A white chick’s diatribe on the N-word.

So I nervously venture into this blog post…

I do not know why other people blog but my decision to start blogging was made as an exercise in self-expression, for reasons relating to my childhood.  I wanted to exercise the freedom to express myself and I wanted to see what would come out of me when I wrote.  I am not a writer.  I have no dreams to become one.  Contrary to any evidence suggesting otherwise levitating in the blogosphere, such as an occasional link to one of my blog postings under a Huffington Post post, I honestly do not care if anyone ever reads my blog.

This is only the second time I have been genuinely uncomfortable when blogging.  I guess that means that in this instance I am nervous about someone possibly reading this post. 

I am considering as I write this that being uncomfortable when writing is probably a good thing.  I have to remember that when choosing something to blog about going forward.

What has prompted this post is the decision by publishing company NewSouth Books to print new editions of Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” removing the N-word and replacing it with “slave”.

I am a book lover.  The story is told that I read a book every day as a child.  I find that hard to believe but that is the story.  I certainly remember reading every chance I could.  My library card was well used.  I also remember hiding books under the covers and as soon as my parents were out of sight reading them with whatever light I could get.  These days I do not read books nearly as often as I would like to but I do own many.  For some people  they would just be paper taking up space.  For me, each is its own little life force.  It is their individual life forces that have kept me from yet buying a e-reader even though the girl who loves tech would have even been excited to use one in beta.  I read enough on a computer screen.  When I read a book, I want it to feel like a book.

I decided that I should blog about the New South publishing decision when I realized that I had felt a visceral reaction upon hearing the news.  Immediately, unequivocally, I felt it was wrong.  Then I hesitated because that meant talking about the N-word, which other than one comment under a HuffPo post I have never done before.

So…here goes…this white chick, so pale that the lightest foundation is always too dark for my skin is going to talk about a word used to lynch black people!?!

Maybe I just don't know enough bad words but to me the N-word has always been the most hateful word in the English language.  I always told myself that anyone that used it would not be welcome at any dinner table in any home of mine. 

But then things got murkier because while I am not American-born, I am a citizen and parts of the African-American community use the N-word in its reclaimed form.  Would I now not welcome an African-American who used that word to my table???  I have never had to make that decision as none of the African-Americans in my life use that word or at least they have never done so around me???

The truth is that until recently, post the NewSouth Books decision, I had only ever heard the N-word spoken ONCE, yes once, by my favourite comedian Chris Rock during a performance.  Most people in the audience were laughing when he used the N-word.  I was not one of them.  My senses felt assaulted hearing that word over and over again.  I did not find it funny. 

The first time I saw the N-word written in a comment under a YouTube vid, I flagged it, my only YouTube flag.  I soon after realized, horrifyingly, that it was all over YouTube.  I have flagged three things at the Huffington Post.  Two were cursor accidents (I am having serious issues with one button on my touchpad).  The third was the N-word.  Sometime after that HuffPo N-word flag there was a thread at HuffPo that resulted in many people using the N-word in their comments below the post.  I had to stop reading the thread.

I realize that the N-word has been reclaimed by some African-Americans and co-opted to mean different things, some as affectionate as dude.  I use dude.  I am sure I have used dude on this blog as I like that word but I would never use the N-word.  I don’t care over how many years the N-word is reclaimed and by whatever percentage of African–Americans, it will never mean ‘dude’ to me.

On the one hand the double standard is fine.  Whites with few exceptions (for example: reading and discussing its use in literature, discussing its history, as part of a historical play, educating children) should never use that word.  Agreed.  If a white person uses it as a compellation, then they don’t respect black people but I honestly believe that the double standard contributes to its continued use by white people.

I also argue with those who believe that it has been reclaimed.  It hasn’t really.  If if HAD white people would be able to use it.  ‘Queer’ as a word has travelled a journey to the point where it is pretty socially acceptable to refer to the queer community though I prefer gay & lesbian community or LGBT community.  Along with being white, I am also straight, so I really don’t get  a vote there either.  However, I do not believe it will EVER be acceptable to refer to the nigger community.  Yes, I just typed that word.  *shaking head*

The N-word has been used to dehumanize people and lynch people.  I think its continued use in reclaimed form is a slap in the face to older African-Americans and African-American ancestors who were slaves, yes even if you change the ending from ‘er’ to ‘a’, reclaim it and say that it now means ‘dude’.  It seems disrespectful to African-American ancestors on a level that I cannot put into words.  To me it is no more acceptable to use the N-word than it is to joke about the Holocaust.

Okay Sage…then why are you upset about the NewSouth Books decision?  Wouldn’t removing that word from Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” make you happy then?

No, it would not.  It would be an attempt to sanitize and amputate history.   Censorship erases history.  We should never erase history, especially not evil history.  We need to educate not amputate!

It is fine to argue that children below a certain age should not be taught the novel in class.  It is fine to argue that they have not developed cognitively to a level where they can understand that this book was written in 1884 and not 2011 and that there will be words in there that they can read, even aloud in class, but can then not use them as compellations toward real live human beings.  That is a fair argument.  But amputating American history….no!

I walked to a local second hand book store yesterday looking for an unsanitized copy of Huck Finn.  I bought one.  I started to read it last night.  I have already read its first use of the N-word:

Miss Watson, she kept pecking at me, and it got tiresome and lonesome.  By and by they fetched the niggers in and had prayers, and then everybody was off to bed.  I went up to my room with a piece of candle and put it on the table.  Then I sat down in a chair by the window and tried to think of something cheerful, but it wasn’t no use.  I felt so lonesome, I most wished I was dead., p.5.

This is a picture from the front cover. 

The N-word has an evil history and it will always have the power to hurt and reinforce myths about African-Americans.  I completely understand any attempt to reclaim the word but has this rewriting of its meaning really taken away any of its power if a white person were to use it in 2011?  That said, the N-word’s evil history is not a reason to cower or amputate.  It is a reason to educate. 

We cannot ban words but we can use the classroom as a place to educate, including educating where a word like the N-word should and should not be used.  Any child of mine will read the original Huckleberry Finn and will learn how that word was used and continues to be used to dehumanize people. 

I think that should be the goal.  We should teach children that it is ok to read Huckleberry Finn aloud in class but it is unacceptable and hateful in 2011 to call African Americans nigger or nigga.  *shaking head again*  It is an opportunity to teach children about history.  It is an opportunity to teach children responsible behaviour via responsible speech.  It is an opportunity to teach children that we are always going to offend people but that not using the N-word is about human dignity and human respect.  Words have the power to harm and the power to heal.  We need to teach children to use them consciously and responsibly.

In light of recent events and much irresponsible speech, now is an excellent time to do so.

So…would I welcome my favorite comedian and his family to my dining table?  I would…BUT…if he used the N-word in my home, I would tell him that if he did so again I would have to ask him to leave.  Sorry Chris!

Next Blogum: February 2011

Sage Spencer