Is the "N-word" dead?
winning speech in the Alpha's oratorical speech contest
By Jamese Lewis
Issue date: 3/5/08 Section: Opinion
Is the N-Word dead? No. Is it nefarious, self-deprecating, archaic, and counterproductive to the goals and aspirations and spirit of the African-American people? Yes.
I have bad news: The N-Word is not dead. The N-Word has been on its deathbed for the past 40-60 years, and only we have our hands on the cord to end the livelihood, impact and longevity of it on our living possibilities.
Each time we hide behind the notion of it as an affectionate and indiscriminate term of endearment, we breathe life and antibodies into what should be a defunct and comatose implement of Black degradation. What should be dead we resurrect with the enunciation of each letter of the word. We fail to realize that each of us internalizes the subconscious reverberation of this word's role in an era of oppression and marginalization of Black people.
We cannot, until we hold ourselves first accountable, denigrate the use of the word by the white man when our actions and dialogue profess the contradiction. When a person suffers from the violation of a rock in their shoe, with the advance of time, one soon becomes desensitized to the pain of its impact. Ironically, when the rock changes position and from another angle imposes distress we take notice and experience a peak in our attention to the source of our discomfiture. Similarly, we spend in general a disillusioning proportion of our conversations referring to each other as the N-word and then go about in rebuttal, dissecting superficial differences of the uses of the word among Blacks, its spelling, its pronunciation, the imaginary distinction between its use in white and Black mouths, neglecting the fact that a tomato is still a tomato even if you change the pronunciation.
We need to stop defending this word, stop embracing this misnomer, stop making it appear synonymous to what our friends, confidantes, neighbors, acquaintances, "boos," "girls," "boys," "homies," and other loved ones mean to us. We need to take a proactive stance against this term's fallacious, acrimonious hold on our society's progress; stop embracing the tools of our destruction, understanding that weapons formed against us in time past do not lose but gain momentum as we perpetuate them in our community. You cannot bring a bomb home and expect because you decorate it, that its effects will be ameliorated. Its obliterating impact to the African-American spirit and self-concept only contribute to our digression as a culture.
I have bad news: The N-Word is not dead. The N-Word has been on its deathbed for the past 40-60 years, and only we have our hands on the cord to end the livelihood, impact and longevity of it on our living possibilities.
Each time we hide behind the notion of it as an affectionate and indiscriminate term of endearment, we breathe life and antibodies into what should be a defunct and comatose implement of Black degradation. What should be dead we resurrect with the enunciation of each letter of the word. We fail to realize that each of us internalizes the subconscious reverberation of this word's role in an era of oppression and marginalization of Black people.
We cannot, until we hold ourselves first accountable, denigrate the use of the word by the white man when our actions and dialogue profess the contradiction. When a person suffers from the violation of a rock in their shoe, with the advance of time, one soon becomes desensitized to the pain of its impact. Ironically, when the rock changes position and from another angle imposes distress we take notice and experience a peak in our attention to the source of our discomfiture. Similarly, we spend in general a disillusioning proportion of our conversations referring to each other as the N-word and then go about in rebuttal, dissecting superficial differences of the uses of the word among Blacks, its spelling, its pronunciation, the imaginary distinction between its use in white and Black mouths, neglecting the fact that a tomato is still a tomato even if you change the pronunciation.
We need to stop defending this word, stop embracing this misnomer, stop making it appear synonymous to what our friends, confidantes, neighbors, acquaintances, "boos," "girls," "boys," "homies," and other loved ones mean to us. We need to take a proactive stance against this term's fallacious, acrimonious hold on our society's progress; stop embracing the tools of our destruction, understanding that weapons formed against us in time past do not lose but gain momentum as we perpetuate them in our community. You cannot bring a bomb home and expect because you decorate it, that its effects will be ameliorated. Its obliterating impact to the African-American spirit and self-concept only contribute to our digression as a culture.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 4
H. Lewis Smith
posted 3/04/08 @ 5:43 PM CST
Every so often an individual comes along who has some self-esteem, their head on straight and isn't some puppet on a string reacting to a knee jerking 400 years of a hypnotic programming and conditioning mind control process of embracing a word that demeans and degrades them and silly enough to embrace it in an endearingly and affectionate manner. (Continued…)
uniteedesign
R. Lee Gordon
posted 3/04/08 @ 7:07 PM CST
While this is a burning topic, there are more immediate, important issues we need to begin to resolve such as the overall quality of future for our next generation . (Continued…)
Marcia
posted 3/05/08 @ 10:18 AM CST
Execellent! Brother, you are one of our shining Princes, you absolutely "get it!" - once the core is cleansed of this debilitating, venemous word then we can move forward and worry about the "more immediate, important issues we need to begin to resolve. (Continued…)
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