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Much Ado About the N-Word
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Posted By:
merry1951 at 06/19/2008 9:15:34 PM
Comment:
More Black people use that term more than white people. It's just a stupid word, we need to get past such stupidity. Excuse me while I cling to guns and religion while being proud of my country. -
Posted By:
tgif4sho at 06/19/2008 3:42:40 PM
Comment:
just one more thing on this subject. no disrespect, but this post had more content than the intent of the writer and his/her constituents. SHO-NUFF-DUFF!!!! -
Posted By:
tgif4sho at 06/19/2008 3:37:12 PM
Comment:
the first time you heard, "***" it came from who? i probably would have laughed. the word spoken that way comes from two people, one white, one never been around a *** in his/her life.
i agree that the word is degrading, but it sure took a lot of power from white folk. why i have always traveled extensively in the us, and during this hip-hop culture era white boys had to find something else to inflate their sometimes (in the face of black success) ego's.
but yea, no matter how you say it, it is a bad word to use, though i came up when the word '***' could paralyze! -
Posted By:
Duff at 06/18/2008 9:41:59 AM
Comment:
Enjoyed the article, but I'll agree with others that the "n-word" is not on the same level as "white trash". At the same time I find it comical that some people who seem deeply cut by the n-word would be rather glib about calling someone white trash.
But if "white trash" isn't on the same level, I can think of a handful of words that are or used to be (at least in my book): b@stard, f@g, ret@ard. All of these words have made my hair stand on end, yet I myself have used them all at some point.
I work in a school system for people who didn't graduate from high school. The students vary in age and race, but one common factor is that they tend not to have much material wealth. A while ago one of the students (who was female, white, early 20s) had just finished hanging up some art project from the ceiling and she loudly proclaimed, "Now that's some Afro-American rigging there." I (who am male, white, late 20s) found this to be incredibly offensive, but none of the students batted an eye.
In my mind, cloaking the n-word is worse than casually using it among a group you are familiar with. It says, "I realize this often offensive word is inappropriate to use in this situation, so I'm going to change the verbiage, but not the intent." To me this says that the _word_ has become the problem and the history behind it has been forgotten.
In retrospect, I wish I would have said something to this student. Deep down, I was wishing someone else would have said something to her. They dealt with her on a daily basis, whereas I had only seen her a few times and wasn't even sure of her name. But if I find something ??? anything ??? someone says to be offensive, it's my right and responsibility to let them know in a calm, civil manner. Doing so will cause more real change and understanding than a million "funerals" for words. -
Posted By:
Datdamwuf at 03/25/2008 8:15:22 PM
Comment:
Once again, my comment which took some time to write is not here. I give up. -
Posted By:
Datdamwuf at 03/25/2008 6:27:03 PM
Comment:
I am a "white" woman in my 40s, when I ended up with my Dad at 14 and heard him say *** the first time I corrected him. We had one helluva fight over it but he stopped and for years before he died we discussed how and why he was such a bigot. I never heard the word again until I took a job with the government at 20 yrs old. And there I heard it in a different light, from black people. It has so many different meaning in the black community and for a time I was in a circle of friends that allowed me to hear it that way.
I went to work in a GS4 job microfiche department with 70 workers, one manager and some Marines. On Friday at the end of my first week everyone gathered around my work area and started clapping. I was very confused and ask what is going on? Turns out I was the first white person that ever stayed in the job for more than 3 days....wow, that blew me away. I stayed a year and decided I didn't like working for the government.
However, I made good friends, we ate together, went out after work together, bar hopped and hung out in general. All of my black friends used the word *** freely and it was friendly not mean or hurtful. It was directed at me as well. Over time I began using the term in the same ways they did, it would just come out, like picking up any other word or slang from people you are around all the time. None of us thought anything of it until one night at a club when I said it to a gentleman that hit on me. It was in context, and if I'd been a black woman it would have been no issue (he'd been watching me and saw me kissing my date right before, also a black man). I was glad my table of friends was large or there would have been a fight. When we talked about it everyone agreed that there is a difference but that we'd been hanging out so long they didn't think of me as white anymore so they took it the way I meant it.
