think they're at all ignorant of how hurtful the word has been and is still. It's their rebellion against that state of affairs, and they are absolutely on track, IMO. But it really doesn't matter what we think. We are, as always, supplanted by the incoming generations who will define their own world. That IS what is becoming of that word, whether we like it, understand it or not.
Well, to be fair, we're talking about your suggestion for how the word should be treated and your "refusal to be censored" in your usage of it:
"I say, beat the motherfucker to death. Use it to describe your pencil. The family dog. The weather. Get creative, like my child."
This is what I'm disagreeing with.
And the trend in usage of the word seems most definitely to be in the opposite direction to what you're suggesting here. In the 70s, 80s and even 90s, the n-word was used, uncensored, in primetime comedy TV shows. Reporters, including white reporters, could use it in context with no fear for their jobs. Teachers could teach Huckleberry Finn. Joe Biden used it in a Senate hearing. All of this is more or less unthinkable today.
I'm advocating for removing the taboo of the word. I think we agree there. But I still feel very strongly that that should be done sensitively. I feel like your framing misses that second part.
The time might not be right for it, but maybe...eventually. Dick Gregory actually did that as one of his comedy routines in the early '70s...I read about it in his auto bio titled...the N-word! (Wouldn't want to display THAT book in my hands on the subway today!) He said it over and over again saying the more we hear it the less powerful it would become. I think 1971 was probably still Too Soon. Maybe 2022 today, but I would argue given how little emotional/social resilience so-called SJWs display today, it might be time to readdress it...although by black comedians. Maybe Chris Rock could do it, he's got a lot of public support at the moment ;)
Hilarious, and TRUE. Indeed use it in association with positive things that are not even associated with skin color at all. maybe it can be an adjective indicating powerful, smart, or fashionably dressed. too funny!
Ah, but we can't all do that. It's for those young people of color to do that, and they already are, gangbusters. You have no idea how that word was flying high when I had a houseful of black teenagers a decade ago. Did you see that Dave Chapelle skit where the blind black KKK leader was at a stoplight next to a convertible with two young men playing rap music, loud. Of course, being blind couldn't see they were white. He gave them a huge lambast about their loud jungle music and called them that. One white kid turns to the other and says, "Did he just call us niggas?" The other returns the high five and exclaims, "Awesome!"
Linda, I agree. Still we are not yet really on our way. this word is very surprising to me. It is reviled but also OWNED by Blacks too. It is ok for a Black to use it in a way that invalidates its meaning, but a non-Black person CANNOT do this. They will be really attacked for it. It is reminiscent of the attacks one will get if one defames Mohammad. It is because the icon itself is a source of identity in both cases. (I think, but am not sure... it is quite far from my personal experience so I am like an alien trying to piece together what I am seeing :-) )
I refuse to be censored when relating the incident concerning three rednecks with tire irons who threatened my boyfriend and me for bike riding together while a mixed couple. This was in the '70s in Chicago. Fortunately, we'd just arrived at a friend's storefront. Fred knew they kept a baseball bat behind the front door for just such an occasion. He came back out with such a fury that the good ol' boys backed off laughing, like they'd just been playing. We all started yelling at them to fuck off, me likely the loudest. As he piled onto the bed of that jalopy of a truck one shouted back at me, 'Shut up, you whore, fucking with niggers . . . God!" Seriously, you think I would break that narrative to insert a mealy mouthed capital N? Did he euphemize what he was saying to me? If I had to hear it, so do you.
Then, some years later my adorable bi-racial eight-year old son, and I do mean adorable, approached me and asked me very sweetly, "Momma, are you my nigga?" It was obvious he was asking me if I was his sweetheart, for which there was only one possible reply, "Always."
THAT's how you kill a slur, you misuse it, overuse it, use it like an inanimate pronoun till it has lost all its power. Censoring it preserves and amplifies that power. I say, beat the motherfucker to death. Use it to describe your pencil. The family dog. The weather. Get creative, like my child. Let those little children lead us. Always.
Oh, and wait till I tell you what the word 'Caucasian' originally signified -- high priced prostitutes. I kid you not. Ask Nell Painter. See, that's what you do. You flip the word. You don't censor it. You flip it.
