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Monday, September 10. 2007
Is Race
Part two, one day before the sixth anniversary of the attacks on September 11, 2001. One would think that if anything would bring our nation together like nothing else, erasing, or diminishing, the “differences” that divide us, it would be a disaster — an attack by international criminals — like we experienced six years ago. Two years ago the disaster of Hurricane Katrina and the destruction of New Orleans seemed to widen the divide between Black America and everyone else.
There were so many of those hateful chain e-mails in my inbox after Katrina, it changed my view of Caucasian America. The Americans stranded on their rooftops, in their attics and at the convention center and Super Dome deserved what they got, according to the e-mails, because they were lazy and shiftless Blacks who had been so dependent on government support for survival, they couldn’t or wouldn’t get a job to pay for a way out of New Orleans before the storm hit and the levees collapsed.
The fallacy of that belief: the vast majority of those trapped in New Orleans were either the working poor who barely made enough to survive, or the physically challenged, like the ill and elderly in hospitals and nursing homes; elderly folks stuck in their own homes—and they weren’t all African-Americans either.We make it too easy for ourselves to continue the culture of racism and yet, as if to announce we thrive on our hypocrisy, our TV talk shows tell us we aren’t going to allow the usage of “the ‘N’ Word” anymore, like it, along with racism, will magically disappear.
The word “nigger” is most evident in the ever so popular gangsta lifestyle music and art. Every Black person, it seems, uses it, sort of like a badge of street cred. You aren’t black enough if you don’t use it when talking to friend and foe alike. Not surprisingly, many African-Americans object to its exaggerated use in the hip-hop culture just because it is such a mean and demeaning word, yet it persists. Al Sharpton is one of the more vocal critics of that and other aspects of the hip hop culture.There are White people who ask, “Why is it okay for Black people to use ‘nigger’ but not us?” Well mainly because the word was created by white Europeans for use in subjugating the kidnapped African men and women; and for us white people to continue using it as if isn’t a viciously mean word just perpetuates the attitude that Blacks are less than human. On the other hand, there’s really no set-in-stone rule about its use and probably Blacks are no more “allowed” to use it than White people. But why would you want to use such a mean, mean word anyway? We don’t have enough insulting jargon to hurl at our fellow humans without having to lower ourselves any further with racism?
Then there are the White people who use it and justify its use with the ridiculous notion that there are “white niggers too.” No, there aren’t “white niggers” any more than there are Black WASPs. There are of course African-Americans who could be WASP’s if their skin color were different.
Okay, if you’re wondering, “What’s a wasp? Ain’t that like a bee?” WASP is the acronym for White Anglo Saxon Protestant and is usually applied to the white gentry often represented by the likes of Paris Hilton!
The only time I’ve ever heard a white person use the term “white niggers,” is when that White person was defending his or her use of the word nigger when referring to people of color. In my lifetime I have never heard that term used in any way other than to defend using the word “nigger.” Someone may write back — in a private message or e-mail — that they have used the term “white nigger” often when referring to certain white people they don’t like, but let me be clear, I will respond that I think you are, in fact, lying.
Technically, it’s impossible to be a “white nigger.” As stated earlier, the word is the derivative of Niger, which means black and therefore at the very least, “white nigger” is an oxymoron. And just what behavior constitutes being a “White Nigger”? Is Eminem a white nigger? I mean, he’s into that rap thing …
But let’s be a little more direct: if you are using that term, “white nigger,” to defend your use of “nigger,” you are probably in the lowest economic and social strata of White America commonly referred to as “white trash.” In my experience, I’ve never heard it used by any other strata of people. The more affluent and educated we are, the better we are at masking our bigotry.
Racism is still very much with us and it is alive in well in American politics. As was pointed out in this blog several times, the Republican National Committee produced an anti-Harold Ford Jr. ad that played up the congressman’s dates with White women and played off the racial fears of White America with the ugly specter of unbridled misogyny—in particular, Black men polluting our White women with their dirty black seed. “Yeaaahh. Fuckin’ Negroes want our White women and then the next thing you know, the White Race will be wiped out in America.”
The racist ad worked. Ford lost his senatorial race in Tennessee by a small margin, mainly because a number of White citizens, who may not object to having an African-American represent them in the Senate, object to the idea that a Black man would couple with our White daughters.
On the other hand, a White man fucking a Black woman ain’t such a bad idea! That’s been going on for centuries in this country and our third president, Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, had several children by his various slaves. It begs the question: How did such a libertarian like Thomas Jefferson sleep at night, having written such an important document — the Declaration of Independence — and then owning other human beings, people who had none of what he espoused in that document, subjugated to tyranny by his own hand, even to the point of having sexual slaves?
Sexual slavery is a common, if unspoken, taboo fantasy of many men. Can’t think of any men who would admit they are initially titillated by the suggestion brought up from Thomas Jefferson’s example. To do so would invite condemnation from all quarters. On the other hand, bondage and S&M are extremely popular adult sexual themes, well represented on the Internet and in print. We may not talk about it openly, but thanks to the Internets, we can visit our little fantasy 24/7.
Just a few years ago, right after he died, it was revealed Strom Thurmond, the man who ran for president with the slogan, “segregation yesterday, segregation today; segregation for ever!” had fathered a girl with an African-American employed by his family … apparently, misogyny all hinges on the White Woman! Or maybe it’s the Black man … I don’t know …
The controversy surrounding Strom Thurmond’s child was the sheer hypocrisy of his segregationist views at the time he was making payments to the African-American mother of his child. Thurmond softened his views on segregation long before he passed away, but he still stands as one of the last and strongest voices of segregation and racism in America.Sometimes I rationalize racism as something that’s been with us forever and will remain a central theme in American culture, but remember, remind myself, that rationalizing it gives racism legitimacy and there are far too many people these days rationalizing it already. We heard it when the multitude jumped to the defense of Don Imus when he called the Rutgers women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hos.” Somehow, the fact that not a majority of citizens were listening to him on the radio or watching him on TV made the slur okay. The worst part of it was the cabal that blamed Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton for the controversy!
If racism is here with us forever and remains a major block to real national unity, it will be because we want it to remain so; there’s nothing more frightening than changing the status quo, which is why race is a gingerly spoken of topic, even while we tacitly engage in it when we bring up subjects like what went wrong in New Orleans August 31, 2005 and the debate over illegal immigration. Race baiting makes finger pointing easier and if we don’t have to collectively think about the problem, much less the solutions, why upset the apple cart? Racism works.
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