Of course, in the same way Seinfeld used Richards' apology to insulate his upcoming DVD release (which didn't work; Jesse ), Jackson used this most recent apology to push his own oddball agenda -- as well.
“We want to give our ancestors a present,” Jackson said at a news conference today. “Dignity over degradation.
”
Most surprisingly to me, Jackson was joined by Paul Mooney, a legendary comic who was Richard Pryor's running buddy and writing partner back in the day. He also wrote for everyone from Sanford and Son to In Living Color, with a stage show so blue he once used the n-word about as many times as Robin Williams changes accents onstage.
Now, Mooney has joined his famous pal Pryor in renouncing professional use of the n-word, saying Richards was my Dr.
Phil. He's cured me.
All of which puts me in a weird position.
Because I, a proud professional black man who rarely if ever uses the n-word, simply do not agree.
I can't help thinking of all the great art I've enjoyed which featured the n-word prominently: standup routines by Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock; movies by Spike Lee, Murphy, the Hudlin Brothers and Keenen Ivory Wayans; music by Public Enemy, The Roots, N.W.
A., Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Kanye West and more.
I find myself thinking: Was all that work somehow self-defeating or wrong because it spoke the way many black people speak? Shouldn't we be judging the ideas expressed and the creativity on display rather than just the words themselves? And does insisting on such a standard for artists just force them to choose between middle class intellectuals who hate the n-word and working class fans who use it everyday?
Don't bother using these questions to challenge my belief that black folks can use the n-word in a way non-black people cannot. See here for my past thoughts on that.
But as Jackson and U.
S. Rep. Maxine Waters and a host of other well and not-so-well meaning activists stand up to challenge black pop culture to improve itself, I find myself concluding that this is a linguistic shackle which shouldn't be accepted.
It's like watching the disintegration of Chappelle all over again. A Muslim who I suspect is more militant than his easygoing public image indicates, Chappelle left his blockbuster comedy show because he felt fans were regurgitating his trenchant satires on race as empty stereotypes -- using his Rick James and crackhead characters to wallow in the degradation of black people instead of absorbing the larger message.
So he left the airwaves.
And now nobody's talking about race, culture and media the way he did. Is that really a better outcome?
Should we raise the bar for our artists?
No doubt. Should we challenge the rampant misogyny, homophobia, violence and self destructiveness which fills some black-focused movies, music and television? For sure.
But no word is so awful it can't be used creatively and incisively by someone. and banning a word without addressing the ideas behind it feels more like a panacea than anything -- a feel good moment which hobbles geniuses while letting the knuckleheads continue their awful work without reproach.
So forgive me for standing behind the artist's right to use the n-word, even as I emphasize others: Creativity.
Quality. Cultural awareness. Substance.
If we as black people demand those words from our entertainment, it won't matter whether they use the other one.
With so much race and media stuff out there, I feel I've been missing other topics.
* Think NBC would have had the stones to if the GOP hadn't been handed its you-know-what during the last election?
* The Project for Excellence in Journalism : The two most valuable things the news media offers on these fast-moving election nights now is a quick summary of key results for those wanting the headlines and deep veins of data that users can mine on their own. That may explain why TV Web sites fared well.
* Forget about lame-o TV comedies like the Class and Two and Half Men -- to , and get a look at the future of TV comedy.
Los Angeles, CA., Author H. Lewis Smith has written a thought provoking, culturally divided book that will not only spark heated conversation, but can also bring about real change.
The N-word is often used in the African American community amongst each other and is generally not a problem when spoken by another African American. However, once the word is used by a Caucasian person, it brings on other effects. The question is "who can use the word and why?
" Smith believes it is a word that should be BURIED!!!
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The book is written in a manner that all can understand. The points are
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There are quotes from great
people in our history including Martin Luther King, Jr., Harriet Tubman, James Baldwin and many, many others. Smith has mixed history with honesty, love with life, education with effects.
This is a great book for educators, parents, managers, professionals, newsmen, and anyone else wanting an in-depth look at the N-word, the effects and the solutions. A MUST READ!!
