Ok so this is sort of old news, but I am watching Dog the Bounty Hunter and you know how that gets the intellectual juices flowing. So Dog, real name Duane Chapman, got his show cancelled after his son leaked a voicemail message to the National Enquirer in which Dog called his son's girlfriend a "nigger." It was somewhat rambling and ironic considering he explicity stating he didn't want the tape leaked, but the bottom line was he used a racial slur to refer to a black woman. Anywho, hullabaloo ensued and after a tearful appearance on Larry King and some ass-kissing to Rev. Al Sharpton Dog is back on A&E. And I like the show. I like that they are white trash and so proud of it. I also love that Dog's wife Beth is a strong woman with HUGE Dolly Parton tits, that you can tell are totes real. But what I find to be really interesting is the fact that the first two new episodes of the program show Dog being overly friendly with black people. I know this isn't really strange, but over the past two seasons I have been watching there really haven't been that many black people on the show. Since Da Kine bail bonds, Dog's business, is based out of Hawaii, the only people of color usually shown are native Hawaiins and Somoans. What is strange is how the show seems to be blatantly trying to "prove" that Dog is not racist. In one episode he actually says to a black woman, whose son he is trying to find, "different color, same heart." I guess it is valid that A&E are actively try to show how tolerant Dog is, but it always seems strange to me when people need to "prove" that they aren't racist. I mean, shouldn't you just not be racist?
Which brings me to The View. Oh yes, The View. I don't really watch The View anymore since Rosie O'Donnell left although I am increasingly becoming aware of how awesome Whoopi Goldberg is (anyone who makes Elisabeth cry is awesome in my book). So a couple weeks back the ladies, including Babwa that day, decided to talk about the N-word. In the course of the conversation Whoopi claimed that black people calling eachother "nigger" or "nigga" was a way of taking back the word and using it for good instead of it's negative connotations and Sherri agreed. Which made Elisabeth fighting mad and eventually made her break down in tears because she believes that word she never be used, ever by anyone because of it's connotations. And to be honest, I agreed with both of them.
This is what Webster's Dictionary says Nigger means:
Function: noun
Etymology: alteration of earlier neger, from Middle French negre, from Spanish or Portuguese negro, from negro black, from Latin niger
Date: 1786
1: usually offensive; see usage paragraph below : a black person
2: usually offensive; see usage paragraph below : a member of any dark-skinned race
3: a member of a socially disadvantaged class of persons "it's time for somebody to lead all of America's niggers…all the people who feel left out of the political process" — Ron Dellums.
So there you go, in any case, it is a word that is considered offensive. But it is a word. I believe in the power of words, I believe words matter a great deal. But in this case, I can see both sides of the issue. As a person who believes words matter and as a person that staunchly defends free speech, I agree that anyone and everyone theoretically should be able to use the word "nigger." It's your right to use it if you want, in what way you want. It's the law. However, as someone who can empathize with those who have been called a "nigger" based solely on their race or have racial slurs hurled at them for any number of reasons and one who has studied, albeit in a limited way, racism in America, I also understand how people can be incredibly offended by its usage in any way by anyone.
I can't remember when I first heard the word. My parents don't use it, but my dad's father did. I don't know if I would necessarily consider by grandfather a "racist" for using the word as it was in common usage when he was growing up, nor do I consider my other grandfather racist when he refers to black people as "negroes." I have bi-racial cousins from many different races, including African American, and I have never once felt that they were different in any way based on the color of their skin. But even though I can't remember when I first heard the word, I can tell you that it offends me.
The word "nigger" offends me because all racial slurs offend me, and I don't really care who says them. I stiill find it offensive. I believe that using words such as racial slurs denote a certain ignorance of those using them and in general, they make me uncomfortable. I don't believe that at this time, racial slurs are being used to develop better race relations in this country. It's just what I believe. But many people find words offensive and I don't believe that others finding words offensive should make them any less important or usable. For example, one of my friends doesn't curse. She just doesn't. She feels that she can express herself without profanity. She just doesn't use those words. And if she told me that my usage of profanity offended her I would try to tone it down when I was speaking with her. We're different people, with different personalities and with different ways of expressing ourselves. And I would like to say it's as simple as that. But I think we all know it isn't.
