it’s not the word

[DemocratSinceBirth]

It’s not the word. It’s the thought behind the word.

It’s not the word. It’s the actions taken informed by the word

Don’t think that, as Piers Morgan opines, banning the word will ban the thought.

Banning the word is merely being polite. But the same people who wouldn’t dare use the word in public believe in everything the word implies in private.

President Obama used the word “nigger” in his interview with Marc Maron, in a discourse on how racism isn’t solved.

Bill Hemmer of Fox News clutched his pearls because of the President’s use of that word. Us white folks have been taught to avoid that word, and here is Pres. Obama using it.

Like slave owners weren’t presidents.

Like the man who pushed through the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts didn’t drop it as easily as I drop “fuck”, and with as little thought.

As if a black man, who happens to be the nation’s first black chief executive, needs to be policed by white journalists on how to discuss race.

Remember, Chuck Todd said Pres. Obama can’t be “neutral” on matters of race. Because to the white commentariat, that patina of neutrality absolves them from confronting the country’s original sin.

Growing up in New York City, my friends and I dropped the word. White, black, brown, it didn’t matter. It was just something we said. And that was only possible because of the familiarity this country has with that word. When for hundreds of years it was the only acceptable way to refer to an entire class of people.


http://theobamadiary.com/2015/06/22/its-not-the-word/

[LiberalElite]

1. I grew up in NYC and I was taught

to NEVER say that word.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

2. The writer suggests a person doesn't have to utter the n word to have bad intentions ...

The writer suggests a person doesn't have to utter the n word to have bad intentions for black people...


And even benign figures like LBJ used that word promiscuously...

When he appointed the first black to the Supreme Court LBJ said to one of his confidantes " when they see that n word they will know I put him there."

[Iliyah]

3. Oh noes, fake news . . .

[notadmblnd]

4. Larry Wilmore of the Nightly Show did an excellent piece on the use of the word

and gave examples of how other presidents have used it.

[pnwmom]

5. Context is everything. President Obama was not using the word as a slur against any person.

He was identifying the word that has been used against black people for hundreds of years. And if that was shocking, it should be. It's an ugly word.

But even so, it's only a word -- and black people have had to endure so much more. People who pretend to be shocked by Obama are either clueless or deliberately nasty.

[Cha]

6. "President Obama opens his mouth and speaks TRUTH to this country."

Nerdy Wonka
?@NerdyWonka



http://theobamadiary.com/2015/06/22/a-tweet-or-two-300/

[CBGLuthier]

7. I had a 23 year old ask me what that word meant because he had heard it in a video game

Bear in mind this is a french 23 year old with limited english skills. I explained it to him and told him he would be wise not to use it. Ever.

Bear in mind both he and I are now living in Africa. An island actually where 30 percent of the population are the descendants of African slaves and 50 percent are the descendants of Indian indentured servants.

One of the Grand Theft Auto games I am thinking. Ain't American culture grand.