In which Bing uses the word Nigger. Repeatedly.
Bing: Welcome to HJHOP, broadcasting live tonight from the Midwest. Today on the show we have the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader who was on the balcony with Dr. Martin Luther King when he was assassinated, a 2-time former presidential candidate and lover of New York. Rev Jackson, good evening.
Rev. Jackson: Nigger.
It's not the first time that I have brought up the word "nigger." My feeling is that clearly everyone on the planet needs to grow the fuck up.
What ticked me off...holy crap it's late to do this, and when you talk about this, you better be prepared to discuss the issue at some length, so that you leave no doubt as to where you stand on the issue, race, and "other people" in general....What got me was a release from the AP that really sounded as if the collective editorial staff of the paper had the courage of an eight year old:
By SOPHIA TAREEN, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 28 minutes ago
CHICAGO - The Rev. Jesse Jackson used the N-word during a break in a TV interview where he criticized presidential candidate Barack Obama, Fox News confirmed Wednesday.
[...]
The longtime civil rights leader already came under fire this month for crude off-air comments he made against Obama in what he thought was a private conversation during a taping of a "Fox & Friends" news show.
In additional comments from that same conversation, first reported by TVNewser, Jackson is reported to have said Obama was "talking down to black people," and referred to blacks with the N-word when he said Obama was telling them "how to behave."
Though a Fox spokesman confirmed the TVNewer's account to The Associated Press, the network declined to release the full transcript of the July 6 show and did not air the comments.
[...]
Jackson has called on the entertainment industry, including rappers, actors and studios, to stop using the N-Word. He also urged the public to boycott purchasing DVD copies of the TV sitcom "Seinfeld" after co-star Michael Richards was taped using the word during a rant at a Los Angeles comedy club in 2006.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who has joined Jackson in opposition of the word, said Wednesday he wanted to hear the comments for himself and declined to discuss Jackson specifically.
"I am against the use of the N-word by anyone and I think we must be consistent," he told The Associated Press. "We must not use the word."
"All I said was this meal was good enough for Jehovah!"
I'm sorry, but if it is newsworthy that Jesse Jackson referred to the collective of black people as "niggers" then, for fuck's sake use the fucking word you fuck-fucking fuck fuckers. It's like the newsrooms of this nation are full of 4th graders on the playground: "Miss Tucker. Jesse just used the n-word!!!"
I'm not a complete thicko. I know that the word nigger is often used by people who are disparaging blacks. But this is not the word's fault. I don't know why the word nigger is forced to sit at the back of the language bus. This seems to me to dodge the real issue here, whether or not Jesse (Rev. Jackson if you're nasty) used the word in a disparaging way. And quite frankly, I can't judge because the AP didn't have the balls to print what Jackson said verbatim, though to be fair, Jackson may have had them cut off.
There are nuances of meaning here, people, and instead of clarifying the whys and whats and whences (heehee), the AP is actually just obscuring the issue, making it impossible for readers to examine what he said in a deeper, more meaningful way. Was he being disparaging to black people? Does it make a difference when a black person uses the word? Why? (And you better make it good!) Can only women call other women "cunts"?
I seem to remember a while back a politician in D.C. used the word "niggardly," which actually comes from a different root than nigger. And the fuss it created, and which the media retardedly fanned, only contributed to this simplistic idea that utterances are things to be superstitious about. Every illiterate fuck who protested the word "niggardly" should be slapped with a waffle and forced to write out a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary. With the supplements!
Words are not the issue. The intentions behind them are what matter.
HJ
Seed Newsvine
9 comments:
THANK YOU.
For fuck's sake, between Wafergate, the Helix Rejection Indiscretion, the New Yorker cover cartoon, and now this, I am about ready to go Luddite just so I can stop hearing about people being so goddamned desperate to be offended by something. You nail it here -- it's like the world is deliberately pretending that nuance doesn't exist anymore, that satire doesn't exist, that it's impossible to discuss real issues with real words and still be decent people.
