DREGUBLOG CATEGORY ARCHIVE: People
Monday, July 21, 2008
N-Word: Use At Your Own Risk
Hi. My name is Danielle Belton and I am an official, 100 %, born n' raised American black woman. I popped out of my Mama's womb black. I'm gonna die black. I'm the descendant of slaves and their masters. I say this to let you know that this is the authentic view of one solitary natural born Negro. (Not all, so don't get it twisted.) And this is my message to non-Negroes about a troublesome word so powerful that it makes pretty white girls cry.
So listen close to what I'm about to say.
You can use the "N-word."
Seriously. Use it.
I only say this because Thursday's edition of ABC's The View drove me to a Bloody Mary and a marathon of B-boys breaking it down on MTV because that's my idea of soft-core porn. Very relaxing.
But for those who don't know, last Thursday, conservative, normally perky yakker Elisabeth Hasselbeck was reduced to tears of the N-word.
She hates the N-word, ya'll. She would never use it or any racial epitaph. So she wanted to know why black folks, could fling it around. Co-hosts/comedians Sherri Shepherd and Whoopi Goldberg tried to shut Hasselbeck's shit down with the usual, "I'm black. It doesn't mean the same when I say it to my kinfolk and you can't tell me what I can't say to my own peoples. But you, white girl, can't say it because of the history of white folks just being dicks about it, coming up with this singular word that reduces us to chattle. So we took the word back and now you just can't say it, white folks! We live in different worlds! Nigga, what! What!"
While I agree that the word comes from painful origins, I really think black folks should stop with the you can't say it dogma and white folks should stop acting like there is some rule, some ghetto pass that can be distributed that would absolve them of all historical white privilege and guilt and let them rip into that word like an Arkansan on chicken neckbone.
Fact is, the situation is a lot more complicated than, "I can say it and you can't," because in all reality -- We Negroes can't say it either.
The N-word, nigger, is a racially charged curse word. Like the vagina-laced C-bomb but with an ethnic lineage, the N-word is not cool in all black circles. A lot, and I mean A LOT, of black people hate the N-word and would not use it under any circumstances. They get offended when it is used around them by other black people. They, like me, stopped listening to certain types of hip hop years ago because the "nigga, nigga, nigger" shit got old fast.
It reeked of self-hatred and acting out the pain of our history through the adoption of the words of our captors. Trying to make love out of a mass of fecal matter. In my house the word was banned. My mother didn't use it. She didn't even curse and as far as she was concerned the N-word was a curse word. My dad used it, but only while joking with his younger brother. He knew how my mother felt and even though he came from a place where the N-word was fine among family and friends he didn't use it anywhere else.
The word, even when used as benign slang by other black people has historically been seen as tacky and low class. It was too rude to use out in public, in front of old folks or at work. Like the sexist dig "cunt" there was no appropriate place to fling the term around other than amongst your friends and family.
I don't use the word personally. I have in the past, but in the end I came to the same conclusion as my mom. There wasn't enough soap in the world to make that word clean. I've been called a nigger by a black person and by a white person in my 30 years and it hurt both times. It was shocking both times. It was hateful both times. And it was meant to "put me in my place" both times.
Don't go thinking you're smart or talented because you're still a "nigger."
But that's not why I'm saying white folks should just let the word fly. My beef is that it is ignorant to ban words. Rev. Jesse Jackson proved this after making a big show of leading the NAACP to have a ceremonial burial of the N-word and lambasting rappers for their N-word addiction. Then, in a casual conversation with another Negro, he drops it while talking about black Jesus ... I mean, Barack Obama (sometimes I get them confused). And suddenly he's a hypocrite when in reality he's just another victim of his own faulty logic. You can't ban words. The more forbidden the more people want to say it and that is the only reason why this debate exists.
The truth is the N-word was invented by white people. It was once their proxy, pal and verbal weapon. Maybe deep inside some folks just want it back, want to return to the good ol' days when you could just drop an N-bomb in a black person's face and they couldn't say jiggaboo back.
