The N-Word

Let us not get cute.  We all know what word I am talking about.  We all know that we had better not say the word unless one happens to be Black, then one can use it.  That is kind of weird to me, but so be it.

I just heard about another person who is losing his job for using the N-Word inappropriately.  It so happens I do not like the person but that is kind of beside the point.  I find it odd that the penalty for saying a damned word is so terrible.  For instance, take Paula Deen; she lost her show, several endorsements, and her cookware was in the bargain bin because she admitted saying the N-Word about 35 years earlier.

Now, in the public eye we see television networks keep programs on the air with people on that have mothers dating pedophiles, people who made nasty misogynist rantings, and a couple who, during their divorce, had altercations where guns were drawn.  In fact, when a real popular show that they found one of the people on the show was a child molester, the just reworked the show to exclude him and kept carrying.

But say the N-Word and you are gone.   But not so fast, Skippy.  If you are Black, it is cool to say the N-Word.  In fact, it is ubiquitous in Rap music.  It is so ubiquitous as to almost seem to be required.  Now I imagine a non-Black can get away with using the N-Word if he or she is singing along with a Rap song, but that person better not be singing the song on their own or all hell would break loose.

It has gotten so bad that when period movies by Quinton Tarantino have used the N-Word it has caused a furor, even though the word would have been used by the type of character represented in the situations represented in the movie.  The most ridiculous complaint I saw came from Spike Lee who famously, constantly and generously uses the N-Word in his works.  At the end of the day, it seemed that his only objection was that a White Producer/Director/Writer was using the N-Word.

My opinion:

If you think the N-Word is so damned offensive, quite using it.  Otherwise, you are a damned hypocrite.  Even if you do find if offensive, if you make it such a terrible word you empower a damned word and that is stupid.
As an aside, you should listen to Lenny Bruce’s riff on this word to show how to remove the power of that you give the word.

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