I know this is a little late but I recently came across black folks defending this white woman's right to use the N-Word... Well this black man had something to say about it. Weigh in if you like.
Dr. Laura should be banned from the airwaves forever for her disgusting behavior and rant on that show. Her caller did not use the N-Word until she referenced Dr. Laura's rant. What did that woman do to deserve that rant? She called up to have a dialog about the audacity of people to use it around her (specifically her husband’s white family and white friends) and this so called Doctor's response is to childishly rattle it off like a machine gun? "NIGGER NIGGER NIGGER" I remember when journalists and media commentators were mature, responsible, adults. This was behavior befitting a 6 year old.
Black lady: I don't know how to deal with the pain I feel when my husband’s white friends say the N-Word around me"
White lady: (Thinks to herself 'hmmmm this black lady does not like to hear the N-Word and it seems to cause her so much pain, let me see if I can make it worse') "NIGGER NIGGER NIGGER… NIGGER NIGGER NIGGER… NIGGER NIGGER NIGGER"
Black lady: "Oh my lord, how could you"
White lady: You people use it all the time, why can't I? NIGGER NIGGER NIGGER... NIGGER NIGGER NIGGER... NIGGER NIGGER NIGGER... Get off my show (click) you're too sensitive, learn to take a joke. If you didn’t like the word NIGGER you shouldn’t have married outside your race".
Seems a little different when distilled into its basic essence doesn’t it?
How naive do you have to be to defend this racist woman? The caller never said she wanted ANYONE using that hurtful word, so why did Dr. Laura assume that the caller thought it was ok for blacks to use it? And exactly why did Dr. Laura feel such a need to exert her right to use the offending word (repeatedly no less)? That is like taunting a victim of a gang rape by calling her “a slut whore who deserved it” a few hours after the rape. Yeah, maybe we all LEGALLY have the right to say the words, but that don’t make it right to say things that are that hurtful (especially right after the person has expressed how hurtful it was). This woman called the show in crisis and that was the response she got from a DOCTOR? Who defends this?
Like it or not there is racism in this country. It hurts many black folk and one of the things that make the offending whites feel justified and that they are not alone is their use of code words. These code words in essence give them the sense that they are not alone. It becomes a justification of their actions that others feel the same way. Words ARE power. When whites use the N-Word (even good non racist whites) it allows them to think everything is sweet now and turn a blind eye to injustices. It is not sweet by any means. Just because Obama is president doesn’t mean everything is okay either. And the fact that Dr. Laura uses this as the yardstick by which to measure racism shows exactly what an ignoramus she is. Maybe whites DID vote Obama into office as she suggests, but that don’t mean that other whites (including, but not exclusively those with real power) weren’t pissed off that a black man is in control of the country. And it doesn’t mean that many of the whites that DID vote for him don’t have one foot inside the racist closet. Much of white America is only one mugging (by a black person) or one black person being promoted before them away from joining the Klan. Maybe the Klan is a little drastic/dramatic, but the point is true all the same. Many whites have a lot of racist leanings.
When another black man uses the N-Word toward me, I have no misgivings as to his meaning or intent. It doesn’t make him feel powerful or superior to me… But when a white person uses it I can’t be too sure. My family has been legally dehumanized, enslaved, murdered, raped, lynched, beaten, discriminated against, etc… I have personally been beaten by whites for going to a white school, being in the wrong neighborhood and discriminated against by whites… I don’t need the confusion, and whites don’t NEED to use the word. Just because some sell out Uncle Tom negro on a rap record or some shucking and jiving comedian uses the word, it doesn’t give whites all across the country (or world) the right to revoke MY RIGHT to not hear that hurtful word used by whites. Just because we HAVE the word, it does not mean it HAS to be used. We own a hell of a lot of nuclear bombs… Do you think we should just start randomly deploring them? Think twice before you become too tolerant of whites dropping the N-Bomb!!!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment