Thursday, May 25, 2006
Abolish The "N" Word
A friend of mine I don't get to see as often as I'd like tipped me this week to a film clip presentation that can be seen at www.abolishthenword.com It's intense and may be upsetting to some folks for its graphic images and statements, but I highly recommend it. I had to chase the words a bit because, on my little computer screen, they kept falling above or below what I could see without moving to catch them, but after a couple of times, I had clearly gotten the message. Again, I'm warning: it's strong...
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18 comments:
Changseek,
I thing you half a GRATE sight. Never mind what the critc say. Fact is, one think missing. I thing you need too put a link to my sight under you're "Links".
Merci
Hillary-for-President.blogspot.com
I went to the site. I have to tell you that it brought tears to me eyes to see what the "N" word incited. My tears are also born out of a heart of sorrow because I know that a lot of my fellow African-Americans, don't realize that everytime one of us uses the "N" word, we become the thing that we despise. It's another form of Black on Black crime. Proof positive, ignorance is NOT bliss. I stopped using the "N" word when I was junior high school after being confronted by a non-black person as to why we could use this word on each other but would fight a non-black person that dared to use it. That made me see the hypocrisy of it. The "N" word is hateful no matter whose mouth it comes out of.
It takes the comedy out of a joke and turns casual conversation vulgar. I refuse to let my mouth to be used as a weapon against those that I love. I love Black people, including myself. Love keeps that "N" word from coming out of my mouth. People can only speak what's in their heart. Some people, need to have a change of heart as soon as yesterday.
Well said, Iaintlying. Especially the line "I refuse to let my mouth be used as a weapon against those that I love." Beautifully put.
I saw this last week & I agree that it's powerful stuff. That word was regularly used in my household growing up, although I was taught that it meant an ignorant person & that it wasn't specific to any race. I am definately in a generation that came of age feeling very comfortable with the word, but for the last several years I have struggled with it. Seeing this video gave me some further motivation to never say it again.
I think this is something that all teenagers need to see. Going to a high school where the use of the N word by both blacks and whites is deemed appropriate I think that this site is espeically powerful and shows the true hateful nature of the word.
I felt the same way, Jared, but it's encouraging to hear it from somebody younger. Thanks for dropping by. Come back anytime.
I didn't use the "N" word in my poem, Freddie. I used the term I had been called by a racist. And I don't have anything to say about the euphemisms for White people because those have been drafted in reaction to institutionalized oppression against people of color by oppressors who are still in power. No people can be oppressed forever and wherever you find oppression, you will find social conflict.
Changeseeker,
You speak of oppression but as we exist today the young white male is the single most oppressed segment in our society. And you are trapped in the 50s and don't even notice.
Groups like NOW and NAACP are allowed to exist and are funded by my tax dollars. A group: NOM or NAAWP would be called racist and compared to the KKK. We are not permitted to compare the NAACP to the black panthers for fear of being called racist, though such comparisons may be quite appropos.
At the end of the day, if a white man murders a black man it is automatically a "hate crime" and he should be given the maximum sentence. If a black man kills a white man it is certainly never (or rarely at best) labeled a "hate crime". Why is that?
Why is it that a white man cannot go out after dark in places like Compton and Watts and live to see the next sunrise, but a black man in Beverly Hills after dark will make millions if someone calls the cops and he sues for color bias?
Why is it that "affrimative action", discrimination based on race, is not called like it is racial discrimiation or A RACIST POLICY!
Why is it that the federal goverment is actually willing to spend more of my tax dollars in return for inferior work performed by minority or female owned businesses?
Why?
Because the young white male is the single most oppressed segment of our society.
Freddie:
European-American men make up 33% of the U.S. population, but represent 80% of tenured professors, 80% of prime time TV directors, 80% of state governors, 80% of U.S. Congressmen, 84% of U.S. Senators, 92% of Forbes 400 CEO's, 99.9% of athletic team owners, and 100% of all the Presidents that have ever run the United States. On top of that, according to the Census Bureau, European-American men with high school diplomas earn more on average than European-American, African-American, or Latino women, even when those women have a college degree! And they're nearly four times more likely to be employed than African-American men at every educational level. I don't see the oppression here.
Changeseeker,
If we were mistreating people based on race 70 years ago (and we were), then we would expect a 69 year old person not be in the same position in which he otherwise would have been.
It takes time.
The experience of a career is more valuable than a degree. Ask anyone that is not an academic hack.
The sad fact is, it takes time. If we started doing things right 45 years ago, anyone 50 years old has not seen the full benefit.
To become a CEO or President of the United States of America (or Senator or US congressman), a person needs to have
1. A lot of luck
2. A lot of ability
3. A lot of training
4. To have been given opportunities from the beginning of his/her career.
Sorry, it is just a fact. If you start doing things right today, it would take rougly the amount of time from birth to retirement for a given person to have all the opportunities and for your statistics to balance.
The fact is, that is rougly 70 years. You cant balance things out with affrimative racism. You cant balance it out with goverment incentives. It just takes about 70 years to correct past flaws (and current flaws) in the system. Yes, it sucks. Yes, it is highly unfair for the 50 year old African American, and I wish there were a better way. But there is not. Cheating fairness for white males is not the way. The only way is to commit to fair play and wait. It is not ideal, but we cannot change the past. Only the future can we change.
