What bothers me is that the word 'nigger' has become a pointless trigger. If you use the word, in any context, you are presumed by some to be a racist. But if you say or write 'N-word', then you are a sensitive non-racist. Nothing is ever that simple.
Marge Schott, when she was owner of the Cincinnati Reds, used the word nigger with no ill intent. In her time, it was totally acceptable. But the jackals came after her like it was the crime of the century. It's the jackals that bother me.
Interesting that there is such a thing as 'N-word', but not 'B-word'. Nor is there 'H-word' (honky).
My personal mantra is, You can call me anything you want, just don't call me late to dinner.
That is your interpretation, but other people use N-word because it is relevant, .e.g when writing this article, but N-word carries with it recognition how obscenely awful the word is. That does not imply the user has an iota of animosity towards Blacks.
Not true. You can be fired for N-word just as easily.
Jason Kilborn, a tenured professor at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) Law School. Was censored for redactions on a test (used N-word) and among other things forced to take a sensitivity training that told him to do exactly what he had done.
Greg Patton from the University of Southern California (USC) Marshall School of Business. Used a Chinese word, in a Chinese business communications class, that one student decided sounded too close. Suspended from teaching.
There is no safe way, even "the hard r" is starting to get people upset. The euphemism has become the slur.
Enjoy your tee time! I am clearly showing my age, but your essay reminds me of the great SNL skit with Richard Pryor and Dan Aykroyd from the 70s. Hilariously thoughtful and still relevant.
Jennifer Roback Morse wrote a paper decades ago titled, "Racism As Rent-Seeking." She argued that when government involves itself with something (i.e., education, meat-packing, race), there are valuable rents to be earned by political entrepreneurs who use government to advantage themselves at the expense of others. (i.e., the term "rent-seeking.") Racism and its political and economic implications are examples of this behavior. Advocates for Jim Crow laws used them to cartelize certain industries and profit from the reduced competition. Today, as Morgan Freeman notes, racism is used to divide the country for political gain. This is an exceptional essay. I would only argue that the term n***er (I still won't and can't say that word) was used to dehumanize black people, making it more than just a slur. This, I believe, was the point Quentin Tarantino was attempting to get across when that word is uttered 110 times in his movie Django Unchained.
(1) Dick Gregory’s first autobiography was titled, “Nigger”. The dedication was to his mother, something like, “From now on when you hear this word you’ll know they’re just plugging my book.” He wrote this after seeing Lenny Bruce’s bit, where he opens with, “Are there any niggers here tonight?” Bruce goes on to repeat every racial and ethnic slur, rapid fire, until these words lose their power. It’s a cathartic experience, or at least Gregory found it so, according to his companion at the show, the late S.F. Chronicle jazz critic Grover Sales. Gregory went on to lecture black people about their sensitivity to the word, opining that they surrender their own power by that sensitivity. He told a joke about naming a fictitious son “Nigger”. Nigger becomes a star football player. Gregory takes the part of the game announcer. He calls a big play, using the name repeatedly until the triumphant punchline, “Touchdown Nigger!” His goal was the same as Bruce’s: repeat the word in humorous fashion until it loses its power.
(2) The fact remains, the woman was convicted of a crime for saying a word. That shouldn’t happen in a free society. And it wouldn’t have happened had she used any other word. Or if she’d been black. We wouldn’t have even heard about it and ironically, she wouldn’t have all this crowd fund money. I imagine Dick, or Lenny, could have written a helluva funny bit about that.
The (biracial) daughter of a different black comedian, Richard Pryor, has a new book out titled, SOMETHING WE SAID: RICHARD PRYOR, A NOTORIOUS WORD, AND ME. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1982154500/ The daughter is Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor, an academic who wrote a 2016 article titled, “The Etymology of Nigger: Resistance, Language, and the Politics of Freedom in the Antebellum North.” In her new book, Stordeur Pryor discusses growing up with her father’s frequent comedic use of “Nigger,” her academic work on the word, and the backlash to her straightforward use of the word in her 2016 article. “When I first wrote my article,” she writes, “I felt empowered using the full word in the title.” Shortly after the article’s publication, however, “the editors of a leading Black history blog corrected my use of the word and replaced it with the phrase ‘the n-word.’ I was mortified to find I was so out of step with some of the most radical Black intellectuals in the discipline. I never wrote out the word again.” She now refers to her article as “The Etymology of [N-word]: Resistance, Language, and the Politics of Freedom in the Antebellum North.” https://scholarworks.smith.edu/hst_facpubs/4/ See also: https://www.smith.edu/news-events/news/growing-pryor
Just for the record, I'm not endorsing Stordeur Pryor's views. Just reporting the news. I share your perspective and think Stordeur Pryor is (unwittingly) embarrassing herself---first and foremost as a scholar. "Out of step" ... oh, my!
Dick Gregory was ahead of his time. Race relations, politics, fasting, comedy - I liked him a lot.
I regret not following my persistent intuition to ring his bell in the building he lived in near the U. of Chicago. Too shy, not wanting to disturb a celebrity, I missed my chance.
