(In an interesting - and telling - twist, Herman Cain is now being attacked by some of his fellow conservative GOP peers for challenging fellow candidate Rick Perry. He's being accused of using race to his advantage in an attempt to disparage his competitor. No one leveling the accusations have taken Mr. Perry to task for the his actions, or lack thereof, regarding Throckmorton. In fact, it appears the other GOP candidates are giving Mr. Perry a pass on his alleged use of a racial slur. How offensive is that?)
This post contains language, including ethnic slurs, that's not safe for work, and may be offensive to some readers. While I'll understand if you decide to pass on reading this post, I hope you push past any possible offense and read this, but explore what truly offends you after reading the piece and exploring the links included.
I don't usually watch "The View."
This is, in part, because I'm usually working when the show airs. It's in part because I'm not a fan of most of the panel, which improved dramatically once it shed Rosie O'Donnell and added Whoopi Goldberg, but I'm grading on the curve. It's also in part because I have little patience for daytime television. If I am near a TV during the day, I'm watching something on my DVR, a news station like MSNBC or CNN, or something decadently bad, like "Snapped," or "America's Next Top Model," because everyone has a guilty pleasure...or two in my case.
Anyway, like I said, I don't watch "The View." I can only take so much of the mindless patter, infotainment, and gossip packaged as news that the show - and others like it - provide. But every once in a while, in spite of itself, "The View" breaks out of its mediocre mold and presents provocative, thought provoking discourse.
Yesterday was one of those days. During a report about Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain criticizing fellow candidate Rick Perry, Barbara Walters dared to report the facts earlier reported by the Washington Post. In her report, she noted that Mr. Cain was offended by reports about the Perry family's hunting lodge in Texas called Throckmorton. At the entrance of the lodge, visitors were greeted by a boulder with the term, "Niggerhead" painted on it. How long the rock with the word had been at the entrance was disputed. Some family and friends noted the rock was quickly painted over. Others said the rock had been on display for years and had only recently been painted over.
The issue, the facts, and the use of the word - by Mr. Perry and his family, along with Mr. Cain, soon got lost as "View" co-host Sherri Shepherd took offense to Barbara Walters saying "Niggerhead" (despite the fact that Ms. Walters noted she had a "hard time" saying it and that using the term "gave her chills"), but had no problem with Ms. Goldberg, her fellow "View" co-host saying it., in part because she said it "differently." Ms. Shepherd had no problem saying "nigger" herself, nor did she seem uncomfortable or express discomfort when she, during an intriguing conversation about the offense behind racial slurs, used terms like "wop," or "jew you down." The person who seemed most uncomfortable during the conversation was Ms. Walters, who tried several times to explain that she was not calling anyone "nigger," only that she was merely reporting a story, and using a word that not only had been on display on the Perry property, but had been used by Mr. Cain on camera in earlier news reports.
Interestingly enough, the viewing public didn't get to hear "nigger" go out over the airwaves. ABC muted the word out whenever it was used. Even more interesting, the terms "wop," and "jew you down" were not muted, nor did anyone on the panel mount a convincing challenge against the use of those perjoratives.
I didn't see the show when it aired, but I did see the clips later on. Two things came to mind as I read the report and watched the clip:
1) Why mute "nigger," but not the other ethnic slurs?
2) Not to negate how Ms. Shepherd feels, but why was Ms. Walters' use of the term - not directed at an individual, but during the course of reporting a story on the Perry family's callous and shockingly public use of the slur - offensive, but Ms. Goldberg's liberal use of "nigger" (which she said she delights in using because she knows she's not supposed to use it) not offensive? Or for that matter, why wasn't Ms. Shepherd offended by her own use of the word during the discussion - not to mention the other ethnic slurs?
I was also intrigued by the underlying and unexplored racial dynamics that flowed through the exchange. Like how Whoopi Goldberg, who used the term "nigger" quite openly during the discussion, once found herself mired in controversy back in 1993 after writing a skit for her and her then boyfriend, Ted Danson, where she had him performing in blackface and using the term for comedic effect during a roast in her honor. It failed, and shortly after, so did their relationship. Or how, back in the 1970's, Barbara Walters had a long term affair with then Sen. Edward Brooke, an African American. The relationship was kept secret because of her career and his marriage. She didn't disclose the affair until three years ago, when she released an autobiographical memoir. Mr. Brooke has never commented on her claims. Or even how, back in 2008, Ms. Goldberg reduced fellow "View" co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck to tears during a heated discussion regarding the word...
Nigger.
Okay, it's time for me to come clean.
I've used the word "nigger" occasionally. Still do in fact, even though I am bothered by the use of the word. Why?
In part because when I do, I'm channeling the spirit of Chris Rock's infamous, brilliant, and painfully truthful "Black People vs. Niggers" sketch:
In part because when I do, the person I'm describing fits (in my opinion) the definition of the word as found in my copy of the American Heritage Dictionary:
"Used as a disparaging term for a member of any socially, economically, or politically deprived group of people."