But I say, don't explain. Don't equivocate. Don't make up bullshit reasons about trying to reclaim the word, black people. Don't say you can say it and they can't. Tell they can say it. Encourage them to. Tell them they can say it as much as they want, but they have to take whatever drama comes with it.
There is no ghetto pass coming. There is no black Pope coming down to let you kiss the ring and receive the blessing to be profane. There is nothing to absolve you if you drop the word in the wrong setting. This is a "use at your own risk" situation. You can say the N-word, but you have to accept the burden of the N-word. You have to be prepared for the criticism, the stares, the denouncing and the controversy. You can't have it all. You can't use it freely because you can't change the past. You can't use it liberally because black people can't even use it freely amongst each other. Hearing a black person say "nigger" may feel slightly different, but it is disrespectful all the same. But I have no right telling you what to say any more than Elisabeth "Pollyanna" Hasselbeck has the right to say that no one should use the N-word.
Yeah, it's hateful. Yeah, it's wrong. But go ahead and say it if you want. It's a free country. Just beware of the free beatdown you may receive for expressing that right.
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Saturday, June 28, 2008
The "Kitchen Nightmares" Business Model
Like a ten car pile-up with bodies strewing the highway, I can't tear my eyes away from the reality program Kitchen Nightmares. The pain and squeamishness I feel watching people getting their asses kicked by Chef Gordon Ramsay is tempered by the outrage I also feel at watching people letting their restaurants die through inefficiency, intransigence, and sheer stupidity. As disingenuous as the reality show can be, Chef Ramsay and his team have actual knowledge, informed by experience, as to why these businesses are failing, and make an attempt to turn them around. And as dippy as it may seem, I have come to believe that Ramsay's techniques could be used successfully for all kinds of businesses. If he could tone down the restaurant-bred rage and profanity, I believe that Gordon Ramsay could be the progenitor of an improved business reality.
Like most reality shows, the action in Kitchen Nightmares follows a prescribed format. Chef Gordon Ramsay surprises the restaurant employees as they're preparing for dinner service. He talks to the owner about the restaurant's problems. At dinner, Chef Ramsay orders from the menus and judges the meal, unanimously negatively. He rips into the management. Then, during dinner, he stands over the chef and the staff, screaming at them in derision. A major conflict between Chef Ramsay, the owner, the manager, and the chef ensues. Things get uglier as Chef Ramsay issues pointed insults and character assassinations, usually resulting in someone storming out. He returns the next day with a plan that he believes will save the restaurant. The staff tries it, and lo and behold, it starts to work. There are hugs and tears, as Chef Ramsay then gently explains to them, with convincing sensitivity and concern, that they are all wonderful people, and that all he really wanted was for their restaurant to work. Ramsay returns two months later, and if they have adopted his methods, the business is no longer in peril.
Most of Chef Ramsay's business advice is common sense, something which most of the restaurant owners that are selected for the show do not possess. This is revealed by restaurants that are filthy, disorganized, and rely on menus based on frozen and pre-packaged ingredients. Kitchen Nightmares forces them to try something new, or risk televised humiliation. The other strategy that Chef Ramsay relies upon is also straightforward, if brutal, in its simplicity: breaking someone down to build them back up, shaking off their old, bad habits that are the products of the restaurant owners' bizarrely huge egos. Gordon Ramsay is skilled at psychological confrontation. His bullying is perversely effective, and always squirmingly fascinating to watch.
True, the restaurants that are featured on Kitchen Nightmares are going to be the worst examples of business ineptitude in order to provide television drama. I sometimes feel sorry for the poor idiot who is getting torn a new one by Chef Ramsay, but one has to remember that these people signed up for this. Their dual desperation of wanting to be on TV and trying to dodge bankruptcy has caused the reaming, and so it seems warranted.