Agree. While there’s no reason for a christian or other decent person, who’s white, to use that term to belittle a black person, there’s also no basis in this country, with our First Amendment rights, to criminalize its use. What irony that the over the top prosecution caused her to get a million dollars in bigot bucks.
This is AWESOME. That bit about leaving the peasants in the dust is particularly poignant, especially these days, especially in face of the push for social justice and everything to be "eQUitAbLe" in all interactions, everywhere, ever.
It's okay to separate oneself and one's family from the undignified; from the lawless. It's okay to have standards and expectations that exclude uncouth behavior and degeneracy.
It's not about race, it's about culture. And it's about preserving and promoting the good in society.
Wonderful take on a big problem. The Jewish community is going through this behavior right now. The best response is not to crumble and fall in front of these bigots. Understand that these are often unstable people who thrive on the attention they get from people's reaction to their provocation. But don't let them get away with the free speech argument. They degrade this freedom by using it as a weapon and enabling uncivil behavior.
"I think that calling someone a “nigger” is not far different from calling someone a “bitch.” "
I must disagree here, "bitch" indicates alleged moral qualities such as weakness, a tendency to complain too much, needless antagonism etc. "Nigger" indicates that someone's skin tone is too dark by an arbitrary standard. These are not the same. "Nigger" indicates the speaker has no better insults.
I've noticed often that when people are suddenly angry the first thing they mention is the race or sex of the person they are angry with, maybe national origin too. Like if they are Polish or from Mexico that gets tossed in at the beginning of the cussing.
Good of you to control emotions, in some cultures it is big face.
There is one word in Laotian that can be both the highest form of endearment of the most vile thing to say, depending on who it is being said to by whom. The word is Eee. When addressing your beloved mother it is eee mae, when it is the girl who stole your guy whom you hate with the heat of a thousand suns it is eee sao (sao is girl). Why one word has opposite meanings I don't know.
I've heard similar when Black men are in private conversation with another black man who is a very close friend, a form of endearment.
Really beautiful. “kings only argue with queens. Let the peasants fight in the dust”. We are the human race, all made in the image of the one true god.
No notes. Except.....you're wrong about bacon 😆
What bothers me is that the word 'nigger' has become a pointless trigger. If you use the word, in any context, you are presumed by some to be a racist. But if you say or write 'N-word', then you are a sensitive non-racist. Nothing is ever that simple.
Marge Schott, when she was owner of the Cincinnati Reds, used the word nigger with no ill intent. In her time, it was totally acceptable. But the jackals came after her like it was the crime of the century. It's the jackals that bother me.
Interesting that there is such a thing as 'N-word', but not 'B-word'. Nor is there 'H-word' (honky).
My personal mantra is, You can call me anything you want, just don't call me late to dinner.
Especially since when we say or write "N-word" we are at the same time thinking "nigger." Culturally sensitive? What a lie.
That is your interpretation, but other people use N-word because it is relevant, .e.g when writing this article, but N-word carries with it recognition how obscenely awful the word is. That does not imply the user has an iota of animosity towards Blacks.
Not true. You can be fired for N-word just as easily.
Jason Kilborn, a tenured professor at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) Law School. Was censored for redactions on a test (used N-word) and among other things forced to take a sensitivity training that told him to do exactly what he had done.
Greg Patton from the University of Southern California (USC) Marshall School of Business. Used a Chinese word, in a Chinese business communications class, that one student decided sounded too close. Suspended from teaching.
There is no safe way, even "the hard r" is starting to get people upset. The euphemism has become the slur.
The inmates are running the asylum.
Enjoy your tee time! I am clearly showing my age, but your essay reminds me of the great SNL skit with Richard Pryor and Dan Aykroyd from the 70s. Hilariously thoughtful and still relevant.
Yes!
Refreshing clarity and delicious humor. I’d love to have many neighbors who think like the author.
There are many colors, cultures, heritages, and nationalities, yet still one human race, created in the image of a perfect God.
I hear you brother; sound words.
Jennifer Roback Morse wrote a paper decades ago titled, "Racism As Rent-Seeking." She argued that when government involves itself with something (i.e., education, meat-packing, race), there are valuable rents to be earned by political entrepreneurs who use government to advantage themselves at the expense of others. (i.e., the term "rent-seeking.") Racism and its political and economic implications are examples of this behavior. Advocates for Jim Crow laws used them to cartelize certain industries and profit from the reduced competition. Today, as Morgan Freeman notes, racism is used to divide the country for political gain. This is an exceptional essay. I would only argue that the term n***er (I still won't and can't say that word) was used to dehumanize black people, making it more than just a slur. This, I believe, was the point Quentin Tarantino was attempting to get across when that word is uttered 110 times in his movie Django Unchained.
Great post! I suspect people get past trauma much more by way of a Decision, than from mere time!