This is where it becomes a double-edged word because as much as the word "nigger" offends me, I don't necessarily think that should stop others from using them. If someone wants to use words in a certain way, who am I to tell them to stop? But this also has a contradiction, in that if people are using words in a way meant to perpetuate racism or further the ideology of unequal race relations in this country, don't I, as someone whose moral and ethical background forbids this type behavior, have a duty to stand up for what I believe in and stand up for those who are still being discriminated against today? It's a tough question for me, because as much as I believe in freedom of speech and as much as I hate censorship. I can't be right with people using words against others. And the whole subject of race, makes it that much harder.
This is what confuses me.
I can say this: No one, not anyone of any race, should be able to say the word "nigger" because of it's negative connotations. Besides slavery, besides segregation, besides all of that. Bottom line, "nigger" is a slang term and it is a racial slur. Racial slurs aren't nice and I dont' agree with them. Period.
I can also say this: Everyone should be allowed to say the word "nigger" because it is only through common usage that the word will shed its negative connotations and open up a bigger forum for people of all ethnic backgrounds to discuss race relations and perhaps make the negative usage of this world obsolete
Or I can say this: Only black people should be able to say the word "nigger" because they are black and "nigger" is a slang term for black person. They can say the word as a means to take back this bit of language and make it into a positive.
If I say number one, I'm not being fair. I can't tell someone what and what they can not say in their own home. If I say number two, I'm saying that it is ok for people to use the word, even if it means they are using it in a hateful matter. And if I say number three, I am effectively saying that one racial group can "own" a word, which is a little absurd to me. Plus, I am not at all convinced that just because black people are black, they use the words in a positive sense.
So a white person calls someone a "nigger" and black person calls someone a "nigger." They both mean the same thing. They both mean no harm or ill will towards said someone. Yet it is different. It's different because one person is white and one person is black.
Richard Pryor was from Peoria, which is near where I live. He was hilarious and his ability to laugh at himself made him even funnier. But he cursed. And he used racial slurs a lot. But he wasn't selective on the racial slur front. I was once watching a comedy central special early one morning and it was an older Richard Pryor set. He used the word "honky" to refer to a white person. Everyone laughed in the audience, even the white people. While I didn't necessarily think it was uproariously funny, I was a little confused. If white people can laugh at a black person using a racial slur towards them, then why is it not ok for a white person to laugh at a black person using a racial slur towards black people. After all, it is comedy. This is a common occurrence in comedy. Dave Chappelle told Oprah that he walked away from his hugely successful sketch comedy show, The Chappelle Show, after he made a joke using the word "nigger" and a white person in the audience laughed a little too loud. There seems to be a double standard. It is guilt? It's been statistically proven that racism is not just ideological in this country, it's is political and economical. And it's not just about black people. No, in the United States of America, institutionalized racism has effectively shut out Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, and just about every other person you could categorize as "non-white." Do I as a middle-middle class white American feel guilt? Is that the reason I can not speak the dreaded N word aloud? Do somehow I feel that because, statistically, I will have a better life than most people of color, simply because I am white, I need to prove my tolerance and acceptance by specifically avoiding any words that could be misconstrued as racist? I don't know the answer to that.
So this is the conundrum that I never wanted to be in. Am I an Elisabeth. Or am I a Sherri? To be honest, I don't know. But I do know, I would never use the word to refer to a black perosn or any other person for that matter. I do know that if I ever raised children, I would never teach them to use the word in any form. I do know that the word is viewed many different ways by many different people and no one person can have the definitive answer to it's moral and ethical question.
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