Wouldn't it be great if Gordon Ramsay expanded his bellowing métier to other enterprises? Wouldn't there be immense satisfaction if he showed up to turn around the swindling realty in your neighborhood? Gordon, scream at the dishonest louts and force them to return rapacious broker fees! Offer discount incentives in order to sell new property! The too cool for school hair salon? Chasten the staff, who desperately cling to their snotty prejudices! They'll make more money if they're nonjudgmental, not just tragically hip. The rude delicatessen? Why should customers endure abuse to order food from them? Constrain them to volunteer in a soup kitchen and see what it's like to have no job at all! And when these deeds are done, how about a big group hug so that they all feel appreciated and validated? Chef Ramsay, please turn your techniques into a compulsory study for all business owners, and save us from occupational ineptitude.
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Thursday, June 19, 2008
THE PENTAGON DIVA STRIKES, AND IT FEELS LIKE A KISS
OUR beloved girl in Washington, the Pentagon Diva of I LUV A MAN IN A UNIFORM-blog-fame, wrote such a "cave-smokingly hot" blog about fellow counterinsurgency expert and all-around PowerDandy Dave Kilcullen that even the WIRED national security blog, DANGER ROOM picked it up.
Who Wouldn't Pick Up Such A Juicy News Item
Yet more proof that life within the Pentagon is infinitely more varied than scientists ever previously imagined possible. As the Diva herself would say, "MEEOOW!"
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Wednesday, June 18, 2008
INTRODUCING: THE BLACK SNOB
It is with outstanding and chest-beating pleasure and pride that we who are Cintra Wilson introduce yet another whomping talent from the creedly corners of outer Blogovia, THE BLACK SNOB. I hope you enjoy her incredible talent for nailing everything you ever wanted to know about black chicks but thought you'd get your ass kicked for asking as much as I do. Ms. Snob, as you can see below, truly roasts the written word, and we are honored to have her.
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Tuesday, June 17, 2008
The Unfuckables: Asian Men, Black Women Surprisingly Pissed Over Interracial Dating
In America and if you're a man who enjoys getting head it really helps, statistically, if you're a white guy. You have way more options because something must be magical about white dick considering when it comes to interracial dating for Asian and Latina women, white penis is where it is at.
If you're not white and you want to get ass, being a black guy is the next best thing. Fucking a black guy is still the number one way to piss your parents off if you're a white girl. But statistically the one man in America no one wants a triple X throwdown with is sideshow William Hung, actor John Cho and a multitude of their Asian American male counterparts.
I didn't know anyone could be more pissed about interracial dating than black women, but Asian American men give us sisters a run for our Haterade. While it doesn't bother me much, a lot of black girls treat every stringy haired, flat-assed, orange fake tan Aryan Goddess like Buffy the Negro Slayer.
But color me surprised, the Asian man wants to put a foot in the ass of every white boy coveting their shojo princesses.
A few years back I started reading blogs and internet forums by Asian American men and I learned that they were crying out in silent pain over what is the mantra of both our kind:
No one wants to fuck us.
Now technically, some people want to fuck black women, but usually that becomes "fuck over." But East Asian women date outside their race at a much higher rate than black men or women. As for black women we hardly date outside of their race no matter how high up we go careerwise. To this day black magazines write articles suggesting successful black women to consider "marrying down" by fucking a plumber or a guy who sells mixtapes at the swamp meet. So what if you have an MBA from Harvard? That cat on fries looks like he could get us pregnant before we hit forty.
For the sisters if it ain't black they don't want it. It's Negro or nothing.
Asian men just want the benefit black and white men get. They want to be fucked. They want to be desired. No white or black girls are dreaming about swallowing an Asian man whole. Everyone is a fetish but them. (Well, the gays have an Asian man fetish, but that really doesn't help the rice grinder riders who like pussy.) They want girls to want to give them head too. They want a fucking date. And this shit isn't a joke, this time, it's personal.
You can sell post-feminist Americans on men who can keep their jobs, treat women well just because they're supposed to, and won't run off with some other girl after 2 years leaving you holding the house and kids. (Of course that's a lie too...) And then there's the final option ... Just grab your trusty AK-47 and simply fill every goddamn racist white male SOB full of lead and tell them to keep their !@#$ hands off of Asian women. It's your move.