(1) Dick Gregory’s first autobiography was titled, “Nigger”. The dedication was to his mother, something like, “From now on when you hear this word you’ll know they’re just plugging my book.” He wrote this after seeing Lenny Bruce’s bit, where he opens with, “Are there any niggers here tonight?” Bruce goes on to repeat every racial and ethnic slur, rapid fire, until these words lose their power. It’s a cathartic experience, or at least Gregory found it so, according to his companion at the show, the late S.F. Chronicle jazz critic Grover Sales. Gregory went on to lecture black people about their sensitivity to the word, opining that they surrender their own power by that sensitivity. He told a joke about naming a fictitious son “Nigger”. Nigger becomes a star football player. Gregory takes the part of the game announcer. He calls a big play, using the name repeatedly until the triumphant punchline, “Touchdown Nigger!” His goal was the same as Bruce’s: repeat the word in humorous fashion until it loses its power.
(2) The fact remains, the woman was convicted of a crime for saying a word. That shouldn’t happen in a free society. And it wouldn’t have happened had she used any other word. Or if she’d been black. We wouldn’t have even heard about it and ironically, she wouldn’t have all this crowd fund money. I imagine Dick, or Lenny, could have written a helluva funny bit about that.
The (biracial) daughter of a different black comedian, Richard Pryor, has a new book out titled, SOMETHING WE SAID: RICHARD PRYOR, A NOTORIOUS WORD, AND ME. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1982154500/ The daughter is Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor, an academic who wrote a 2016 article titled, “The Etymology of Nigger: Resistance, Language, and the Politics of Freedom in the Antebellum North.” In her new book, Stordeur Pryor discusses growing up with her father’s frequent comedic use of “Nigger,” her academic work on the word, and the backlash to her straightforward use of the word in her 2016 article. “When I first wrote my article,” she writes, “I felt empowered using the full word in the title.” Shortly after the article’s publication, however, “the editors of a leading Black history blog corrected my use of the word and replaced it with the phrase ‘the n-word.’ I was mortified to find I was so out of step with some of the most radical Black intellectuals in the discipline. I never wrote out the word again.” She now refers to her article as “The Etymology of [N-word]: Resistance, Language, and the Politics of Freedom in the Antebellum North.” https://scholarworks.smith.edu/hst_facpubs/4/ See also: https://www.smith.edu/news-events/news/growing-pryor
Thanks I’ll have a look. But my bias is that I don’t believe there’s any single word that a mature person should be afraid to say or to hear.
Just for the record, I'm not endorsing Stordeur Pryor's views. Just reporting the news. I share your perspective and think Stordeur Pryor is (unwittingly) embarrassing herself---first and foremost as a scholar. "Out of step" ... oh, my!
She shouldn’t have caved. She had it right when she felt empowered using it. Hope she reconsiders.
Dick Gregory was ahead of his time. Race relations, politics, fasting, comedy - I liked him a lot.
I regret not following my persistent intuition to ring his bell in the building he lived in near the U. of Chicago. Too shy, not wanting to disturb a celebrity, I missed my chance.
Agree. While there’s no reason for a christian or other decent person, who’s white, to use that term to belittle a black person, there’s also no basis in this country, with our First Amendment rights, to criminalize its use. What irony that the over the top prosecution caused her to get a million dollars in bigot bucks.
This is AWESOME. That bit about leaving the peasants in the dust is particularly poignant, especially these days, especially in face of the push for social justice and everything to be "eQUitAbLe" in all interactions, everywhere, ever.
It's okay to separate oneself and one's family from the undignified; from the lawless. It's okay to have standards and expectations that exclude uncouth behavior and degeneracy.
It's not about race, it's about culture. And it's about preserving and promoting the good in society.
I have struggled with profanity. I have never considered giving up bacon. That would make my struggle with profanity insurmountable.
This comment is a win! 😂
I struggle too with the damn bacon.
Wonderful take on a big problem. The Jewish community is going through this behavior right now. The best response is not to crumble and fall in front of these bigots. Understand that these are often unstable people who thrive on the attention they get from people's reaction to their provocation. But don't let them get away with the free speech argument. They degrade this freedom by using it as a weapon and enabling uncivil behavior.
Words fail me... Not even the one that's the subject of this refreshingly candid and brilliant essay. Excelsior!
Love this so much! Long live the King (and Queen)!
"I think that calling someone a “nigger” is not far different from calling someone a “bitch.” "
I must disagree here, "bitch" indicates alleged moral qualities such as weakness, a tendency to complain too much, needless antagonism etc. "Nigger" indicates that someone's skin tone is too dark by an arbitrary standard. These are not the same. "Nigger" indicates the speaker has no better insults.
I've noticed often that when people are suddenly angry the first thing they mention is the race or sex of the person they are angry with, maybe national origin too. Like if they are Polish or from Mexico that gets tossed in at the beginning of the cussing.
Good of you to control emotions, in some cultures it is big face.
There is one word in Laotian that can be both the highest form of endearment of the most vile thing to say, depending on who it is being said to by whom. The word is Eee. When addressing your beloved mother it is eee mae, when it is the girl who stole your guy whom you hate with the heat of a thousand suns it is eee sao (sao is girl). Why one word has opposite meanings I don't know.
I've heard similar when Black men are in private conversation with another black man who is a very close friend, a form of endearment.
Words are important.
Really beautiful. “kings only argue with queens. Let the peasants fight in the dust”. We are the human race, all made in the image of the one true god.