Enough of this.
Maher's recent "live moment" with a racial slur for blacks was preceded years ago by an extended insistence that white people should be able to use the word. This occurred on August 22, 2001 on Maher's previous TV show, Politically Incorrect. Maher's guests were Sarah Silverman, David Spade, Guy Aoki of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans, and Anne-Marie Johnson, actress and activist. The discussion of anti-black racism grew from a debate between Silverman and Aoki — the previous month, Silverman made on Late Night with Conan O'Brien that some Asian-Americans perceived as racist.
The relevant comments begin at 9:06 in the video above. Maher argued that "nigger" had become an acceptable slang word for anyone to use, thanks to its appearance in music. "Blacks have an issue [that] whites cannot say this word," he said. "I disagree. This word has changed... according to culture."
When Anne-Marie Johnson, who is black, disagreed, Maher remarked "I wouldn't even know that you were black if you didn't tell me," presumably to undercut her authority on the issue of racism. "I love when white people try to define African-Americans," she responded. "I think I'm only one on this stage who's qualified to talk about the meaning of the word, how it hurts, how it doesn't hurt, where it's used, the history of it. Because I live it everyday.
"It's in every song on the radio," Maher countered. "Nigger, nigger, nigger, nigger, nigger, nigger, nigger. It's in every song. People come up to me and say 'BIll, you a nigger.' But I can't say thank you, or say 'Please don't use that word?'"
One of the impressions that I get when I read about this perpetually recurring controversy with the use of the “n-word” and other racial/sexual epithets is the use of particular epithets within certain minority communities.
When I read these discussions and especially when white folks are trying to engage in these discussion, I often wonder if white people really think that black folks walk among ourselves in our homes, neighborhoods and communities calling each other the n-word 24/7/365, all the damn time..
It seems as if it doesn’t even occur to white folks that a) the use of the n-word even as a “term of endearment” has been controversial within black communities for as long as I can remember.
I know and have known many black people that use the word as a sort of a “term of endearment.”
I know and have known many black people that consider any use of “the n-word” unacceptable and intolerable under any and all circumstances.
I know and have known many blacks that only use a weaponized form of “the n-word.”
(Yes, black people do use “weaponized” versions of the word “nigger.” (Here’s a pitch-perfect example).
Personally, I don’t like the use of the n-word by anyone under any circumstances.
I’ve told family members and friends this. In some cases, it’s such a habit of speech for some that it “slips out” in my presence.
I may not say anything at the time but it almost always gets a sideeye from me.
To the extent that I’ve gathered in my almost 50 years on this earth, the use of “the n-word” within black communities seems to align along age and economic class lines but not always: the “blacker than thou” crowd always finds it unacceptable (and that crowd is in all economic classes in black communities).
(What goes on between interracial sets of “homies”...that’s their business...)
As far as I am concerned, this is not even a subject of debate.
Oh, and that ridiculous Mark Twain defense that I read in Doctor RJ’s comment thread last night:
Leaving aside the fact that Bill Maher isn’t even a tenth as good at his art that Mark Twain was at his own form of creativity…
People forget that Twain was criticized for his use of coarse language in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn during his lifetime.
Upon issue of the American edition in 1885 several libraries banned it from their shelves. The early criticism focused on what was perceived as the book's crudeness. One incident was recounted in the newspaper the Boston Transcript:
The Concord (Mass.) Public Library committee has decided to exclude Mark Twain's latest book from the library. One member of the committee says that, while he does not wish to call it immoral, he thinks it contains but little humor, and that of a very coarse type. He regards it as the veriest trash. The library and the other members of the committee entertain similar views, characterizing it as rough, coarse, and inelegant, dealing with a series of experiences not elevating, the whole book being more suited to the slums than to intelligent, respectable people.
Harlem Renaissance patron, writer, and photographer Carl Van Vechten wasn’t even given that “hood pass.”
So, no, white people, you do not get to lecture or to discuss with me the proper use of “the n-word.”
That’s not even a privilege that I give to black folks.
Amended CK 8:02 PM CST
Wednesday, Jun 7, 2017 · 12:53:06 AM +00:00 · Chitown Kev
Full disclosure…
I have been known to give a pretty righteous and fully weaponized “Negro, please” to my fellow African Americans in certain situations...when I do, folks know that I am pretty much at the end of the road and not to take it any further