Unlike the definition in the dictionary, when I use the word, the person to whom I refer as a "nigger" isn't necessarily "usually...a black person."
In part because of my occasional etymological laziness. I know there are equally colorful words with less sociological baggage I could use to make my point, but sometimes, I feel the only word that will drive my point home is the one with the sharpest, most toxic impact.
In part because to me, like Ms. Goldberg, it seems more offensive, more egregious, to use euphemisms like "the n-word," in a vain attempt to wish "nigger" away. To pretend the word does not exist, to pretend that it's okay when a black person uses it as a term of endearment or a greeting towards another black person, to pretend that bleeping the word out when it's used in a news report about the disparaging use of the word somehow, as Ms. Goldberg said, "cleans the stink off it," is not only foolish, but even more damaging. Hiding the word, disguising it, tucking it away behind covers like "the n-word" gives it even more power, especially to those who truly believe that "nigger" automatically equals all people of African descent. The only way to strip the word of this toxicity, the only way to, as Ms. Goldberg said, "clean the stink off it," to keep it from being an ugly slur and a twisted term of endearment by the people it's meant to slur, is to bring it out into the open, then deal with the underlying cause of the shame, the discomfort, the ugly underlying context.
The same, by the way, can be said for all offensive ethnic, sexist, and racial slurs. George Carlin and Lenny Bruce said it best: Language is tool for concealing - and exposing - truths. Truths about the subject, about the user of the language, about the climate and culture in which the language exists, about the true nature of that person and the society in which he or she lives. And to restrict language simply allows a word to be used as a damaging, psychological weapon.
Ms. Shepherd was getting to that point (though I don't think she was totally aware of it) when she said she didn't like it when Ms. Walters said "niggerhead," even though it was in the context of a report about how a fellow African American was offended by the Perry family's casual, egregious use of the word. She got lost, however, when she used it herself. Or didn't flich when Ms. Goldberg repeatedly used it, or even offhandedly offered to teach Ms. Walters the "right way" to use the word towards the end of their conversation.
A slur is a slur is a slur, so if one is going to be offended, then (in my opinion) one should be offended whenever it's used, no matter who is using the term. In fact, shouldn't it be more offensive when the slur is used - especially in a casual, or even endearing, manner by an individual in the group at whom the slur is meant to insult? Watching the clip, I was more offended by the way Ms. Shepherd said it was okay for Ms. Goldberg to say "nigger" but it wasn't okay for a white person to say it, simply because we as African Americans know the history of the word. We know that it was meant to degrade, humiliate, and demean us. We know that it was meant to be a term of hate and revulsion. Because of this, we should be more vigilant about the use of the word amongst ourselves, and more aware of how the word is being used by others. To find offense in the use of the term in the context of a news report, where the reporter is describing how a person used the term to insult someone - not as insult or a perjorative, but give a pass to a comment about teaching someone how to use the term "correctly" is not only hypocritical, but it's almost as insulting as saying "nigger" as the vile insult it was designed to be.
I am hopeful that that Ms. Walters and Ms. Shepherd continue the conversation over a dinner as Ms. Shepherd offered during the segment. When they do, I hope Ms. Walters quotes from the film, "Lenny," based on the life of Lenny Bruce, because there was a speech in there that could get to the root of the matter:
"Are there any niggers here tonight? Could you turn on the house lights, please, and could the waiters and waitresses just stop serving, just for a second? And turn off this spot. Now what did he say? 'Are there any niggers here tonight?' I know there's one nigger, because I see him back there working. Let's see, there's two niggers. And between those two niggers sits a kyke. And there's another kyke— that's two kykes and three niggers. And there's a spic. Right? Hmm? There's another spic. Ooh, there's a wop; there's a polack; and, oh, a couple of greaseballs. And there's three lace-curtain Irish micks. And there's one, hip, thick, hunky, funky, boogie. Boogie boogie. Mm-hmm. I got three kykes here, do I hear five kykes? I got five kykes, do I hear six spics, I got six spics, do I hear seven niggers? I got seven niggers. Sold American. I pass with seven niggers, six spics, five micks, four kykes, three guineas, and one wop. Well, I was just trying to make a point, and that is that it's the suppression of the word that gives it the power, the violence, the viciousness. Dig: if President Kennedy would just go on television, and say, 'I would like to introduce you to all the niggers in my cabinet,' and if he'd just say 'nigger nigger nigger nigger nigger' to every nigger he saw, 'boogie boogie boogie boogie boogie,' 'nigger nigger nigger nigger nigger' 'til nigger didn't mean anything anymore, then you could never make some six-year-old black kid cry because somebody called him a nigger at school."
More later, with a recommendation that everyone get a copy of "Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word," by Randall Kennedy.
(Update (10/4/11): But wait, there's more! Not only is Rick Perry fond of offensive words with racial undertones, but he also has a soft spot in his heart for Confederate symbolism, saying it's a part of our history that should not be ignored. And this is the guy the Republican Party championed? Sigh....
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