It's hard to live down the stereotype that Asian guys are controlling, mama boy nerds with limited penis power and suffer from a bad case of "Otaku wuss."
A few Asians commenting on the message boards noticed that black women can't get a date either and suggested the obvious: a black woman/Asian man case of Yellow Dengue Fever. And while this sounds delicious to me, black women are notoriously intimidating. (Re: Negro or nothing!) I know I scare the shit about of men all the time. But I say try anyway. I mean, I've checked out some Korean boys and thought "I'd hit that," so live dangerously, Asian man.
But I realize most won't take the black bait because of the myth of the Negresses being undesirable (we're apparently butch harridans) and how we all must be used to being fucked by monster cocks.
Try as one might, you can't explain to the men of America that the dick thing is overrated and that it's "open season" on at least trying to love up the black girl. But apparently the black man put a "hands off" sign on all of us and for some reason everyone respects it. Which is odd given that the minute they stopped getting hung for it black men started ignoring the hands-off signs on white women.
But my Asian brothers, try not to dwell too much on it. After all you don't want to be forever bitter like black women who are still all sour patches over Tiger Woods, who technically is insulting three ethnicities with his wife, Elin, the ultimate fembot. Tiger dissed black women, Asian women and White American women. Us all filled with impurities, he had to find the WHITEST WHITE WOMAN IN THE WORLD OF WHITE WOMEN, venturing the valley of the Nordic blond in Europe to find his prize. She's so pure if you cut her she'd bleed unicorns and Summer's Eve.
Which would explain why she always looks like a douche to me.
But, oops. I let the bitterness slip. Yeah for black men fucking white women. Whoo-hoo.
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Tuesday, April 22, 2008
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I GIVE YOU MUIRE DOUGHERTY
The DREGUBLOG is mind-blowingly, stand-on-the-chair-and-yowl-like-you're-at-a-KISS-concert-level enthusiastic to introduce the ingenious and H.O.T.T. Muire Dougherty, our longtime homegirl and collaboratrix, who has always been a wit-and-a-half with blazing raw comic and literary talent and a hot rack to match, and who is now generously bringing these things to a fine focus in order to kick all the ass in our little patch of cyberspace.
She's our kind of special lady, so please, gentlemen, try to keep your catcalls down to a sustainable level of deafening. I only wish you could also see her dance.
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Friday, January 25, 2008
ASH-X DIVA ROBBYNE KAAMIL, SCORCHING THE TERRA TONIGHT IN MANHATTAN
WE who are CintraWilson.com officially lend our undying support to our ASH-X revolutionary soul-sister
Robbyne Kaamil, who is a superlative performer and doing her gig tonight:
BITCH: RAW, REAL, BACK
Grab a cocktail, take your medication and come see me live and in action!
Tickets are now on sale for my one woman show - "Robbyne Kaamil - Raw & Real - The Bitch is Back with a Vengeance" - Friday, January 25 at 9pm at the Zipper Factory - 336 West 37th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues.
Ticket Price: $20
EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT HAS BEEN EXTENDED: When purchasing tickets online at www.thezipperfactory.com Enter Discount Code: DLIST
Save $5 and pay only $15. You can also use the Discount Code when purchasing tickets at the door on the night of the performance.
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Sunday, July 8, 2007
HOLOGRAPHIC AL A HIT!
In Cintra's latest article for Salon, she opines on the import of VP-turned-MC Al Gore and his successful international climate crisis bash.
If you haven't seen the magical projection of Gore that kicked of the show(s), YouTube!
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Thursday, June 21, 2007
Brinky Meets Idol
Skateboard Journalist , bestower of stickers and commenter who encourages us to disengage our brains and listen to more Andrew W.K. for a happier life; Rob Brink is in Vegas doing something too complicated to go into here..skating, flash mobs... Anyway Brinky hit the jackpot and got to meet his Party Guru and he's the happiest mofo ev-ar.
