It's an early morning here at my desk, as I've just finished editing several of my team's articles. They are a team of student journalists, rising high school juniors and seniors, responsible, bright students of color. The children are the future, and many of these students will eventually make their impressions and contributions, with their pens in hand, and their ears tuned in to Hip-Hop music.
Tuesday, the rap legend NaS released his "Nigger" album, I haven't bought it yet, but my (blue, pink, green, red) friends who got it say it rocks, and I will buy it because NaS is my favorite rapper. I ask high schoolers what they think about the title and it doesn't really offend anybody. They don't want a white person calling them by that name, but most of these students call each other that. This is so passe.
It almost seems picture perfect that Reverend Jackson, who has so denounced the use of the so-called "nN" word, would be shown using it himself. And this latest shoe to drop reveals what we young ones have known all along - that objections to the word are more about politics than pain.
This is what we get for paying so much attention to words and name-calling. Vocabulary is a very flexible object, it bends every which way, and context is everything. In the presence of a fellow African-American, and believing that he was off the record, Reverend Jackson felt comfortable speaking his true language.
FOX didn't air Jackson's use of the word because their doing so would be taken as further evidence of their incessant defamation of African-Americans. So they leaked the transcript, maybe the tape, and this will damage Reverend Jackson's reputation for all the wrong reasons.
Perhaps the Rev. shouldn't have said it, but I will be surprised to find any of my African-American friends and family more angry at Jackson than scornful of Bill O'Reilly, who has given us a lesson - 'character assassination 101.'
Don't get me wrong here. I don't mean to insinuate that every single African-American uses the "nN" word. But a day does not go by in my life without my hearing somebody (usually African-Americans or Latinos) use the word. Some kids I know use the word at least once per sentence. Some, like Reverend Jackson, use the word only when they believe they're safe from scrutiny and the politics of it all.
But we all can rest assured that neither the NaS' NOR the Jesse Jacksons of the world will stop using the word. And so Reverend Jackson, in his nasty little way, has shown us the ridiculousness of coming out against language. We also see the boundless hypocrisy of the elite classes when they trash talk the community for the way we commonly express ourselves.
Ultimately, I believe Reverend Jackson handles the word the way many African-Americans do - using it with fellow blacks, cringing when it is exploited by others. And so the politics and public posturing surrounding the "nN" word is rooted in the desire to stop the word from being employed against African-Americans in public. If you're not black and you use the word in public, you've got to pay.
Frankly, I'm fine with this double standard, I mean who is the Caucasian that relishes the privilege of using the word, anyway? Not somebody I would want getting away with anything, anyway.