What I hate about this word is that it is so fraught with meaning in such completely different ways depending upon who is using it and how they say it. But I'll say this, I know when I hear the term and it's racist, I know when I hear the term and it's not. I hope one day we'll never hear the term in any way that is racist, but I somehow doubt it will just go away. I think eventually the racist part of it's connotation will melt away, I hope so because the word itself doesn't appear to be going anywhere. -
Posted By:
kumaman at 03/25/2008 5:13:37 PM
Comment:
If you and I decide to play a game of kicking each other in the butt when we catch each otheroff guard. It hurts but we play the game. If someone else sneaks in and kicks us in the butt, there is going to be a fight - right? That is physical pain. The N-word phychologically hurts, no matter who utters it. It provokes anger when it comes from non blacks and sadness when it comes from blacks. The sadness is in the fact that so many paid a price for us to be where we are today and many heard that word as the rope was being strung around their necks. How many 12 year old pretty little black girls heard that during 250 plus years of being owned? I respect what they went through too much to detach the emotions that the word envokes. Out of respect, we should not even have to have this debate. -
Posted By:
kcarroll at 03/25/2008 5:13:15 PM
Comment:
Ta-Nehisi Coates is one of most talented writers I've ever met, however, to protect my upward mobility and any future in the Obama cabinet, I have to denounce and reject his logical explication of the N-Word. However I can no more renounce him than I can the Black community or the white girl who serves me Starbucks on Connecticut Avenue. This is a well written common sense article-which means its useless in the debate over the N-Word. -
Posted By:
kcarroll at 03/25/2008 5:07:59 PM
Comment:
Ta-Nehisi Coates is one of the finest writers around and I'm waiting anxiously for the release of his new book, however to ensure my upward mobility, I'm going to have to denounce and reject his N-word article. Though I can no more disown him than I can the Black community or the white woman who serves me Starbucks. This is a wonderful, can we make sense, article from brother Coates. -
Posted By:
kumaman at 03/25/2008 4:56:31 PM
Comment:
The N-word is offensive because it is the N-word. I, nor you I suspect if standing face to face with our ancestors who paid a dear price to get us to this point would use the word in their presence. How many of them had that word as the last thing they heard before a rope was placed around their necks? How many of them went through life never able to make a free decision in their lives? How many 12 year old pretty little black girls had a choice before massa had his way with his little N------ girl? If nothing else, if those who paid such a hefty price for blacks today to express freedom had a vote, I'm sure it would be to abolish the word from our vocabulary. -
Posted By:
whitegirl71 at 03/25/2008 3:45:34 PM
Comment:
Ha! I'm delighted again by the freshness of your thinking. Right on. Keep doing what you do. -
Posted By:
BoneDaddy at 03/25/2008 2:13:43 PM
Comment:
When I speak, I must consider what you hear. When you say the dreaded N-word, bear in mind what the white people around you here. It makes my skin crawl to hear it uttered, and I have heard it in my workplace, exchanged with all affection between my black co-workers, all of whom have graduate degrees at least.
I cannot imagine a comparison that I would be comfortable with. I try to imagine to women meeting each other in public, greeting each other with a friendly "how's it going, ***?"
That's what I hear. Affectionate denigration. I understand better now how blacks may use it between each other, but my ears sure don't get it. -
Posted By:
Boycott_KY at 03/25/2008 2:08:30 PM
Comment:
Great article! I love black people, but I NEVER understood why they get to declare a word off-limits. Forget the word "***". I bet most women would love to declare the word "***" off-limits. But the only word that gets this special treatment is . . . the N-word!
And you're exactly right: there's nothing magical about a word itself, it's the feeling and meaning given it by the speaker. A few years ago, when I was still physically able to play hoops, and it'd be mostly blacks and me, I'd be called "Redneck", "Cracker", "White Boy", "Casper", "Honky", and probably other things I didn't understand. None of those were off-limits. A few of those blacks were decent enough friends and I knew they meant nothing by it. The rest of those guys, I already knew they hated me, and those "slurs" weren't what tipped me off. Come on! Are we all in third grade????
By the way, I chose my user name, in part, because Kentucky is about the most racist of all states. Why in the world do blacks go out of their way to play in RUPP arena, for a school with a racist (fairly recently even--see Rex Chapman) history, and a very racist audience?!? -
Posted By:
Boycott_KY at 03/25/2008 2:01:50 PM
Comment:
Great article! I love black people, but I NEVER understood why they get to declare a word off-limits. Forget the word "***". I bet most women would love to declare the word "***" off-limits. But the only word that gets this special treatment is . . . the N-word!