All of your statistics are heavily weighted by people near the end of their careers.
Take away the highly discriminatory programs and do things right. That is the only way to solve the problem.
More racism is not the way.
And to your comments about sexism, the fact is a person's worth is not measured by how much he/she is paid by their employer. In our society, women have a choice much moreso than men. They can work outside of the home, or they can raise a family. Men are socially expected to work outside of the home. It is a fact. Women have the benefit of choice. If you look exclusively at women that have never taken time off of work to start a family and compare them to men without children, your results will be very different.
I surfed into your blog last night and after reading your posts, I was impressed with your post, I just started my blog and hope to be able to write stories as effective as you Changeseeker. Freddie, stop spweing your conservative B.S. masquerading as racism plain and simple. The "C" black student can't even manage Wal-Mart but the white "C" student can aspire to be President (he already is) of the United States murder 1,000 of his fellow black citizens (and I am not talking about Iraq)and then tell his fellow white male flunkie "Brownie you are doing a great job". That's what Affrimitive Action for white males get you in america.
Eric,
Where do I start....
1. There are a lot of "C" students, white C students, that can't manage a wall mart. Your example regarding President Bush is an anomaly at best and a cowardly act of sedition at worst.
2. Being against making decisions based on race (affirmative action)is now defined as racism in the extreme radical leftist community??
Lets see.
here is the definition of discrimination (as it applies to race in bold) from dictionary.com
dis·crim·i·na·tion ( P ) Pronunciation Key (d-skrm-nshn)
n.
1.The act of discriminating.
2. The ability or power to see or make fine distinctions; discernment.
3.Treatment or consideration based on class or category rather than individual merit; partiality or prejudice: racial discrimination; discrimination against foreigners.
hmm....
okay, so now I am a racist because I am unwilling to make decisions based on class or category rather then individual merit.
But you are not guilty of racism because you are for Treatment or consideration based on race rather than individual merit.
That is simply not a logical accusation for you to make.
Tell me, Eric because I dont understand the entitlement mentality very well. What makes you think black people are entitled to special consideration? Are they better than the rest of us? Their shit not stink? Somehow, I don't think they are any different than any other person, so I don't really understand the entitlement mentality at all. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe there is justification for this entitlement program. I just don't think so.
Maybe you should reflect on your belief system; question the things you believe; look from the other side; because I don't think you intend to be discriminatory. I think you are a good guy and would like to be fair to all. Maybe some of the things you currently support are not a good fit with your character?
3. I am not sure who or what you are referring to when you claim that someone has murdered 1000 citizens of the United States of America, but I would like to help make sure it never happens again. Can you share details of these murders, just so I can get all of the relevant facts?
4. Not sure what you mean by "Brownie, you are doing a great job". Are you talking about girl scout cookies or something? Sorry, I am not trying to be funny. I just don't understand your meaning at all.
Eric: Thanks for stopping by. Went over to your blog for a few, but want to go back to check it out more thoroughly. Good stuff. (And keep in mind, Freddie is my resident "see what I'm talkin' about" demonstrator. Ya dig? I couldn't pay him to be a better show-and-tell example to accompany my posts.)
Freddie: if you want to write this much, why don't you just start your own blog? It's free...
What Freddie , you going to call Homeland Security to throw me in jail for calling Bush a third- rate white boy of no social or personal accomplishment unless he stole an election with the help of "his daddy and friends" and perceeed to run the U.S.A. into the ground in less than 7 years give me a break you stupid Neo- Nazi, scare tatics work on igorant 15 y.o. not grown folks. Debating someone like you like going to the store and getting chocalate ex-lax,and eating the whole box it just will make crap all day your rants are just verbal diahera that comes out down the craphole.
You are inferior intellectually because you are saying the same rhetoric you obviously pasted from some Neo- conservative or racist site and can't even form an opinion of your own through serious thought and introspection. I can go on these sites and read the same thing you cut and pasted on this site.
It's almost funny because I hear that from conservatives like you all the time and I ask them this question, 'Don't you have any opinions of your own that is not repeated verbatim from someone else's mouth" ?
Now I quess you will call me a 'black racist" now whatever gets you off as Morris Day once said.
thank you for the link - touching, moving, sad, true .... thank you
Freddie do u even know what you are saying. Yes Cracker and White bread are bad words and I don't use them either but Ni***** is a very deep word I mean. You werent' slapped you weren't lynched you weren't forced to work on plantations even if you were about to pass out they didn't care and for the white man being the most suppresed that is crap because most places I go It still seems like blacks don't fit in. I mean what black president have we ever had. Even in the state of new york have we even had a black senator. I understand SOME and I do emphasize SOME. But everything else doesn't. And I don't think that White organizations are rascist
We won't be able to abolish the "n-word" until we eliminate the bigger problem. (GD-MF,etc.)
We can't major on the minors.
Chalklot: I do agree with you that there are deeper issues, but the issues related to the use of the n-word by African-Americans are not, in my opinion, the same issues as the ones related to the use of curse words in general. Many folks who curse, for example, never use the n-word ever.
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