Next thing you know, it's a hundred years later and people are mystified why anyone was ever offended at being called a sweetheart, sweetheart.
"THAT's how you kill a slur, you misuse it, overuse it, use it like an inanimate pronoun till it has lost all its power. Censoring it preserves and amplifies that power. I say, beat the motherfucker to death. Use it to describe your pencil. The family dog. The weather. Get creative, like my child."
Hmm, I get where you're coming from, but I don't agree at all here. The problem is, this approach ignores the very real hurt the word currently causes to many black people. It's not just about how you feel about the word, disempowering the word still means considering the feelings of those who it hurts. Which is why, despite the fact that it doesn't bother me, I still censor it.
I'm perfectly able to recognise how stupid it is to treat this word like it's the black person's "Aveda Kedavra," but even I wouldn't want to have to hear it all the time. There's a difference between seeing somebody who wants to use it as an insult for who they are, and treating the word like a toy.
But we're aren't talking about my usage. I never use the word, except in the kind of context I gave at the top. It's mainly the usage of young black teens, like mine were. I don't think they're at all ignorant of how hurtful the word has been and is still. It's their rebellion against that state of affairs, and they are absolutely on track, IMO. But it really doesn't matter what we think. We are, as always, supplanted by the incoming generations who will define their own world. That IS what is becoming of that word, whether we like it, understand it or not.
"But we're aren't talking about my usage."
Well, to be fair, we're talking about your suggestion for how the word should be treated and your "refusal to be censored" in your usage of it:
"I say, beat the motherfucker to death. Use it to describe your pencil. The family dog. The weather. Get creative, like my child."
This is what I'm disagreeing with.
And the trend in usage of the word seems most definitely to be in the opposite direction to what you're suggesting here. In the 70s, 80s and even 90s, the n-word was used, uncensored, in primetime comedy TV shows. Reporters, including white reporters, could use it in context with no fear for their jobs. Teachers could teach Huckleberry Finn. Joe Biden used it in a Senate hearing. All of this is more or less unthinkable today.
I'm advocating for removing the taboo of the word. I think we agree there. But I still feel very strongly that that should be done sensitively. I feel like your framing misses that second part.
The time might not be right for it, but maybe...eventually. Dick Gregory actually did that as one of his comedy routines in the early '70s...I read about it in his auto bio titled...the N-word! (Wouldn't want to display THAT book in my hands on the subway today!) He said it over and over again saying the more we hear it the less powerful it would become. I think 1971 was probably still Too Soon. Maybe 2022 today, but I would argue given how little emotional/social resilience so-called SJWs display today, it might be time to readdress it...although by black comedians. Maybe Chris Rock could do it, he's got a lot of public support at the moment ;)
Linda, this is beautiful. May you ever and always remain your son’s nigga.
LOL. Oh, believe me, I will always be at his back, and he will be at mine. We've both demonstrated that numerous times.
Hilarious, and TRUE. Indeed use it in association with positive things that are not even associated with skin color at all. maybe it can be an adjective indicating powerful, smart, or fashionably dressed. too funny!
Ah, but we can't all do that. It's for those young people of color to do that, and they already are, gangbusters. You have no idea how that word was flying high when I had a houseful of black teenagers a decade ago. Did you see that Dave Chapelle skit where the blind black KKK leader was at a stoplight next to a convertible with two young men playing rap music, loud. Of course, being blind couldn't see they were white. He gave them a huge lambast about their loud jungle music and called them that. One white kid turns to the other and says, "Did he just call us niggas?" The other returns the high five and exclaims, "Awesome!"
Dave knows what I'm talking about.
Linda, I agree. Still we are not yet really on our way. this word is very surprising to me. It is reviled but also OWNED by Blacks too. It is ok for a Black to use it in a way that invalidates its meaning, but a non-Black person CANNOT do this. They will be really attacked for it. It is reminiscent of the attacks one will get if one defames Mohammad. It is because the icon itself is a source of identity in both cases. (I think, but am not sure... it is quite far from my personal experience so I am like an alien trying to piece together what I am seeing :-) )