And you're exactly right: there's nothing magical about a word itself, it's the feeling and meaning given it by the speaker. A few years ago, when I was still physically able to play hoops, and it'd be mostly blacks and me, I'd be called "Redneck", "Cracker", "White Boy", "Casper", "Honky", and probably other things I didn't understand. None of those were off-limits. A few of those blacks were decent enough friends and I knew they meant nothing by it. The rest of those guys, I already knew they hated me, and those "slurs" weren't what tipped me off. Come on! Are we all in third grade???? -
Posted By:
smartykat at 03/25/2008 12:51:19 PM
Comment:
Wow! I've been complaining lately about lack of context in a post Reverend Wright youtube snippet world, wondering where the hell it went etc...and here it is throughout your article and especially in the last couple of paragraphs...way to bring it home. I am e-mailing your article to everyone I know! -
Posted By:
dealy663 at 03/25/2008 12:51:06 PM
Comment:
The use of the word *** makes me angry to no end. This article is just another attempt by someone who has some degree of intelligence (and therefore should know better) to excuse reprobate behavior by so many in our community with nothing more than a wave of the hand and a feeble argument. In essence what Ta-Nehisi is doing here is coming up with another reason why it is ok for those of us in the black community to act in ways that are both self destructive and offensive to the rest of the world. There is no room for double standards, and the suffering of past or presents wrongs by American society in no way excuse our own sins of predjudice, lack of education, births out of wedlock, incareration, absentee fathers or the use of the atrocious word ***. -
Posted By:
1234 at 03/25/2008 12:44:39 PM
Comment:
You complain about America's uproar over a word, but you'll likely pay rent with proceeds from this story about that word. You happily chortle that your introduction to the word was positive, and ignore those whose introduction was, shall we say, less pleasant. You dismiss the concerns of those who are to this day stung by the word's use. You equate use of the perjorative term for whites, which they gave themselves, with one that slavemasters gave to a race brought here against its will. Finally, and perhaps most appallingly, you write, "To see black folks laughing at themselves, in the midst of finishing dead-last in almost every socio-economic category, must legitimately strike a few as dead wrong." Your glib use of the phrase "a few" in that sentence displays your failure to grasp millions of Americans' anguish over the black-white achievement gap. When that anguish turns into pointed questions about blacks' self-degradation through their embrace of racist terminology, you defend it as something approaching benign. This article is a disgrace. -
Posted By:
1234 at 03/25/2008 12:44:15 PM
Comment:
You complain about America's uproar over a word, but you'll likely pay your rent with proceeds from this story about that word. You happily chortle that your introduction to the word was positive, and ignore those whose introduction was, shall we say, less pleasant. You dismiss the concerns of those who are, to this day, stung by the word's use. You equate use of the perjorative term for whites, which they gave themselves, with one that slavemasters gave to a race brought here against its will. Finally, and perhaps most appallingly, you write, "To see black folks laughing at themselves, in the midst of finishing dead-last in almost every socio-economic category, must legitimately strike a few as dead wrong." Your glib use of the phrase "a few" in that sentence displays your failure to grasp millions of Americans' anguish over the black-white achievement gap. When that anguish turns into pointed questions about blacks' self-degradation through their embrace of racist terminology, you defend it as something approaching benign. This article is a disgrace.-
Posted By:
blessinggirl at 04/01/2008 12:18:06 AM
Comment:
Amen and amen! Your occupation as a writer gives you no right to determine whether a word should or should not be deleted. The word is disgusting, no matter who uses it. Thank your lucky stars you weren't about to be castrated and then hanged, on a chain gang, or driving miss daisy when you were called out of your name. Shame on you.
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Posted By:
Hal in MS at 03/25/2008 12:34:19 PM
Comment:
Ni%%er Please !!!!!!!
The word can't be wrong cuz we made it right.? At what point in the space time continuum did this metamorphosis complete itself. Feel free to continue to use to your hearts content, but please don't try to put your meta-racist lipstick on this pig and call it Halle Berry. -
Posted By:
dealy663 at 03/25/2008 12:34:19 PM
Comment:
The use of the word *** makes me angry to no end. This article is just another attempt by someone who has some degree of intelligence (and therefore should know better) to excuse reprobate behavior by so many in our community with nothing more than a wave of the hand and a feeble argument. In essence what Ta-Nehisi is doing here is coming up with another reason why it is ok for those of us in the black community to act in ways that are both self destructive and offensive to the rest of the world. There is no room for double standards, and the suffering of past or presents wrongs by American society in no way excuse our own sins of predjudice, lack of education, births out of wedlock, incareration, absentee fathers or the use of the atrocious word ***. -
Posted By:
billdave at 03/25/2008 12:18:50 PM
Comment:
Thanks for a great essay.
