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October 24, 2007 at 22:49:08
AFRICAN AMERICAN'S WATERLOO...THE N-WORD by H. Lewis Smith Page 1 of 1 page(s) |
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Interest for a National March Day on November 3, 2007, has grown from the more recent tragedies—particularly the Megan Williams heinous act— taken place in the African-American community; the urgency to make African Americans aware of the self-destructive, psychological ramifications the n-word perpetuates; and the necessity to quickly eradicate the term from human vocabulary. A “n**ger” is defined as a sub-human, three-fifths of a human being. The term, as it relates to any living being, is demeaning, degrading and belittling; its only purpose is to sabotage the heart, mind and soul of whomever the term is aimed, psychologically placing the receiver into a catatonic state of mind. For more than three centuries, “n**ger” has been used to identify the African-American race, and because of its very definition, any and all brutal acts against African Americans were—and still are—justified. Since the days of subjugation, the civil rights movement of the ‘60s, and recent tragedies and atrocities—such as Jena 6, Skylar McCormick, and Megan Williams, the n-word remains the common igniting factor in these acts: The six white assailants who performed those dastardly deeds on Megan Williams did not view her as a human being, but a “n**ger.” Because they perceived her as something less than human, they felt their acts were justifiable. Many African Americans argue and downplay the seriousness of the n-word’s ramifications on the black community. They have failed to understand the consequences of defining themselves with such a word. The majority of African Americans do not realize the mind state associated with and the power in the word, nor do they understand how other races truly perceive them—as expendable animals, so they continue to utilize the term in everyday vernacular as if it is something in which to proudly represent and use in preserving their race. 
This word contains a negative energy of power regardless of its use, be it endearingly, affectionately or as a racial slur. Its sole intent is to undermine African Americans. The n-word has dramatically impacted the progression—or regression, complacency—of a peoples. Assuming that “n**ger” is just another pointless, “filler” word is not in the best interest of the black community.
Need proof that the term has successfully undermined the African-American community, pushing the race further and further from progression? Take a look at the incarceration rates, drug addictions, homelessness, and poor school conduct among African Americans. Contemplate the misogyny, and blatant disrespect African Americans have for themselves and one another by calling each other “n**ger.”
Today’s dismal factors are manifestations of the n-word thrust upon black ancestors centuries ago to oppress them. Present-day African Americans steadily hide behind this ideal, shifting the blame to white America for the continued demise of the black community. Black America can point its finger at white America all it wants, but until African Americans realize they are the lifeblood of this inferior mindset, resolve, unity, and group advancement will never come for the black community.
An all-consuming energy is needed to successfully promote and execute the National March Day on November 3 in honor of Megan Williams. In other words, the black community fails to see the n-word as an adversary, and, therefore, do not have any sense of urgency to corral users of it within their own community. Non-blacks have a bulls-eye on their backs; the same mentality should be directed at black users of the word who will defiantly, disrespectfully and purposely attempt to browbeat the black community into accepting its use. If efforts are not made to also hold black dissenters accountable, the magnanimous energy of those forming the National Day March will be wasted. Black dissenters, as well as non-blacks, must be held accountable for their actions.
African American rapper Nas and Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder should be feeling the outrage from the black community. Nas, who has intentions of titling his album N**ger, is an insult to the African-American race and an embarrassment to the sacred memories, struggles and sacrifices of ascendants and present-day blacks everywhere. The Nas’s and Boondocks are traitors to the countless number of millions of blacks who were dehumanized amidst the jeers of the n-word. They are modern-day Benedict Arnold’s. As a result, United Voices for a Common Cause, Inc. has inducted Nas and Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder into its “Benedict Arnold Hall of Shame.”
Honoring the memories of black ancestors should be a race-wide goal; blacks referring to one another as “n**gas” are committing blasphemous and sacrilegious acts. If one truly endorses the National March Day in honor of Megan Williams, and Al Sharpton’s proposed march on Washington D.C. November 11th, then anti-n-word supporters and the like must start honoring the millions before her who endured more brutal, dehumanizing experiences. The n-word is no joke. Zero tolerance should exist toward anyone who dares to invoke that word–even if they are black.