I'm glad for Brinky, from what I gather AWK was personable and engaging, a skill some celebs have never cultivated, which begs the question "If you don't like being noticed and approached in public, why did you court fame in the first place?"
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Friday, June 8, 2007
WE’LL ALWAYS HATE PARIS
SO, I wrote a think piece about it for SALON that you can read via this link here.
The editors kind of gutted it of all of my "This Is Class Warfare!" inflammo-rhetoric, but it was there in the original. If I had gotten any sleep last night I might have tried harder to maintain my integrity. But integrity looked very small and the bed looked very large.
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Monday, May 7, 2007
ADDERALL SPOKES-SPAZZ EMBRACES DUI FAD
Adderall poster-boy Ty Pennington, age 42, was arrested by the LAPD at 12:15 AM on Saturday for Driving Under the Influence, thereby joining the exclusive, super-cool ranks of such luminous Hollywood drunk drivers as Lindsay Lohan, Mel Gibson, Paris Hilton, Eve, Michelle Rodriguez, Busta Rhymes, Nicole Richie,Vivica A. Fox, Rip Torn, Ray Liotta, Mike Tyson, Gus Van Sant, "Taboo" from the Black Eyed Peas.....and a host of other famous people trying to kill us with their vehicles, like Brandy.
Pennington and His Cracklin' ADD Spazz Hair
As a fellow ADD sufferer, I can only hope that this grievous error results in the removal of Pennington from his role as the Face of Adderall, since, as an alienated minority, we hardly need a representative who looks like he swallows flashlight batteries and rubs live eels on his tits for breakfast every morning.
Anyway, Paris is off to the pokey on front pages everywhere, and Ty Pennington shall star in his own full day's news cycle. A DUI may not be the new Black, but it is certainly the new N-word in terms of cool newsworthy disgrace units. No press is bad press in the world of Celebrity 2.0. In a land of Slunkys, a Slunky is King.
The Two-Headed Calf of Media Death-Worship
Kudos to all the A-list tipplers with no regard for human safety! Hey, you can't BUY this kind of publicity.... but you can hit it with your Maserati. Cheers!
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COMMENTS
I have nothing useful to add. This brilliantly says it all.
Posted by: Sarah Sarah at July 21, 2008 7:51 PM
Very, very, very, very nice post!
Posted by: Lalita Lalita at July 22, 2008 2:59 PM
What an excellent read - Nicely done!
Posted by: Michelle Michelle at July 22, 2008 3:22 PM
Aww! Thanks. I'm glad everyone is enjoying it. I just get sick of people acting like the "n-word" is 100 percent cool in my community and it is not. It's still pretty controversial and as long as it is sooo toxic that a white person can't use it at all without a black person taking offense is proof of its universal toxicity. I find the whole debate silly.
Posted by: The Black Snob The Black Snob at July 22, 2008 5:35 PM
Excellent post. I just posted a couple days ago about the word with a video from mjul from YouTube that kind of breaks down through images why the word is so offensive to many people.
Posted by: a.eye a.eye at July 23, 2008 11:32 AM
Why are we worrying about what black folks call each other in the privacy of our own culture when we are 70-80% of the prison population? Sounds like a distraction to me- address it later if you MUST, but we have more important things to fix. Planned Parenthood? Look up the founder. Lopsided marketing of more harmful versions of harmful products? Find menthol smokes and a 40 of Old English in a non-black neighborhood. Sean *fucking* Bell, anyone? I have not the time to list all of the issues more deserving of discussion than this nigger foolishness. That said, I applaud this post.
Posted by: Fly South Fly South at July 23, 2008 2:41 PM
I agree with you that it's doubtful that most black parents are telling their children it's okay to use the word and white parents are telling their children it's not. Probably what is being taught in black households is similar to what you were taught. That it is ignorant and tacky for anyone to use the word as a "term of endearment" after it was used so vehemently for so long. And your right about another thing...if black people can't help but get offended by a white person saying it then it's probably an offensive word...period.