The term white trash is indeed a different case, because it refers to a lifestyle rather than a race. Many white apologists for the word *** try to recast the word in the same way: Growing up as, well, yes, white trash, I heard a lot of folks say, when i called them out for the use of the N word, "Well, there are black people and there are niggers. Not all black people are niggers, but that guy is." This was a disingenuous strategy at best, since the individual always retained for himself the power to attribute the word. It's like the "They use it, why can't we" strategy that my students in Texas used to use when I called them on using the word, and the simple reason is "because we aren't them and we aren't owning the identity as we attribute it."
Anyway, again, thanks for a smart and provocative essay. -
Posted By:
csiddiq at 03/25/2008 12:12:22 PM
Comment:
Nice post. I think it accurately captures how most blacks feel about the N word. There are many languages where one word can be used in many different contexts, some of them contradicting others. There is an irony and self-love in many of the things that we do and say. Although many wouldn't admit this, but the N word still gleefully falls from the mouths of many of our very well educated African American professionals. I agree that our children's use of the N word has been scapegoated. It has been in our community for over a hundred years, and not necessarily in a bad way. We try to simplify things which require a bit more nuanced thinking. I don't personally use the word anymore following my Public Enemy, Louis Farrakhan, KRS-1 mental transformation, but still I smile upon the days when my father adoringly referred to me as "this lil' bad ass N, here...boy I tell ya'".
The real problem is that we have exported the term from our own communities into the wider community, making it seem as though its all cleansed. Still, everyone knows that it's not all cleansed, and many of those who use it are only being coy. Nevertheless, they can and will make the argument.
But at the same time, sometimes I wonder if the liberal use of the N word stunts our growth and keeps us from envisioning ourselves as a member of the global society, rather than as an isolated people struggling against the man. Ah yes, an epiphany as I comment. The fun and games with N word has seen its day. Let us put it away along with the picket signs, platform shoes and black beret. The "man" is now only an illusion. Your shackles aren't even locked anymore. Take 'em off and assume your rightful place in the world. -
Posted By:
shot1me at 03/25/2008 11:47:20 AM
Comment:
Not being black, I suppose I don't really have a vote here, but it seems to me that no one ever hung a white person from a tree while calling them "white trash." The historical equivalence just isn't there.
When women run around calling each other "bitches," it doesn't mute the legacy of sexism. Further, it might drive home the point to men that it's not ok to refer to women in that way, if they didn't.
Speakers of words do not have total power over their meaning as you suggest. "Redneck," could never mean "open-minded, well-educated person worthy of respect" no matter what the intent of the speaker. It's pejorative, period.
My question is, what's the advantage of using these terms? If their use twists the mind of even one outsider into think that they can view a given community as less than them, what's to be gained by continuing to use them? -
Posted By:
ddesa123 at 03/25/2008 10:43:04 AM
Comment:
"TA-NEHISI COATES is right. The word "***" is acceptable in the 21st Century environment of tolerance in place of rage.
As long as we continue to tolerate the creeping massacre of black people, the word will have a positive meaning"
-This is the kind of victim mentality that relegates African American's to the very bottom of nearly all socio-economic categories in society. Yes, there are intrinsic problems within black society due to a history of violence and racism, but there are also many programs such as affirmative action made to deal with them. I watched a great # of my friends get rejected from college even while they carried a higher GPA than their African American counter-parts. What qualified these students to enter an institution of higher education over more qualified students, other than their race? Moves such as these, whatever your stance on them, try to address grievances of the past. Yet a generation that did not commit these grievances must suffer for it. Minorities are also afforded higher consideration in hiring, so that employers may meet employment quotas.
The victim mentality must stop. Katrina was not an "attack against black people", it was an unexpected and unprecedent natural disaster, a case of inept politicians, notably a black mayor, and the federal government failing to respond quickly enough due to a lack of precedence and poor training.
If you want hope within your community then speak hope. Give your children a chance, listen to voices of responsibillity such as Bill Cosby, and reject proponents of a "slave mentality" such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton who use the black community for their own personal gain. Instead of pointing fingers, look inward and see what you may do as a community to heal the wounds of the past. Only then will blacks rise up out of this terrible cycle of desperation. -
Posted By:
ddesa123 at 03/25/2008 10:33:39 AM
Comment:
"TA-NEHISI COATES is right. The word "***" is acceptable in the 21st Century environment of tolerance in place of rage.