I like to pretend I'm a [failed/failing] writer, at times. As a pretend writer, the last thing I'm going to be afraid of is a word. I've been called any number of them myself -- bitch, cunt, some word in a language I don't speak but am told means something like "white bitch," to name a few -- I'm guessing you've had a few slung in your direction, too.
Sometimes they're the right words. Even if the person using them has it all wrong, even if it's horribly unfair and our feelings are hurt and we're marginalized and zomg we're so offended on behalf of ourselves and our ancestors going back two thousand years, if it's what they meant then it's the right word. Sometimes it's meant to offend, and sometimes it's meant to shine a light on a problem that the word represents. Nuance, as you say.
Not only can another woman call me a cunt, you may feel free to do so yourself. If that's the word that carries the weight of what you mean, then fucking use it.
Nobody has the right to not be offended, and yet it seems like our entire society is trying to make it so. And nobody gets to tell us not to use whatever word we like. I mean, I hate to go all 1984 here, but limiting language really does limit thought.
What I like about your blog is that you are not afraid to use the right words for what you mean and put them in the order you intend to say what the fuck you mean regardless of who it might offend. Keep it up.
I'm with Chris Rock on the 'N-word' issue; there's black folks and there is niggers.
Context means everything in language and a lot of people are missing that. Awesome post as ever Bing.
wonderful post as always, you unrepentant cracker.
;-)
Funny thing; I was at a pop festival many years ago, and wandered into one of the tents to see "Body Count", a popular pop music combo of whom I was, and still am, rather fond.
On mounting the stage, the artist known as Ice T greeted his (mainly) young audience with the cry "Are all my niggahs in da house?". I can assure you there is no sweeter sight in the world than watching a group of white, middle class pubescent kids jumpin' up 'n' down screamin' "YEAH!!!" 'cos dey is Ice T's niggahs. (I confess to doing a little of the jumpin' up 'n' down meself, 'cos I wuz one 2).
What I still don't quite understand is that apparently someone who is only 5% black (or less) is somehow still "black", whereas if somebody who was (f'rinstance) 5% Lakota would be laughed at by the tribal elders if they claimed to be "native Americans"?
I think there is a subtle distinction, between conversational usage of words like "niggar" and "Cunt" and reportorial usage. Reporting on a battle a reporter might describe carnage, and the photographer might even take pictures of that carnage, but the paper, responsible to the tastes of it's audience will no show that picture, and may even edit some descriptive text. They have this responsibility.
In this case specifically they also have the responsibility to report the entire context, even using the edited, "n-word". So I agree with Bing that the reporting can be better, but I sympathize with a news service that must take into account its readers and employees' feelings and potential reactions.
Bing, you are right about that city employee, who was white, using the word niggardly to describe the progress of school renovations. That was a long time ago. Recently, in Texas, a white school board member said resources were disappearing down a "black hole" and two of his black colleagues, apparently not astrophysicists, took offense.
The problem with truly offensive words is that they carry different weight with different people, and using them carries a certain danger of obscuring your overall point. It's perfectly fine to say no one has the right to not be offended, but the opposite is true as well, people also have the right to be offended. Whether you respond to that by saying, "Oh well, fuck you then" or, "Oops, sorry." is your own affair.
To be honest, I don't care if Jackson said nigger(s), or if the paper spells it out or voluntarily censors itself, because I have zero interest in what Jackson said in a private conversation. I'd hate to think what people would think of me if they heard what I said amongst my confidants.
Well now, I agree with anybody who says that the context is important...
I mean, I can say "Fuck You" like i did now, and it's not offensive to anybody...
But when I direct it at somebody, it becomes offensive.
Some people just never grew up...Ha ha ha, "Jesse said the N word!"
@b8ovin - I completely forgot to include Black Holio in my list of idiotic knee-jerk reactionary b.s. Oy. What a week it's been.
Stated sanely and perfectly.
Post a Comment