Black guys use it all the time. Turn on HBO and listen to a black comic, and all you hear is nigger, nigger, nigger. I don't get it. If anybody without enough melanin says it, it's a horrible thing. But when black people say it, it's affectionate. It's very confusing.
I contemplated on if I should keep the * used to replace "igger" in the above quote taken from
HuffPo but in all attempts to be just lay it all out there, I thought it necessary to keep the "igger" to get the full effect.
Dr. Laura Schlessinger (I had to copy and paste that) has really made a lot of people mad with her "rant" on the usage of the word nigger. It seemed like I was the last one to even hear about her comments until a tweet about it popped up on my phone. I glanced at the tweet and kept on moving. What was the big idea, white folks say nigger everyday.
Please note that I do understand the severity of the usage of the word nigger. I do not use the word personally but I don't always condemn those that do you use it. I've just taken a personal vow to remove the word from my vocabulary. Thus removing it allows me to come up with more cleaver words to use.
I know the age old argument of "Black folks use it so what's the big idea", and that is like the fighting in the Middle East it will never end. Yes, I'm that pessimistic. I don't like the word, and am unsure how the whole "we are going to take back the word" movement got started, but clearly that "movement" is standing at a halt, or run out of gas because clearly no one owns it.
I won't provide a history lesson on the word, Wikipedia that yourself, but it would be best that you know a small amount before you join the discussion on why it's being used today, and why one group can use it and another cannot.
My question to those that are not supposed to use it but say "you use it" is this, why do you want to use the word? Do you want to use it because the other group can, and you don't want to be told what you cannot do? Rules apply to whom may call one a spouse. I cannot call another woman's husband my husband, and then make the statement "well you call him your husband".
Maybe not the best comparison but you get my drift.
My question to those that do use the word, and say to the other group "you can't say that", why do you still use the word? What exactly do you mean when you say it? It can't be a good thing, and a bad thing at the same time. You can't call a woman a bitch as in "that bitch gets on my nerves" and then say "damn that bitch is fine". Does the word really interchange like that?
So everyone had gotten all up in arms about Dr. Laura, and she did what any white person whose stepped on Black folks toes (ie. Don Imus) she's quitting her radio show. Just like that, and obligatory apology and the cancellation of her radio show.
Live on freedom of speech.
Think about it, that's like Malcolm X, living present day and him having to apologize to white folks and cancel his program because of the views he had. Black folks would be up in arms, talking about "you can't censor him" "it's his right"
It was Dr. Laura's right as well, right? I mean we don't have to agree with someone but we can't be iffy and only let rules apply when it benefits us. I welcome the right for anyone to at anytime say what they want to say. If I disagree or if I don't want to hear it I turn the dial, change the channel or leave the venue.
Covert racism, insensitivity or intolerance doesn't make it any less so racist, insensitive or intolerant. Dr. Laura still has her same views. A revolution is not complete unless you change the minds of those you revolt against. Erykah Badu said it best in her song "Soldier"
To my folks on the picket line, don't stop till you change their minds
So she's off the air come December, what has changed? What awareness has been raised? Other than the fact that open discourse cannot be managed within the Black community? We always crying foul to other people that don't fit our norm of what's okay to say.
When are Black folks going to start getting upset with rappers and politicians the way they do with radio host?
When are we going to finally see the destruction that these "endorsers" have on our children? When are we going to demand better education for our students? When are we going to request that rappers stop referring to our women as bitches and hoes? When are we going to start teaching our children that money isn't' everything?
When are we going to demand that our children have fathers in the home, embrace Black love and aspire to be more than we were before?
When are we going to write congress and have our voices heard? When are we going to protest injustice for all groups? When are we going to demand an equality in our schools? Better meals to combat obesity?
Damn, more unity between us period? But we worried and got our feelings hurt by a white person saying NIGGER.
Image via WikipediaUntil someone else with better web skills, and an actual stand alone site does it...