As long as we continue to tolerate the creeping massacre of black people, the word will have a positive meaning"
-This is the kind of victim mentality that relegates African American's to the very bottom of nearly all socio-economic categories in society. Yes, there are intrinsic problems within black society due to a history of violence and racism, but there are also many programs such as affirmative action made to deal with them. I watched a great # of my friends get rejected from college even while they carried a higher GPA than their African American counter-parts. What qualified these students to enter an institution of higher education over more qualified students, other than their race? Moves such as these, whatever your stance on them, try to address grievances of the past. Yet a generation that did not commit these grievances must suffer for it. Minorities are also afforded higher consideration in hiring, so that employers may meet employment quotas.
The victim mentality must stop. Katrina was not an "attack against black people", it was an unexpected and unprecedent natural disaster, a case of inept politicians, notably a black mayor, and the federal government failing to respond quickly enough due to a lack of precedence and poor training.
If you want hope within your community then speak hope. Give your children a chance, listen to voices of responsibillity such as Bill Cosby, and reject proponents of a "slave mentality" such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton who use the black community for their own personal gain. Instead of pointing fingers, look inward and see what you may do as a community to heal the wonds of the past. Only then will blacks rise up out of this terrible cycle of desperation. -
Posted By:
phpeter at 03/25/2008 10:11:40 AM
Comment:
Just because a word is acceptable in some context doesn't mean it should be tolerated in all contexts. F***, Sh**, A$$ etc. may be acceptable in the appropriate context, but is that context the Grammy's? Is that context on the street corner? Is that context in polite conversation or business speak (I would dare somebody to utter N***** in the boardroom. My point is that it is time to get past whether somebody "Can" or "Cannot" use a word and on to whether they "Should" or "Should Not". This writer communicates the love of words very well, but would he slip the word N****** slip into a NYTs piece? What about in Newsweek, Times, etc? Why are people fighting over words that are completly unacceptable to use in everyday life even though your household might find them acceptable? It seems to be a disservice to argue for a word that would only become a hinderance to anybody who used it in the professional world. Unfortunatly, it seems to be a rationalization of poor behavior and language. -
Posted By:
frida0h at 03/25/2008 9:15:48 AM
Comment:
My teaching candidate collegues and I have had this discussion so many times. (We are members of an urban teaching program.) What is up with this word? What do we do when kids use it? How do they use it? I don't feel qualified to comment on it except from a distance at this point. Afterall, I'm of the white trash variety. I'm learning. But there's always so much discussion around it because it has the power to offend, amuse, and stir up controversy and discussion for the thoughtful reasons as you explained. I agree w/ you that the power of any word comes from the one who utters it, or how much power we all give it when we hear it. So let's vow to not give it any power anymore. It's just a word after all, and an outdated one at that. -
Posted By:
frida0h at 03/25/2008 9:12:52 AM
Comment:
My teaching candidate collegues and I have had this discussion so many times. (We are members of an urban teaching program.) What is up with this word? I don't feel qualified to comment on it except from a distance. Afterall, I'm of the white trash variety. But there's always so much discussion around it because it has the power to offend, amuse, and stir up controversy and discussion for the thoughtful reasons as you explained. I agree w/ you that the power of any word comes from the one who utters it, or how much power we all give it when we hear it. So let's vow to not give it any power anymore. It's just a word after all, and an outdated one at that. -
Posted By:
jwaheer at 03/25/2008 8:53:20 AM
Comment:
This is nothing but some foolishness....to use the n-word is like throwing salt in the wounds of our past generations! We think we know the word so well because we use it so much today...but ask them what *** means to them. Ask them how it felt to be called a *** like it was your name. We really need to think of the pain that we inflict on ourselves and our people.
There are so many other words that can be used to address each other. As a writer, you know the power of words...the next time you want to call one of your boys the n-word....why not replace it with the word "brother". That may inspire you both. The next time you go to call your girl a ***, why not call her "sister" instead, she may even love you for that.