Posted by: Jes Jes at July 23, 2008 5:23 PM
i personally thought the post was kinda boring. all that was really said was "use at your own risk". as far as i knew, that was already the rule. any white people know what may happen if they say N around blacks. this post didnt shed any light, or offer a fresh perspective on the issue. straight mediocre.
Posted by: grizzay grizzay at July 24, 2008 10:09 AM
Glad Cintra has you aboard, Danielle. Really like what I've been reading you. Nothing I could possibly add other than: somebody should forward this post to Patti Smith.
Posted by: MP MP at July 24, 2008 11:29 PM
Thanks, MP. I'm glad to be here. I love Cintra's work. She's the total shizzz-nit.
Posted by: The Black Snob The Black Snob at July 25, 2008 1:54 AM
i like it.
when i think of it succinctly, censoring the word, "nigger" is the same as censoring any word. and when you censor ANYthing, you give it power.
there is nothing inherent about he sounds F UH KKKK that makes the word disgusting. it is the meaning that we give it, and interpret, and (many of us) try to vainly avoid, as if that were enough to get "us" into "heaven."
as you said...even when it's said with love, its usually said with some semblance of the, "you're put in yer place," idea. Even people who say it out of, "love," are still nicknaming their friends. Not that I mind nicknames...
i like them.
Posted by: johan johan at July 25, 2008 6:19 AM
and grizzay is a total dizznick. surrously.
Posted by: johan johan at July 25, 2008 6:21 AM
I agree, Johan. Banning words is pointless. Even before I was a journalist I was pro-speech to the nth degree. Even speech I didn't agree with. So word banning, book banning, music banning -- just dumb. Ban a book and you've just made that book the most popular and sought after book ever.
I personally just accept the N-word's existence and ask that people try to keep it to a minimum to not-at-all around me. Although most black people can tell who it's appropriate to use the word around and who's not. I've had friends who used the term all the time, but didn't use it around me and I didn't even tell them not to. It's simply a matter of manners.
I just wish people (including my people) would take away its magic and power by not going through these ornate "I can use it/You can't use it" exercises with white people. It's really a "no one should use this in polite company" word. But I can't tell you how many N's you want to drop at home. Go crazy. Just don't do it around me.
If people could just be ... dare I say it ... more nonplussed about it. Like acknowledge that it's a offensive word, but decide I'm not going to let it hurt me any more and have that power. I'm not going to give racists the reaction they want. There are other ways to express your displeasure without yelling in poetic parameter with Michael Eric Dyson, delighting bigots that they can still get our goat.
Posted by: The Black Snob The Black Snob at July 25, 2008 1:38 PM
I agree with the concept of free speech. I'm just not so sure I'm cool with joking about Obama as black Jesus. Frankly, I bet he thinks more about ensuring that he and his family survive this adventure than he does about his similarities to Jesus. And if other people think he's divine, can you blame them?
They realize that this is America. We go out of our way to make absolutely sure that as few black men reach 21, much less graduate from Punahou, go on to Columbia and then Harvard.. It's like you have Stockholm Syndrome -- don't you remember where you live? Have you checked black male actuarial stats lately? The numbers are kind of grim yo. That's why folks lose it over Tiger and Obama. They do it because these cats are rare -- they're rare, in part, because of racism.
I mean, we tend to kill folks here -- someone saw fit to blast Malcolm, Martin, Medger and Robert right out of existence. Someone even took a shot at Ronald Reagan. Then along comes Barry -- who's already pissed off the Clintons and Jesse - so let's just see how it plays out before assuming it's all good.
I get it, you know, black jesus, hahaha, I suppose it's even kind of funny. Who knows, Hillary might have been the better choice - more experience and all that. But sometimes, I swear, sometimes -- being American is like taking your kids to a party and just praying that, just this once, they can manage to act right, just this one time.
Posted by: Broheim Broheim at July 25, 2008 9:13 PM
Broheim: As an Obama supporter (which I am), I enjoy making fun of the Messiah complex some of the more fervent supporters have. I more so see him as a man embarking on a difficult and historical political path.
I understand the reaction people have towards him and why. (Especially amongst black people. I've been especially touched from time-to-time.) It can be very intoxicating. But I feel people should keep their feet somewhat planted on the ground. You don't have to be caught up in the rapture to enjoy the moment, but you should also remember that he is a human being, prone to human failings and has his own issues just like everyone else.
I guess I just want people to enjoy the greatness, but appreciate the humanity, otherwise they will have set the bar so impossibly high in their heads that there will be no where to go but down.
And often, that is how these things go. You're built up, then people work to dismantle you, piece-by-piece. Popularity breeds contempt.
Posted by: The Black Snob The Black Snob at July 26, 2008 2:56 AM
In the 80's, I thought I was being hip and dangerous throwing around words like these. All I did was make an ass of myself. Sure, using these words takes away their power - and sure, not using them makes us lose a bit of our history - but in this cultural debate we loose sight of what really matters. Treating people fairly, kindly, and righteously is more important than words. It's about knowing your neighbours, it's about jobs where you live, it's about stewardship of the planet, it's about valuing all human life. If you feel ok if I throw around a few n-bombs - whatever. I'm more worried about the content of your heart than the color of your skin. We all know who said that first. Walk the walk and all that talk will be just that - talk.
Posted by: GreenLlama97 GreenLlama97 at July 26, 2008 3:42 PM
This was a very well worded post. There are parts of the discussion I agree with and parts that I don't. It's not a word I could ever say and also not a word I could ever be comfortable with hearing. I mean, if I'm listening to Blessed Union of Souls and singing along I will sing it, but that is pretty much it. Then again I sort of look at it like the word Faggot. I'll say fag sometimes to my friends, but when a straight person says it, it does feel wrong to me. I don't know...just some thoughts.
Your post really gave me something else to think about though.
Posted by: SparklieSunShine SparklieSunShine at July 27, 2008 1:06 PM
How articulate of you. tee hee. I agree 100% with what you said and really enjoyed reading your article. You rock!
Posted by: Dan M Dan M at July 28, 2008 12:21 PM
I also have nothing to add. Except that it's a shame that we have a culture where foul rude abusive language of all kinds is heard everywhere.
I particularly like this piece in light of the Arkansas license plate revocation. Which might have been what the View conversation was about, the clip's gone.
The only way to deal with something ugly is to deal with it. Pretending it doesn't exist just makes it worse. And it makes some European Americans think Black people are weak and over sensitive, that they faint dead away over one magic word. I mean, we manage to bear a racial slur at every other freeway exit.
Hope you don't mind, but I've
linked to you. And I'm plowing through TBS and SCAN, too.
Thank you!
Posted by: staghounds staghounds at July 30, 2008 7:07 AM
I really enjoyed this post. It was intelligent and personal and spoke from the heart. I'm wondering what you and your readers think about Chris Rock's "Black People vs. Niggahz" routine. (This may not be the exact title, but it's on YouTube, or at least part of it is, and it is an amazing performance.) I thought it was brilliant, even though I agree with The Black Snob about conversational, non-performance use of the word. (It surprises me that CR is also of the you-can't-say-it-but-when-we-do-it's-a-good-thing school of thought. If it can be called that. (See his interview on "Inside the Actor's STudio."
Posted by: eebs eebs at August 11, 2008 10:15 PM
this is beautiful put together. excellent job.
Posted by: buppie chick buppie chick at August 29, 2008 10:29 PM
I made a wee Palin parody and you may view it @
http://www.amiright.com/photoshops/p/the-paladins-power-shake-live-1220638620.shtml
Stay on groovin' safari,
Tor
Posted by: Tor Hershman Tor Hershman at September 17, 2008 1:43 PM
CONTRIBUTE TO THE CULTURAL DOGFIGHT