In Detroit last week, the NAACP had an unusual funeral.  They burried "The N Word".

At the annual National Convention, a symbolic funeral was help, complete with a horse drawn casket with the word "Nigga" on a black wreath on top.  Among the pallbearers were Kurtis Blow.  Kurtis has been a performer for over 35 years, and has recorded over 150 songs.  He has never mentioned "that word" in any of them.

"Today, I'm truly happy at a funeral," Blow said. "I'm living proof that it's possible to rap or do hip-hop and not offend anyone."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-09-naacp_N.htm

In Detroit last week, the NAACP had an unusual funeral.  They burried "The N Word".

At the annual National Convention, a symbolic funeral was help, complete with a horse drawn casket with the word "Nigga" on a black wreath on top.  Among the pallbearers were Kurtis Blow.  Kurtis has been a performer for over 35 years, and has recorded over 150 songs.  He has never mentioned "that word" in any of them.

"Today, I'm truly happy at a funeral," Blow said. "I'm living proof that it's possible to rap or do hip-hop and not offend anyone."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-07-09-naacp_N.htm


Interesting story and approach to eliminating an unwelcome part of society. Although I am skeptical that this will actually work, I think it is a step in the right direction.

Although I want to, I will refrain from speculating as to what the epitaph will read...

Ant

Al Sharpton said the plans are the same for the words "bitch" and for "ho."  Ho?
So I guess that put's Santa Claus out of business!
::)

Seriously, the "N" word should be taboo in polite society but not blotted out of history.  What about "Tom Sawyer"?

The exercise was not serious.  First off, they did not spell the word right.

If the NAACP were SERIOUS about burying the word, they would mount a huge backlash against performers of any race who use the word.  And a boycot of record labels who sell it.  But they will not.

Seriously, the "N" word should be taboo in polite society but not blotted out of history.  What about "Tom Sawyer"?


I agree that it should be abolished.  But at the same time, historical writings need to be looked at in the correct context.  And acceptable words do change over the years.

After all, look at the name of the NAACP.  Could you imagine in 2007 describing an African-American as "Colored"?  Or telling somebody "Could you hand this to that negro girl over there?"

While the language used in Tom Sawyer (or in the sequal Huck Finn) may set people's teeth to grinding today, if you look beyond the words and at the stories themselves, you actually see something quite subversive.  Especially in Huck Finn, where a poor white-trash Southern boy knowingly helps a slave escape because it was the right thing to do.

In fact, the book (written by a Southerner) clearly a condemnation not only of Slavery, but of the entire Antebellum way of life.


The exercise was not serious.  First off, they did not spell the word right.

If the NAACP were SERIOUS about burying the word, they would mount a huge backlash against performers of any race who use the word.  And a boycot of record labels who sell it.  But they will not.


The reason the word was mispelled is because "Nigga" is the spelling used in most cases by the artists that continue to use it.  The idea was to show it was wrong, no matter how it was spelled.

And since the Don Imus incident earlier this year, we are hearing more and more people stating that it is wrong to say, no matter who you are.  I found out about this while I was channel surfing tonight, and caught Geraldo interviewing Kurtis Blow about it on Fox.  And the number of musicians and others who are protesting any use of it is gworing every month.  This is one of the few things in which I agree with Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson.  This is a word that should die.  And the sooner the better.

   
   There isn't a hole deep enough to bury that word...

   Unless, of course, the NAACP wants to grandfather clause and ban all the material that includes it's use for the past 20 years...



   

The exercise was not serious.  First off, they did not spell the word right.

If the NAACP were SERIOUS about burying the word, they would mount a huge backlash against performers of any race who use the word.  And a boycot of record labels who sell it.  But they will not.


To me, both Jessie and Al would carry a lot more credibility if they'd go after the persons and industry who use this word the most, it would be interesting to see the backlash generated if they did indeed start hammering on rappers (and music industry bigwigs) who felt there were no problem using words like that in their efforts to make money.

I'm sure you'd see artists speaking out against the two of them if they did just that, but it would show to the public just how strong their resolve was to eliminate negative perceptions if they did pick up this fight and not quit until it was eliminated.

I haven't seen Jessie nor Al in front of a microphone since the Imus incident, even though they did make mention of it during that time, and I'm sure the recording industry is still churning out crap using that word (and others of an equally derogatory nature) since Imus, but no outcry from either of them.  I wonder why that is??  Could it be about money and some "donations" from the music industry to some of Als and Jessies "special interests" in exchange for their silence if they did start a concerted in your face push to eliminate it's use??  One can only wonder, why they haven't picked up the ball and run with it on a daily basis when it's right there and in use every single day...

