There is no accepted policy, especially in America’s black community, about the use of the infamous “N” word.
I know a lot, I mean a whole helluva lot of white folk. None, zero, nada, not a single one uses the “N” word and with good reason. To a person, they know how incredibly wrong that particular choice of word is.
What we white folks don’t understand to be quite honest is why it’s okay for blacks to use the word, especially to refer to other blacks.
It’s much like that whole NAACP deal. I can’t say, “colored,” but millions of blacks can be in an organization that does?
I have seen, in person, Jesse Jackson speak, at least 4 or 5 times. I still have the speeches on tape. Each experience was exhilarating and impressive. There was a common theme in every speech: Black Americans needed to be more disciplined and exhibit more independence. The message was beyond admirable. Jackson was not only electrifying, he was right.
That was Jesse Jackson in the 80’s. The Jesse Jackson of recent times is described this way, overseas, in the Daily Telegraph:
“The Rev Jackson had already said sorry for saying of Mr. (Barack)Obama that he would like to ‘cut off his nuts’ for talking down to black people.
He was speaking off-air on Fox News and did not realise that his comments to a fellow guest were being picked up by a microphone. It has now emerged that he said: ‘Barack...he's talking down to black people...telling niggers how to behave.’”
That’s in today’s edition of the British paper. In November of 2006, CBS in Los Angeles reported the following:
“Rev. Jesse Jackson is calling for entertainers to stop using the N-word.He and other leaders held a news conference in Los Angeles Monday, calling for the voluntary ban. The move comes one day after comedian Michael Richards appeared on Jackson's radio show to apologize for his racial rant last week.As CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker reports, Jackson is going after TV and film stars, as well as musicians.Jackson says he plans to meet with TV networks, film companies and musicians to talk about what they can do to stop using the racial slur. Richards, who played the wacky neighbor on the popular Seinfeld show, was captured on a video cell phone using the N-word after two African Americans heckled him during his comedy routine.”
There appears to be an inconsistency at the very least, even a blatant hypocrisy when it comes to Jackson and the “N” word. This wouldn’t be the first time Jackson has uttered a racist comment and yet we are told by America’s mainstream media that Jackson along with Al Sharpton are black leaders, and the arbiters whenever speech is questioned to be racist.
Again, I can’t (and I never would) use the “N” word. But blacks can call each other the “N” word because, why? It’s a black thing, you stupid honky?
There will be, if there hasn’t been already, a summons to call out the Milwaukee Journal’s race-baiting columnist, Eugene Kane to address Jesse Jackson’s faux pas.
Back in 2006, Tonya Weathersbee wrote on blackamericaweb.com:
“A colleague of mine, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Eugene Kane, is on what has all the markings of a quixotic mission. He wants to bring a ‘ban the N-word 'campaign to Milwaukee public schools.
Right now though, it seems like the black students he’s encountered so far aren’t having it.
Kane wasn’t just prompted to start this sorely-needed consciousness-raising by Michael Richards’ rant, but by a white teacher who was struggling to get her black students to stop using the word.
In the world of surreal twists, that beats all.
Yet sadly enough, when Kane tried to educate her students on the awfulness of the N-word, they shot back defenses that made them seem dumber than the Jim Crow racists of the 1960s who of the 1960s who spelled it as 'Nigers' on their protest signs.
Among other things, they insisted the word doesn’t mean the same as it used to mean in the past. Some even said they wouldn’t care if a white person used it -- a statement I sense wasn’t made out of sincerity as much as it was made to defuse Kane’s argument and have the last word. One girl, Kane wrote, vigorously stood up for the N-word because, she said, it doesn’t mean anything to them to say it.”
It appears black families have some instruction on their hands. To earn respect, they have to respect themselves.
When I was at WUWM, I produced a highly successful documentary on black on black crime that I’m proud won many awards. That was in the late 80’s. Back then, the consensus among experts on the subject was that there is a huge lack of ethnic pride in the black community leading to violent crime. If that’s true, and I believe it is, then what’s stopping someone from tossing the “N” epithet if blacks are shooting and killing each other?
The “N” word isn’t as much of a problem in the white community. Oh, sure, some ignoramus will use it now and then. Unfortunately, until the final day of Earth, a certain amount of racism will exist and that’s tragic. However, the black community needs to clean up its act and stop using the “N’ word just as much as it’s offensive for whites to utter this slur.
How can people respect you if you don’t respect yourself?