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| 9 comments |
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I am not black
but isn't the N-word really just another word? I mean isn't is ulimately just another word (French perhaps) for the colour black that is unpleasant only because of the historical baggage and associations? Nigeria is the name of a country. Is the country name offensive? Why couldn't the N-word be reclaimed like homosexuals reclaimed and redefined the word gay? I get that the N-word is offensive to many African Americans and see no good reason to cause offence by using it myself, but intellectually I don't see much reason to put special power in a mere word either. I wonder if African Americans might be using the N-word with each other in ways that change and reduce the power of the word. Isn't it the tone and the context in which the word is (or has been) used rather than the word itself that is the problem? by Brett Paatsch (0 articles, 3 quicklinks, 23 diaries, 1308 comments) on Thursday, Oct 25, 2007 at 12:10:49 AM  (0+)
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Reply: I am black
It is an insult to any thinking African American to be told that the n-word is just another word. To say that the word n**ger is just another word demonstrates one's ignorance of American history towards blacks. Obviously, you just read my article and for you to want to look upon this word as just another word implys that the millions of lives lost over a 300 year all because the victims weren't considered human but n**gers and the last thing they would hear as they drew their last breath was the n-word, means absolutely nothing to you. Frankly, I have no ill will towards you because it is perfectly understandable why the diabolical history of this word would mean nothing to you. However, for all of my black brother and sisters there is no excuse for them to look upon the n-word as just simply another word, other than being soft in the head and absolutely stuck on stupid. When it comes to this, to be PC is tossed out the window. Enough of the dumb sh-t. That word contains more than 300 years of a vicious and sinister negative energy and it is an insult to one's intelligence expecting them to overlook all the evil baggage that accompanies this word. by H. Lewis Smith (15 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 7 comments) on Thursday, Oct 25, 2007 at 1:03:19 AM (0+)
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Reply: WHY THE LONG POLEMIC?
Now come on! He is not a racist simply because he doesn't want to be called a n-word. (I see no reason to substitute n**ger. Everyone knows what is meant so if one word is bad, the other is equally bad. And quoting someone else using it is merely reporting what the other person said, not using it yourself.) As a white person, I may be offended, insulted or angered if a Black person calls me a honkey. But it is not in the context of my ancestors being kidnapped from their own country, chained hand and foot onto a narrow ledge as the urine and feces from my fellow captives on the ledges above drips down on to me, forced to endured these conditions for three months as the slave ship transports me accross the occean, beaten and forced to labor without pay for my kidnappers, and, in the present generation, subjected from birth to daily indignities ranging from being denied a job to beatings and seeing others of by race murdered by both individual, free lance racists and "law enforcement" -- all this in the context of the word n-word. The example was given of the Gay community affirming the word queer. As a Gay person, I think this reflects self hatred and the fact that queer is even more accepted in the Gay community than n-word in the Black community only shows that 2000 years of Christianity has saddled us with even greater self hatred. And since honkey can't hurt you like n-word can hurt a black person, why this extended polemic and denunciation. All this because the author doesn't want to be called a n-word makes me suspect that you have a lot of racist anger yourself. And if your father had cheated someone out of a lot of money, you would not be guilty yourself, but if he had sued your father, the size of your inheritance would be reduced. It takes a lot of gall to tell another community that they are responsible for getting themselves out of their situation when your ancesters put them there, even if you have not done aything to make their situation worse yourself. Robert Halfhill rhalfhill@juno.com by rhalfhill (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 325 comments) on Thursday, Oct 25, 2007 at 1:27:29 PM (0+)
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Reply: I like
the Mr. Halfill's comment very much. by Mark Sashine (72 articles, 19 quicklinks, 269 diaries, 4101 comments [130 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Oct 25, 2007 at 1:55:48 PM (0+)
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Reply: Wow, what a speech..