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Bill I'm curious if you are older than 35 or so.
My generation has grown up with the word. I didn't learn the word from my family or friends, but rather learned the word from groups like NWA and listening to Eddie Murphy standup.
I think my generation is more comfortable with the word without attaching the hateful connontation to it automatically as older folks might.
Me and my friends spent our teens reffering to one another as "My nigga" or "My negro" and pretty much all of us are white. Some of my circle was black and it was not a problem for us to refer to one another in the same manner as all us white kids did.
You can automatically assume that we were denigrating one another and especially we were denigrating the blacks in our circle, but it certainly never was used in a negative context and was more about inclusion than anything.
Oh and as strange as it all may sound that a bunch of white kids in a small town were reffering to one another as "Negro" or as "My nigga" just look at the pop culture that has come about since the early 90's. Our favorite movies were antying by John Singleton or Albert Hughes, Menace II Society, Boys in the Hood, Dead Presidents, etc etc, Snoop Dogg had just cut his teeth on Dr. Dre's The Chronic which was HUGE hit and incredibly popular with my friends.
We were absorbing black culture and identifying with it. Does that breed racism or tear it down I wonder?
Anyways, it's a moot point.
The word is not going away. If people find it funny or entertaining to use in standup, or music, or movies, the market is going to be more powerful than any attempt by one group of activists or another. The entertainers that refuse to use languge that their target audience can identify with will become irrelevant and other entertainers will take their place.
Khan,
Thank you for your comments. I am indeed over 35. While I realize that many use the N-word in its multiple variants in ways that the users do not intend to be offensive, and that all who use it are not evil, the word serves to reinforce racism.
While there are historical examples where the meaning of a symbol has been co-opted and reversed through common usage, the N-word remains one of the ultimate enduring symbols of racism. There are a lot of contemporary examples of this, including the Michael Richards outburst.
It is a bit ironic that some (many) people in the current generation have grown up with the word and do not see it as offensive: In my lifetime I have known earlier generations who also grew up with the word and who also did not find it offensive, but the fact remains that the use of the word fosters a climate in which persons of certain African ancestry are treated differently from and by others merely on the basis of appearance or heredity.
Exploiting the word for mass commercial entertainment does not mitigate this fact and, indeed, aggravates the situation by desensitization. A parallel example of this is seen in the abusive denigration of women in certain mass music entertainment forms.
One of the greatest challenges to our society is to find a way past the inhibitors of racism, both practiced and institutionalized.
While it is overwhelmingly likely that the N-word, like the swatstika, will always be around, enlightened people who seek a well-ordered, fair and just civil society should not use such symbols.
This just a blog and not the place to post essays about racism, and I apologize for the length of this posting, but racism threatens all of us and benefits none of us.
I don't think that Jackson's call to stop using the n-word is necessarily a condemnation of artists who use the word.
I think what he is seeking to change is the culture that is reflected in the art. While art can shape culture and our social discourse, it has to have a shared experience to resonate with. If society at large decides to move on past using the n-word, artists will move on as well.
Also, while discussing the artistic merit of the n-word, I think there is an impotant distinction in the way some people on your list use the word. In "Bring the Pain", Chris Rock makes a very clear distinction in connotaion and use of the word. He still ses the n-word as denigrating and considers it an insult, even among his own race.
Rock practically dares the audience to rise above it.
Now compare that with something like N.W.
A.'s "EFIL4ZAGGIN", which I feel tries to paint the whole race with one broad stroke and label the whole culture with the n-word.
I feel that at some point, black culture decided to stand up against the n-word by assimilating it.
Where it was once a term to exclude people, it was transformed to the password to an exclusive brotherhood. Unfortunately, it wasn't as successful as a word like "queer" being assimilated into the culture it was meant to offend.
My opinion: it's become part of a hip-hop culture that was once brave, defiantly telling about life in poverty, danger and finding hope in the despair.
Now, hip-hop culture lionizes fatalism, misogyny, ignorance and greed - and the cultural significance of the n-word has backslid along with it.
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