One of the first threads I posted to FR, maybe seven years ago, was an article from the San Jose newspaper describing the futility of the City Council to pass a city ordinance outlawing The Word. They couldn’t cut the Gordian knot of including The Word in the ordinance that outlawed, without exception, any use of The Word.
Someone should copyright the n-word and charge royalties to every rapper who uses it.
This will be as easy as whites losing that skin privilege that whites never had.
It’s understandable, at least to me. Black American culture has been defined for centuries as us vs. them - “them” being everyone who isn’t black. Blacks greet each other with terms like “brother” and “sister,” too. The kind of clannish tribalism is a natural response to unceasing antagonism, starting with slavery and continuing into segregation.
Until now, that is. It’s been ages since I’ve heard a white person say anything that is clearly and unmistakably racist. In fact, whites have gone to great lengths to get rid of racist attitudes, reach out to blacks, and concoct programs and policies to ameliorate the problem. You can argue some of those policies were counterproductive, but the implementation was motivated by a desire to get rid of racism.
So this leaves blacks in a peculiar situation. When your identity is tied up in being a victim, what happens when your oppressor vanishes? Throughout the whole Zimmerman trial, I kept feeling this desire from blacks to bring back the Klan and segregation and racism, since having a clear enemy creates strong group unity and cohesion. (As a metaphor, look at what happened to the Jews in the United States - without the consistent harassment and threats from Jew-haters as it was in the old country, a lot of Jews stopped being observant.)
It’s going to take a lot of strength for many blacks to accept the idea that they’re now fully responsible for their own destiny. Clearly Obama doesn’t have it, and, sadly, neither does Oprah.
Maybe the best metaphor is when you see some rich guy who tells you that the best years he had took place when he was struggling and poor. I’ve met a couple of older men like that, wondering why the money and position didn’t lead to happiness, so they undermine the success with foolish decisions and ugly relationships.
God help us.