The n-word just doesn't have a welcomed place around any blacks with any sense. Would you go throwing the word around in the presence of your mother? At your next family reunion? No. You wouldn't. It would be disrespectful. So show some respect for yourself, and you people and expand your vocabulary. -
Posted By:
BigPandaBear at 03/25/2008 2:56:48 AM
Comment:
As a white Liberal who had a black Lover, I ask ALL my sisters and brothers to respect each other. I suggest they listen to bill Cosby and read BLACK REDNECKS AND WHITE LIBERALS by Thomas Sowell. Peace in the Valley! -
Posted By:
IgnorantWhiteLiberal at 03/25/2008 1:04:48 AM
Comment:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=SdhfyWbJhAk
Larry Wilmore and John Oliver from the Daily Show investigating the N-Word. -
Posted By:
mnmorfila at 03/24/2008 10:54:56 PM
Comment:
Just an observation. You said, "I'm still looking for the white Al Sharpton, who'll deign to protest Jeff Foxworthy for his album, You Might Be A Redneck If???" Here's your link. http://www.canopicpublishing.com/juke/contents2/willcampbell.htm -
Posted By:
QuietStorm at 03/24/2008 10:31:37 PM
Comment:
Now this is what I"m talking about! I feel the same way you do Mr. Coates. As a "writer" myself, I too ask, how can we just delete a word? How can we create a funeral for a word? For those of us, who know when and how to use the "N" word, in context, how can someone tell us, when, why, how, to use the word. Words are words. In my opinion, the more you fight the "N" word, the more negative power you attach to the word. Given, don't call me an "N" because that's not my name. If you know me, and we're cool, that's another story. I think the group NWA, did a good thing, when they came up with their name. We just need to get past the sting of white folk saying the "N" word, and reclaim it. Once we do that, what will they have then. NOTHING. -
Posted By:
MrEspy at 03/24/2008 9:23:04 PM
Comment:
Please see Imam Zaid Shakir's (African American) thoughts on the matter. While the focus is whether Muslims should use the word, his sentiments cross the racial and religious divide. Very aptly put IMHO.
http://www.newislamicdirections.com/nid/notes/should_muslims_use_the_n_word/ -
Posted By:
dickpeery at 03/24/2008 12:26:19 PM
Comment:
TA-NEHISI COATES is right. The word "***" is acceptable in the 21st Century environment of tolerance in place of rage.
As long as we continue to tolerate the creeping massacre of black people, the word will have a positive meaning. Our lack of organized resistance to outrages including the decimation of education, the abandonment during Katrina, the mass imprisonment of youth and the economic devastation that is producing an ever expanding pool of young people without hope, the word "***"- with its connotations of inferiority- will be needed. Without such a definition of ourselves, we would be expelled from our zones of comfort and forced to defend our future.
*** Peery -
Posted By:
RS. at 03/24/2008 11:03:19 AM
Comment:
To me you present a compelling case for accepting Black people's choice to use the word. While I do agree on the point that our use does not legitimize other races using the word, I have a question I can't shake. It is the one question that keeps bringing me back to feeling that the word, even with its new appendages, embodies more hatred and death than anything else. The question is this: Doesn't the historical and contemporary social position of Blacks in America make their use of the word *** significantly different than a Toby Keith using white trash? To me it seems that the word ***, used in any form, fosters a slave mentality. Now I too was introduced to the word in very endearing and humorous terms. But no amount of personal humor and endearment I have around the word could prepare me for seeing the original nature and spirit of the word. Maybe it would be different if it's origin was lost in time, but it's not. So now today the word seems to be infinitely attached to the most inhumane acts ever seen. It was a word used to consistently deny us any humanity. So in a country, society that still attempts to achieve relegating Blacks to sub-human categories, isn't our use or acceptance of the word in any form significantly different than groups who are higher in the social caste? I guess the core of my question is this, do you think that regular use of the word ***, at any level, signals some internalization of a slave mentality or thinking?-
Posted By:
Marceline at 03/25/2008 2:27:43 PM
Comment:
RS - Agree with your larger point that blacks by far have gotten the short shrift in our society (as well as Native Americans). Still, Toby Keith could be referring to himself as white trash in the same spirit some blacks refer to themselves as niggers. While the main societal divides were Jim Crow black vs. white, there was in addition a race code covering the spectrum of colors real or imagined - light skinned or "yellow," and, poor white trash. In the North Italian and Irish immigrants weren't even considered "white." Erskine Caldwell's book, Tobacco Road, is about whites so downcast even blacks could make fun of them.
By the way, thank you Coates and the Root for printing the word ***. I hate when it's sugarcoated to "n-word" or "racial epithet" as much as I hate putting asterisks in place of cuss words.
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