Posted on 08/26/2009 2:51:03 AM PDT by Scanian
With unsettling regularity, in public places where music is being played for all to hear such as from a juke-box, I, a black man, find myself being inundated with the N-word by some young black rapper.
Imagine being in an establishment with peers of various races, creeds, and colors when out of the blue, some rapper on a record is saying "my N-word", "you N-word", or "expletive N-word".
When this happens I feel insulted by the rapper. I feel like he is undermining the efforts of all of those people who fight for equality.
I would not stand for it if my peers used this epithet, I would be outraged. And in that same manner I am outraged at the rappers and all those associated with the creation, distribution, and sale of music that use that word.
It is incredible that these rappers get away with insulting the black race in this way. They should be shunned, but they are admired by many of our youths.
A musician of any other race would be run out of town on a rail if he dared to use that word. But we're supposed to buy that it's perfectly OK for a black rapper to throw the word around like it's going out of style?
I wouldn't stand for it if a white person used that word to insult me, but I have to listen to it spewing from the stereo on every third rap song? It's time for a change.
But how can I presume to represent black civil rights and complain about the use of the N-word by rappers, producers, and record companies as an insult to my ethnicity when many of my black brethren pay to hear that word yelled at them?
I can't believe that this matter has not been brought up in public forums yet.
How can the black community be taken seriously when it says that blacks deserve the same respect as all others when we disrespect each other so blatantly?
If I were in a Jewish establishment and there was anti-Semitic music playing all night, I would have to assume that anti-Semitism wasn't a big deal to them. That's the same impression I get now when I hear black people degrading each other in rap music. Equality is a big deal to me, so I've got to speak up.
What does it say about the black community when we have no outrage when our young people sprinkle their lyrics with such a vile a word as if it were a sweet spice?
And don't get me started on cursing in rap records, or the anti-family, anti-intellectual, anti-social, anti-female, pro-crime lyrics. Most current rap music does not even deserve to be contrasted with the uplifting positive songs from Black groups from the fifties, or the early Motown days. What happened!
Our fathers and grandfathers grew up in a world where that word, which was intentionally steeped in disrespect, was reserved for us when a white man wanted to publicly humiliate us and separate us from the community of men.
That word was used to describe a sub-man. That word was not only an insult, but it was a double-whammy because it demonstrated, by the fact that it was so dehumanizing and simultaneously so freely used, that blacks were second class citizens.
Now rappers throw it around like a term of endearment.
The only thing I can think of that's more degrading would be to voluntarily wear slave shackles as jewelry.
Music reflects the world-view of the culture from which it stems. Does this behavior in rap accurately reflect where we want to go as a society? Is a world where young men model themselves after the characters in rap tunes a place where you want to live? No! So let's not surrender the culture to this bastardization.
Would “Mack Daddy” be acceptable?
There’s a whole bunch of other words that are offensive. These gigs are “garbage” but nevertheless are extensively promoted and SOLD!!
When this happens I feel insulted by the rapper.
This is silly. Most of us whiteys couldn't care less if we were called honkys or crackers. Why do people choose to get all worked up over one stupid word in the English language?
Its that same black underclass that causes 60% of the crime in this country. Do something about it. You dont like whitey to handle it, then handle it yourself.
“Honky” or “whitey” is really not in the same category as “nigger”. The latter word is most definitely the more intense slur and I would imagine to any right thinking black person incredibly offensive. When a white person is called a “honky”, it sounds like something George Jefferson would say in “THe Jeffersons” comedy show a few decades back. It sounds funny. The author of the article, a black man himself, feels that black people who use the “n” word, particularly in rap songs do a great disservice to their race. He is right. Today, an intact black family, with high ideals and a moral compass, is the exception rather than the rule. Blacks need to inspire each other to rise up from the ranks of gangsters and immoral pop singers and become a people of integrity.
<*/s*>
We should applaud this man for holding black people to the same standard as white people.
“I’m an n-word
he’s an n-word
she’s an n-word
they’re an n-word...
Wouldn’t you like to
be an n-word, too?”
This is what I do not understand. Why get tripped up over one stupid word? Now granted, I do not use this word in casual conversation because I do try to treat other people nicely, just as I would expect to be treated myself, but I think we all have to move past this one word causing so much grief for everyone.
When a white person is called a “honky”, it sounds like something George Jefferson would say in “THe Jeffersons” comedy show a few decades back. It sounds funny.
I agree there. But don't forget that any whitey who complains about being called something like that is going to be rightfully ridiculed and mocked. This is why, I think, those words when used on a whitey have no power.
The author of the article, a black man himself, feels that black people who use the “n” word, particularly in rap songs do a great disservice to their race. He is right.
I also agree there. But our reaction to hearing such words is entirely our own choice. Of course, there are things that happen that merit getting fired up and angry, but I don't think that simply hearing this word, absent any context of potential violence, should be one of them.
Personally, I think a lot of rappers use the word (or varients thereof) on purpose simply because it gins up controversy and promotes music sales. I just think that this is one of those problems that if it is sufficiently ignored, it will go away in the sense that that word no longer has the power to cause so much controversy anymore.
Whatever happened to sticks and stones, may break my bones but names will never hurt me? The victim card and “sensitivity” industry pretty much oversaw the pussification of America.
Personally, it was a word I used and still do. Not to describe race but to describe behavior or class. What was my epyphenous moment? The day I heard a man who I thought to be educated and of good background use it. It never sounded to be so foul a word.
Screw that. Whenever anyone calls me a racial epithet, I call them what they are: a racist piece of sh*t.
It doesn't matter how mild you believe the racial epithet to be: never accept it and always go on the attack.
From what I understand this controversy is a heated one amongst blacks. The more conservative blacks are sick to death of the world perceiving them as gold toothed, rap singing gangsters barely able to put a sentence together. They wish to align themselves with traditional American Christian values. Unfortunately these people are in the minority since most blacks tend to be liberal and socialist leaning. The problem in the black culture today is one of illegitimacy. I am not certain of the statistics related to that condition but it is very high. Here on the East coast, more black females have illegimate children than whites and they have them deliberately. In other words, they never assumed that the father would have anything to do with the rearing of the child. Sometimes they have a baby “for” a particular fellow. It really is disgusting when you think about it. These people have no morals whatsoever in the traditional sense even many who profess to be Christians. I know that these transgressions are evident everywhere regardless of race, but they seem to be the group that exalts this type of lifestyle. Hence the frustration of the conservative black writer of the article.
If I’m in such as situation, I simply ask the manager to change the music. Most comply. I was at a restaurant recently and encountered a customer that was waiting for a table that had a shirt on that eluded to effing my daughter. I asked the manger if that was acceptable attire for her restaurant. She was appalled and asked the young man to turn it inside out or leave. Got to speak up folks.
I have a solution. Use more “F” bombs...
“This is silly. Most of us whiteys couldn’t care less if we were called honkys or crackers. Why do people choose to get all worked up over one stupid word in the English language?”
I’ve been asking myself that same question. All racial slurs are equal. They are meant to humiliate. Therefore if you do not let yourself be humiliated by them you’ve won the game.
Wall meet head
Wow. Powerful article. Extremely well written.
I’m in total agreement with the author.
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