“N-word” has been swung like a clumsy nightstick by Whites for
years, trying to demean, dehumanize and destroy the dignity of Black
Americans,” Bryan Moore writes. “We have a generation who have been
desensitized to – or never were taught – the real origins and impact of
such a hateful term. But whether it ends in ‘-er or -ah’ or -a,’ the
word – and the pain – is still the same.”
So speaks Bryan Monroe, vice president and editorial director of Johnson Publishing Co. epitomizing my thoughts on the use of the word. Both Ebony and Jet, two out of the three largest black audience targeted magazines, have decided to do away with the word in print. No one will ever read the N-word in Ebony or Jet from now until the end of forever.
Well, it’s about damn time!
About a year ago, I watched a documentary called what else, but “The N-Word,” and featured such names as Samuel L. Jackson, Paul Mooney, Ice Cube, Whoopi Goldberg, and loads and loads of other celebrities, both dead and alive, weighing in and giving their takes on the controversy.
It seemed, to me, that an overwhelming majority of the people interviewed saw it being okay to use the word amongst each other, but caught a quick attitude when used by others outside of the race. Many others thought that by using the word it is a way of deconstructing the negative connotations of it, much like feminists have done with “bitch” and certain lesbians have done with “dyke.”
One of the people viewed in that video, Paul Mooney, a comedian I find ridiculously humorous, has since recanted his position on the usage of the word after Kramer (I refuse to call him by his real name) decided to act a fool over there in California.
Why did it take a white man’s public humiliation to call people’s attention to the ugliness of the word? And how many other folks have since rethought their usage of the word?
My experience with words in general has been this: Don’t call yourself anything you wouldn’t want someone else to refer to you as. If I call myself fat, shouldn’t get offended if someone else calls me fat. It’s about self-respect. And by referring to yourself as a n***er (or fat, or crazy – my personal vice-, or anything else), it construes a complete lack of self-respect.
I understand the logic behind attempting to reroute the word and give it a different flavor, but you can’t do that when the word has had such an ugly history. When there are still people who use it in a derogatory manner, people who still feel its okay to refer to blacks by the n-word and treat blacks as if they were no better than cattle, how can you possibly use the same word to refer to your brothers, sisters, cousins and friends?
I applaud Ebony and Jet for setting an example, even though I’d be interested to hear the statistics on the words appearance in their publications over the last decade. Their February issue that came out on Monday has guest editorials giving folks opinions and also provides a timeline for the usage of the word. I am making sure I run out and get my copy soon since I can’t steal my mother’s.
I’m still wondering, though, what took ya’ll so darn long?
