In a panel discussion at the Summer Television Critics Association
tour this past summer, Aaron McGruder, creator of the popular
comic strip, Boondocks, defiantly told the audience that he'll
use the N-word as much as he pleases in episodes of the series
on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. If folk don't like it,
then they'll just have to get over it. After all, everyone
uses it. He's right. Black comedians and rappers sprinkle
the word throughout their rap lyrics and comedy lines, and
black writers, and filmmakers go through lengthy gyrations
to justify using the word. The word has been canonized in
hip jargon.
Harvard professor Randall Kennedy, in a provocative, but
conflicted, short polemic, nigger published a few years ago
denounced the double standard that blacks apply to whites.
He railed that nigger is hardly the earth-shattering, illegitimate
word that many blacks and whites brand it.
McGruder, and N-word users and apologists, loudly agree.
Their rationale boils down to this, the more a black person
uses the word, the less offensive it becomes. They claim that
they are cleansing the word of its negative connotations so
that racists can no longer use it to hurt blacks. Comedian,
turned activist, Dick Gregory had the same idea some years
ago when he titled his autobiography, Nigger. Black writer,
Robert DeCoy also tried to apply the same racial shock therapy
to whites when he titled his novel, The Nigger Bible.
McGruder,
and N-word apologists, tick off an endless storehouse
of defenses to justify use of the word. They claim that
that it is a term of endearingly or affectionately.
They say to each other, "You're my nigger if you don't
get no bigger." Or, "that nigger sure is something."
Others use it in anger or disdain, "Nigger you sure
got an attitude." Or, "A nigger ain't shit." Still,
others are defiant. They say they don't care what a
white person calls them since words can't harm them.
N-word apologists have no patience with those who want
to purge the word from public discourse, wage war against
classics such as Huckleberry Finn, encode it in hate
speech laws and impose penalties and sanctions on professors,
basketball coaches, and public officials who use it
no matter how instructive or benevolent their intentions.
Yet in their passionate plea to recast public thinking
and debate over the word, they forget, ignore or distort
one thing. Words are not value neutral. They express
concepts and ideas. Often, words reflect society's standards.
If color-phobia is a deep-rooted standard in American
life, then a word, as emotionally charged as nigger,
will always reinforce and perpetuate stereotypes. It
can't be sanitized, cleansed, inverted, or redeemed
as a culturally liberating word. Nigger can't and shouldn't
be made acceptable, no matter whose mouth it comes out
of or what excuse is tossed out for using it.
There are still dozens of daily examples where whites
(and other non-blacks) taunt, and harass blacks by calling
them nigger, spray paint the word on their homes, businesses,
churches, physically assault and even murder blacks.
In the FBI's annual count of hate crimes in America,
blacks still make up the overwhelming majority of victims.
The N-word reigns supreme at the top of the stack as
the favorite racial epithet hurled at blacks during
these crimes. Even when the word isn't used, the sentiment
is that blacks are still fair game too be abused and
dehumanized, and the N-word reinforces that belief.
The word nigger is and will always have, grotesque,
and deadly meaning to them. And, even if some blacks
do occasionally go off the deep end and wrongly harangue
whites for using the word, maybe that's because nigger,
pricks agonizing historical and social sores.
Some years ago comedian Richard Pryor publicly admitted
his complicity in aiding and abetting the legitimizing
of the word. The irreverent Pryor had practically made
a career out of using the word in his routines. But
following his return from Africa, he told a concert
audience that he now considered the word profane and
disrespectful. He was dropping it from his act because
he had too much pride in blacks and himself. The audience
exploded in thunderous applause.
McGruder would probably frown on Pryor's racial conversion
as a betrayal of cultural faith and freedom. But Pryor
got it right. And anyone who apologizes for McGruder's
defense of the N-word should rent the tape of that concert
to understand why there's nothing hip in using or misusing
the word.
Earl
Ofari Hutchinson is a columnist for BlackNews.com,
an author and political analyst.
For
media interviews, contact:
Mr. Hutchinson at 323-296-6331 or hutchinsonreport@aol.com
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