The “N” word…not just for Black folks anymore

This tired debate has been going on for too many years.  I am one of those individuals that hates this word.  I grew up using it too, and once it was funny to me.  I also felt like it was a personal thing when pronounced with “ga” at the end and not “er.”

If I slip and use it today, it blatantly flies back in my face as obscene.  Over the summer I accepted a long term substitute teacher position for one of the Juvenile Hall facilities where I live.  With these kids, (all boys and we refer to them as wards), it doesn’t seem to matter what race, all the boys use this word with the “ga” sound at the end.  I see White wards calling other White wards the “N” word, and I see Asian wards calling Black wards the “N” word.  What kills me is that all these kids use it in an appositive way, not reflecting race at all as if they were saying to each other “hey bro” or “dude!”

I try over and over again to correct them in class reminding these kids that the use of profanity is against school policy; but there is no stopping them.  It really bothers me to hear that word used at all.  It’s not a personal or affectionate thing for Blacks anymore.  It’s just a part of mainstream society and no matter how much we argue about it…you can’t stop it now.  I still don’t totally agree with how blatantly Whoopi Goldberg used it on The View and I question her response to something Elisabeth Hasselbeck said when she stated “…”We do live in different worlds …It isn’t balanced, and we would like it to be, but you have to understand, you have to listen to the fact that we’re telling you there are issues, there are huge problems that still affect us.”  -(2008, “EURweb.com”)

I don’t know where Sherri Sheppard and Whoopi Goldberg get the idea that, that word is a personal thing for Blacks only.  Maybe in their generation, but that has long since changed.  I hear that word being used by youths of every color and race everyday.  In my neighborhood grocery store I was standing in front of two young Asian teens, a boy and a girl, and the girl kept calling the boy the “N” word.   These ladies (Whoope and Sherri) are sheltered in Hollywood, but for those of us in the “trenches” of the real world there is a whole different reality outside of privilege and fame, at least in Northern California and the Bay Area that is how it is.

Now don’t get me wrong…..regarding her statements about race she makes a strong point, but one has to admit if we were making progress, how would anyone know?

We always hear how there are still issues, but what about the progress?  Has there really been none in the last 160 years or so?  Sure there has.  Has there been enough?  Hey there is always room for improvement, but it cannot be ignored that you will hear a person tell a bad story ten times and a good one once or twice.  It’s as if most like to harp on the bad and ignore that for the first time in history we have a Black presidential candidate.  If there was no change, and we lived in totally different worlds Thurgood Marshall would never have been nominated for a seat in the Supreme Court and Douglas Wilder would have never been elected Governor of Virginia in 1994.  Hey we can’t forget the landmark case that ended segregation in public schools Brown V. Board of Education.  I mean face it during Martin Luther King Jr’s day forty years ago having a Black Supreme Justice or Governor of a state was not heard of. 

Hey after all bad news seems to be entertainment.  People like scandals, warm fussy doesn’t sell as well.

The reminder that there have not been enough changes just keeps the negative vibe alive.  We can’t take that word back because everyone owns it now, not just Blacks from a different word.  Kids from all backgrounds and cultures are using it.  Twenty years ago if you weren’t Black and you used the word in the wrong company you could expect a beat down.  Today non-blacks use the word as the norm, same as with rap music.  So I ask in terms of the use of that word….where exactly are these so called different worlds Whoopi is talking about?

Is that to say that racism and separatism is a thing of the past?  Please….let’s not be stupid.  I have had my heart broken because of racism more than once.  I have been discriminated against in the workplace and coming to terms with it the first time it happened was hard.  I believe that in this imperfect world that we live in we will never cure racism, and the use of that word now is out of control.  I may not like it, and others may agree with me; but the truth that we all have to face is that we can’t stop it.

Hey we can’t even get these kids to pull up their pants.  If you can stop the youth and famous people like Whoopi Goldberg from using the term and manage to get a least twenty people in one small room to agree that the use of it is wrong….well we all know that is not going to happen…

 

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0347_0483_ZO.html

Douglas Wilder bio  http://www.vahistorical.org/sva2003/wilder.htm

Elisabeth Hasselbeck in tears over Whoopi’s View http://news.bostonherald.com/track/inside_track/view/2008_07_18_Liz_in_tears_over_Whoopi%E2%80%99s_%E2%80%98View%E2%80%99/srvc=home&position=6

Martin Luther King Jr. bio   http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-bio.html

Thurgood Marshall bio   http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/tmarsh.htm

Whoopi and Elisabeth spar over Jesse’s use of the “N” word   http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur45356.cfm