for the usage of n- word or at least against not usage of it. And here we have everything in one pot: Germans, Hip-hop, black racism, etc. The clear case of black racism was in Haiti in the times of Papa Doc and there white people were called 'stinky'. I do not recall Papa Doc using any other words and also using the n-word either. BTW, blak Haitians did not benefit much from that. I am pretty sure, though tht Papa and Baby Doc's henchmen who live now in Florida have no problems with the elitist whites: scum meats scum. If some people feel offended with certain unfortunate definitions, do not use those. The books from the past, the famous Huckleberry Finn show us that the word was used to denigrate human beings. Thus it is a negative connotation and a decent person should not use it presumably just because he/she is a decent person. Well, those indecent will build a castle fortifyiung their right to use this word and also say all the other things about minorities, their own mamas, whatever. It is all very loud and very pathetic. Black people are the same as everyone else. They have their own painful moments and as everyone else they can be touchy and every decent human being, white or black or multicoolored must learn how to deal with it. That is I would say that if the Arab hears me calling him ' sand n-r', he has all the rigght to call me a filthy Jew back. by Mark Sashine (72 articles, 19 quicklinks, 269 diaries, 4101 comments [130 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Oct 25, 2007 at 1:37:44 PM (0+)
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Laws need to be changed with minds-
For all those who feel that the n-word is simply "a blast from the past",allow me to correct your way of thinking-The only reason why ANYBODY is allowed to use the n-word today is because the government is a racist entity. The govenrnment has systematically done everything in it's power to make certain that any race other than the one they share,ever overcomes or partisipates in any of the riches and advantages of this country. I bet some of you think they have,but not really. The government is charged with protecting the basic freedoms that our fathers died for like everyone else's in America.They do not! There have been laws made to condem and eradicate such behavior as jaywalking and gum chewing. In Indiana: Across the river in Kentucky, we found some more laws that were downright weird. It used to be against the law to appear in public in bathing gear. That included coming out of your house to get your morning paper in your bathrobe. But they repealed that law about 20 years ago, about the same time they repealed the law against throwing eggs at a public speaker. But some things are still technically illegal: Our stupidest, stupid law comes from Fort Thomas, Kentucky. In that town, it is illegal for dogs to molest cars -- or people. My point here is that anytime the government wanted to stop the use of the n-word they could-Instead of this they encourage the use of it each and everyday it is not condsidered a HATE CRIME whenever it is used in a CRIME OF HATE. Yes-the buck does stop with us, we need to be sure to organize and not compare ourselves with other group issues "gays,honkeys" or whatever by using those "slangs." Those words mean nothing to anyone else,so why compare them constantly with the use of the n-word? Using the n-word in a lot of cases can be worst than sticks and stones as they do damage to our insides. For the record it is offensive and a huge section of people will continue to organize and assist in changing laws based on those crooked scales of justice. P.S. I am a Black Woman and if anyone thinks the author is racist..please go to a dictionary and "study to show yourself approved" A black man in America does NOT currently possess the power to be a racist- Selah by Bronxstar (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 3 comments) on Thursday, Oct 25, 2007 at 7:44:08 PM (0+)
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Reply: Enough Already!
Cagey why don't you take a chill pill and your tired behind and sit down in a corner somewhere. You have taken my article and have tried to make something out of it that's not there. I could give less than a d-mn about you and your racial hang-ups. This article is about blacks to refrain from referring to one another as the n-word and could care less about whether you approve or disapprove. The only one who is trying to make this a race issue is YOURSELF obviously it is more than you can bear is for a black man to be able to discuss the n-word without making it a race issue but nonetheless with your twisted mind you have taking it upon yourself to make this a black and white thing. So once again, because of its evil, diabolical and heinous history all blacks need to refrain from using this word among themselves, and for the record can care less whether twisted minded people such as yourself approves or disapproves. Also, one other thing, if it is your consciousness that's bothering you I would suggest that you take your guilt trip to a therapist and see what they can do for you. by H. Lewis Smith (15 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 7 comments) on Monday, Oct 29, 2007 at 5:49:36 PM (0+)
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Class is in session!