The NAACP joining in on the fight, and not letting up pressure until it's use was eliminated completely, along with Al and Jessie should make a difference, if they are indeed sincere in the elimination of the word, and it would go far beyond a "token burial" of the word....

I think the entire episode was ill advised.

There is no way that this is going to stop the use of the word. Staging a mock funeral for it is just plain silly.

I always agreed with George Carlin, there are no "bad words". Words themselves are not "bad".

Its all in the context of how its used.

Giving the word power when it used by other bigoted people to insult, berate or otherwise demean someone, well thats bad.

We are never going to abolish a word, thats like trying to abolish thought. That anyone would even suggest this bothers me, its very Orwellian in its suggestion. If its good to abolish one word because its "bad" how long is it before we start banning other words we or others don't agree with? Who gets to choose what word is "bad" or gets banned?

We should concentrate on education and understand why people still use it and stop with the silly stunts.

Personally I just think a few well placed fists in a few well placed mouths would work wonders

Personally I just think a few well placed fists in a few well placed mouths would work wonders


  Heh...

  And then there's that... ;D

I think the entire episode was ill advised.

There is no way that this is going to stop the use of the word. Staging a mock funeral for it is just plain silly.

I always agreed with George Carlin, there are no "bad words". Words themselves are not "bad".

Its all in the context of how its used.

Giving the word power when it used by other bigoted people to insult, berate or otherwise demean someone, well thats bad.

We are never going to abolish a word, thats like trying to abolish thought. That anyone would even suggest this bothers me, its very Orwellian in its suggestion. If its good to abolish one word because its "bad" how long is it before we start banning other words we or others don't agree with? Who gets to choose what word is "bad" or gets banned?

We should concentrate on education and understand why people still use it and stop with the silly stunts.

Karma +1

I mentioned Mark Twain because there have been several attempts to ban his books or purge the N word from them.  As Mushroom pointed out, the historical context does not legitimize the word.  It is challenging to get beyond the word in "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn"and see what Jim's relationship with Tom and Huck is, and how Twain develops Jim into a sympathetic character not a caricature.  Jim is not some "houseboy."  He is a man.  He has a family from which he has been separated.  Jim delivers a heartbreaking narrative about his little daughter losing her speech and hearing after she was struck with fever.  In spite of what he has suffered, the dehumanizing institution of slavery renders him just another "n-gg-r."  Without that word, the development of Jim's character would not be nearly as poignant.  Twain himself was so progressive he bordered on radical.  Twain did not use the N word to promote bigotry, just the opposite. 

And I agree with you.  The symbolic burial was an insipid gesture. 

I agree with George Carlin though his point is always taken as promoting more liberal use of profanity.  The N word is almost always hurtful.
When George Carlin delivered his routine about "bad words" he was very disarming because he was discussing the words themselves and how they sounded and making jokes about different contexts in which they may be used.

I have heard African-Americans claim they use the word amongst one another to "take it back."  Well, did they ever want it in the first place?  They also mention rendering the word harmless.  Hip hop does just the opposite.  It imbued words like "nigga," "ho," and "bitch" with new denigrating connotations. 

It is related to the new pornography chic, which makes specious claims that porn is liberating for women when it's integration into mainstream pop culture has been wholly destructive to the esteem of the female in society.  So it has been with rappers referring to their friends as "my niggas."  It presents the Black man as an alien and menacing character.  Incidentally, the most vicious racism in the media against Black men is not in hip hop, it's in pornography. 

I do not defend Imus.  He and his producers should have known better.  However, the idea that it was OK to call Black women "ho's," which is the word "whore" pronounced in a crassly caricitured Black accent, is a sign that something is seriously wrong.  Imus would not have called a White female basketball team a "bunch of whores." 

Thirty years ago, if you called a man a "pimp," you might get your lights punched out.  A pimp is a man who controls the lives of prostitutes with violence and extorts money from them.  The lowest of the low.  Yet today it is a compliment to call a man, especially a Black man, a "pimp."

They even went so far as to try to market a beverage called "Pimp Juice" to the youth market, and frikkin' Russell Simmons defended it. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pimp_Juice_%28drink%29

In the Jim Crow era, African-Americans were seen as objects of sex and violence.  White racists deliberately pushed the stereotype of the psychopathic sex mad negro and the promiscuous black female to strike fear of them into the white population and denigrate them as subhuman.

Whether it's the white men who own the corporations, or the African-American performers themselves, or both are to blame is debatable.  One thing I see for certain is thanks to hip-hop and racist pornography, these stereotypes have come roaring back.  This is not what Dr. King or Malcolm X would have wanted.  Not at all.
:(

The N word is only a facet of the denigration by the mass media of African-Americans and that's what the NAACP is facing.