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 Posted: Wed 08 Jun 2005 22:21 Post subject: On using the ‘n-word’ |
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| Quote: | On using the ‘n-word’
By Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Columnist | May 17, 2005
I recently wrote that the legacy of the late Kenneth Clark is being soiled by the proliferate use of the n-word in rap and hip-hop. Clark was the psychologist who showed in the 1940s and 1950s that black girls preferred white dolls to black ones. His studies in self-esteem were noted by the Supreme Court when it outlawed segregated schools in 1954.
That column about today’s self-denigration sparked many letters from around the country, especially from teachers, manufacturer workers, and parents, both white and black, who are worried about its spread. Excepts are printed below:
Franklin Sims of Milwaukee, a 54-year-old chemist: ‘‘I just finished having a conversation with a young man today at work, pulled him to the corner and asked him why that word was such a large part of his conversation. His answer was, ‘It don’t mean the same as it did when you was younger. Now it’s OK.’ ... I have young adult children of my own. I do realize the impact some of this music has made on our children, from outright pornographics, violence without remorse, and most dangerous of all, hopelessness, a prison mentality.’’
George Williams of Roxbury, who said that studying under Clark at City University of New York in the late 1960s helped him pass on a positive attitude to his children. ‘‘A story comes to mind about my son during preschool, when he was asked a question by one of his teachers about what color be best thought of himself. He answered, ‘black.’
‘‘The teachers were greatly surprised by his response. The teachers, being themselves black, got answers from other children of all kinds of color(s). We are who we think we are and we must keep our children close to us.’’
Mike Lanke of Whitefish Bay, Wis.: ‘‘My son (who is white) was in a restaurant Friday night with a bunch of kids from his rugby team and they were at an all-you-can-eat restaurant. As he was at the buffet, a young African-American boy (age 4 or 5) standing next to him saw a classmate and turned to his mother and said, ‘That n-----’s in my class.’ ... The restaurant went silent.’’
Linda Lawson of Manchester, N.H., said that some of her students recently chose to analyze rap lyrics in her high school media literacy class in Concord. She once taught in a Bronx neighborhood that spawned successful rappers and inspired many of her students to write rhymes with raw language.
‘‘At this point it takes a lot to shock me,’’ Lawson wrote. ‘‘Well, I’m shocked. A few drafts came in, and while students are handling the material thoughtfully, their utter lack of perspective on the language is holding them back. They have no clue how truly damaging to all of society this language is.’’
Julie Petras of Nashotah, Wis.: ‘‘As a mother of two white boys ages 11 and 13, I am increasingly hard-pressed to explain to them why they can’t say the n-word especially after, as they say, ‘even black people say it.’ I don’t think that 50 Cent, or Kanye West, or all of the others understand that, in very short time, this will not be a word that’s confined only to rappers.’’
James Barton of Milwaukee: ‘‘I am a physical education teacher within Milwaukee Public Schools and I hear the n-word daily. My school has a large black population. I am a white male, and I become offended for them when I hear them say that word. They say it’s not a swear word, so what’s the problem with saying it? How does a white person explain this to a black person?’’
Perry Michalos of Milwaukee: ‘‘As a college student in the 1960s, I marched for civil rights and an end to the war. Now we are fighting two wars and young black men are calling each other the n-word. Where did we go wrong?’’
Avery Goodman of Milwaukee: ‘‘I watch the Dave Chappelle show with my 13-year-old, and we think he’s very funny. He uses the n-word all the time... my concern is that since the use of the n-word is so readily acceptable by the majority of the black population, if my white son uses the n-word because he heard Dave Chappelle or the musicians you identify in your article use it, he’ll still be considered a racist, suspended from school, and possibly charged with a hate crime. It’s a very precarious double-standard.’’
Elizabeth Galloway of Jamaica Plain: ‘‘I used to teach Alice Walker’s ‘The Color Purple’ in freshman English (at MassArt). One day I was reading a paragraph to illustrate some point and a few lines ahead of me I saw the word ‘n-----.’ I was horrified. I couldn’t read that word out loud. I had never said that word in my life and even more, I grew up in the deep rural South before integration, and I am a white woman. Yet Alice Walker wrote it and I am reading her out loud. I have to say it to be honest to her. So I did.
‘‘And I looked over the class and the white students were uncomfortable and the black students were smiling and laughing.’’
Derrick Z. Jackson’s e-mail address is jackson@globe.com. |
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