Missing the point regarding the use of the term “nigger”

If only, indeed [source: To Miss with Love]

Firstly, if you’re offended by my use of the full term in the title as opposed to the silly “N-word” euphemism, then this post is for you, so please read it through before firing off any angry and quickly-ignored (or happily mocked) tirades.

Exactly a month ago this Wednesday (ie. August 15), I wrote a post titled “On Dr. Laura, societal oversensitivity and political correctness” where I put down some of my thoughts regarding the then-fuming scandal about Dr. Laura’s on-air racially charged rant. I elaborated on two points: that racial oversensitivity in our society was becoming symptomatic of political correctness run amok, and that there appears to be an unfair double standard regarding who had the “right” (so to speak) to use the racial smear “nigger”. My point was that if the term truly is as horrible as people make it out to be, then it shouldn’t be acceptable for anyone to say it, regardless of their skin color, and that any Black person who is outraged when a White (or other non-Black) person says it should also be equally angry whenever a Black person says it. (Depending on context, of course, which was another point made in my sorta-dissertation.)

After publishing my post, I expected some sort of hostile feedback as these sorts of posts tend to conjure, but then, I was obviously overestimating just how many people frequent this little hole-in-the-world in the first place and how many precious fewer take the time to comment. But now, nearly a full month later, I finally received a detailed comment – and it was pretty much what I feared and expected: an exercise in completely and utterly missing the point. From commenter MOORE1165:

Ah Canadian it figures^[1] . The term African American refers ( as Im sure you know) to decent. And yes I am a lot more African than you are.[2]I am American. The term NIGGER was created to demean and dehumanize people of African decent.^[3] There is no way for you to understand the racial undertone of the word^[4] . Black rappers and comedians that use the word NIGGER maybe should not use it. But that doesnt give you or anyone else the right to say hey why cant I use it too?^[5] Thats the thought process are for the lighter hued folks who use the word NIGGER in private and just want to use it in public w/o a thorough ass kicking.^[6] The history of the African America , Black , Negro or if you must NIgga's is a long painful one full of death destruction of family genocide and disenfrancisement.But being from farther North you wouldnt get it anyway.^[7] Im no calling you a RACIST . Lets make that clear but might I suggest an old movie to rent The Watermelon Man. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066550/ Directed my Melven Van Peebles then maybe you can transpose yourself to the AA experience and understand WHY ITS NOT OK 4 U 2 USE THAT WORD!!!^[8]

I spared this commenter from the additional admonishment of the Comic Sans typeface as I don’t believe they’re being stupid or dishonest, but merely that they either didn’t bother reading through all of what I actually wrote in that post, or that they somehow distorted pretty much all I said through some sort of cognitive lens. Either way, I thought it was wrong (and somewhat amusing) enough to warrant a full post about it and my reply.

• 1) How so? Does being Canadian make me aloof? Or unable to comprehend social issues in the U.S.? If you actually believe that, especially in this day and age with the marvels of the Internet and international TV, then I would suggest it is you who suffers from a disconnect, not me.

• 2) I made it explicitly clear in my post that I was referring to how “African-Americans” are no more “African” than anyone else in a social and cultural sense. Unless Black people throughout the United States actually live in slums, drink parasite-infested water and walk miles to the nearest charity-sponsored school – which I doubt – then the label “African-American” doesn’t fit to them any more than “European-American” works for White Americans. You cannot and should not use an ethnic group’s ancestral origins as a definition for the modern people, who has an entirely different geographical setting and way of life. It’s illogical.

• 3) Actually, if you wanna get pedantic about it, “nigger” was originally adopted merely as a way to refer to the dark-skinned African natives being shipped back to the Americas at the start of the slave trade, and it’s during the decades of slavery and afterwards that the term acquired its derogatory connotation. Just so you know.

• 4) Baseless claim. You very obviously know nothing about me or my social awareness.

• 5) This is a perfect reflection of everything that I was trying to say in my original post (and now, in this one as well). The point I’m trying (repeatedly) to make, and that people like MOORE1165 just don’t seem to comprehend, is that White people who complain about Black people’s use of the term “nigger” don’t do so because they want to use it, themselves, which is a ridiculous and entirely baseless notion. What we’re arguing against is that hypocritical double standard. Not, “Why can’t I say it, too?”, but rather, “Why is it okay for you to say it but not for me?”. If a word is bad, then it’s bad for everyone, not just whichever ethnic group it refers to. You don’t get to decide who has the “right” to say a specific word and who doesn’t. If it’s bad for one, it’s bad for everyone; conversely, if it’s acceptable for one group to use it, then it’s okay for everyone to say it as well. That’s just fairness and equality.

  I’m happy that MOORE1165 doesn’t think Black rappers and comedians should use that word, but the reality is that if they don’t get just as incensed whenever a Black person says “nigger” as when a White person says it, then they’re a hypocrite. And same goes to anyone who thinks that way.

• 6) Another bullshit claim. Do try to avoid making those.

• 7) Why? Because I’m Canadian? Or White? (Or both?) Newsflash, sweetie: Canada (even Québec!) had slavery, too. Lots of it. Sure, we abolished it in the 1830s, about 30 years before the United States did after the U.S. Civil War in 1865, but that doesn’t make Canadians any more ignorant of the history of slavery and the ensuing climate of discrimination and racism than Americans. In fact, any Canadian who reads up on the matter will know even more than the average American, so claiming that my being “from farther North” is a reason why I wouldn’t “get it” is rather dumb.

• 8) If not for me, then not for thee. (And stop yelling, unless you’re seven or something, which still wouldn’t make it okay, but at least more understandable than a grown person screaming on the Internet at a random blogger for using a word he doesn’t like.)

Tags: racism • political correctness • Black people • White people