Great, I have an opportunity to teach. This is a great example of how the school systems are failing most of us in regards to OURSTORY instead of HISTORY- For the confused readers out there, allow me to elaborate(marked by complexity, fullness of detail) on what I mean when I say clearly that a Black man is currently not able to be a "racist" here in America. For the record WEBSTERS(on line version) dictionary defines the word "racist" as this "a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race" The above definition is of the Country of America and the government as well. Never has there been a time that a Black man has been able to discriminate against any entity other than itself. There has never been a "belief" that race,human traits or racial differences make us superior to any particular race and therefore we do not prevent that race from prospering to their betterment. Black people have not been in a position to prevent anyone from moving into "their" neighborhoods. There has not been a rash of unemployement do to businesses refusing to hire young, neat, educated whites to work for them. Never has a school system closed their doors for YEARS to prevent having to share space with a white person. I do not remember when I have ever seen or heard of a white man being HUNG from a tree simply because he was missing color in his skin. Never has a group of people based ONLY on skin color been taken captive and bought to a country where once they were bought there..the country was so scared of them..they were bullied and have been every since. 1prej·u·dice 1: injury or damage resulting from some judgment or action of another in disregard of one's rights; especially : detriment to one's legal rights or claims2 a (1): preconceived judgment or opinion (2): an adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge b: an instance of such judgment or opinion c: an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics Now the above definition is for prej·u·dice-This is something a black man can be if he likes. This is based on opinion. It can be ones opinion that whites are by nature mean and mistrusting. It is still legal for a black man to have an opinion for the record. Ignorance is something we are constantly finding and it is directly linked to a vast lack of knowledge of other races about black people and what still needs to be accomplished. This was done by those "racist" indivisuals that wrote the HIStory books and of course put a wicked slant on it to have themselves appear to be...oh here it is again.."superior" to black people. Unfortunately that rouse has been uncovered, and guess what we not taking it any more and more importantly we are not going any where..By the way the course that this is taught is BLACK HISTORY and that is where we throw out the bulls*%t from your books and "study" OURSTORY and build our Pride,Diginity and Self Respect and all the words to your disposal cannot blow this thing down,it is larger than you know and headed your way..(smile) AND YOU HAVEN'T SEEN ANYTHING YET! Selah... Bronxstar* by Bronxstar (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 3 comments) on Wednesday, Oct 31, 2007 at 6:29:24 AM (0+)
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This is Great!
You are welcome..You thanked me several times for "opening" your eyes to a group of people who want to be reconized. For exposing you apparently for the first time to the ills of America, and racisim as it currently exist. I am grateful that you no longer possess the ability to sit blindly by without a clue as to what is going on around you. I like the fact that you feel the need to call your fellow comarades to order. To sound the alarm that not all Black people are sleeping and willing to follow along with the business as usual attitude that has created this climate of self preservation. My only regret is that your act of disbelief is weak. It does not depict the cleaverness you profess to have locked down. All of a sudden you are so suprized that there are educated, hardworking,family orientated,black folk that want to partisipate in America and all it has promised to offer one day. As soon as it gets itself together, as soon as we successfully "free" another country and it's issues,we will deal with the issues we have right here. Yes one day..all will be well with America and it's racial scars. So far they are outnumbering the stripes and stars in "old glory" It seems really strange to actually see you misinterpet statements, minipulate comments and roll over explantations as if they weren't explained and pulled directly from a dictionary written from HIStory(Websters). You portray a person who has a feeling one way or the other how Black people are represented and you seem so concerned about why I consider the information corrupt. There is even a hint of having to have a reason to be disruptive and unruly under the headline of "they desearved it" At least we know you have a computer and a brain so there is help for you-I just suggest you check a few site links provided on www.theunitedvoices.org and if you still have the same understanding there is a course available for you to attend. We can and do offer one on one training for anyone who is willing to learn, we honestly want to simply be included in America-we were put into the system and charged as being 1/5 a whole person and that is one of the reasons.. no doubt there will be a white woman, a blind man and a hairy monkey as President before a black man. The basic rules of engagement have not been followed in America for those who have broken their backs and necks to help solidify the foundation of this country. Until that is accomplished all will never be well. Your printed money is droll and not worth the paper it is printed on. That was another of your worthless promises, so to say "they want money" is ridiculous. the promise of forty acres and a mule is passe and at this point basically useless. The best ground for farming and producing has long been taken.. One more time..we love you as you represent our long lost relationship with our Anglo brotherhood and because of this we seem to forever be at odds. Selah Bronxstar* by Bronxstar (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 3 comments) on Wednesday, Oct 31, 2007 at 9:17:10 PM (0+)
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