For starters, the fact that the Michael Richards incident is still being churned throughout mainstream media is just too funny for me to just ignore it at this point. In some way, I feel like I did back in high school when my friends and I would sit on the top bleachers and crack on folks that were on the court. Except this time it is MSM who is on the court.
This morning I came across an article that was just simply too ridiculous for me to pass up. Consider this a posting for your afternoon coffee break. I will provide you with excerpts of the article below interwoven with my comments.
Rappers From Different Ethnic Backgrounds Comment On Call To Ban N-Word
By Nolan Strong (Allhiphop.com)
Popular white rapper Paul Wall banished the word from his vocabulary years ago and is supporting the NAACP’s call to ban the word from use in the media and entertainment industries.
“I support the NAACP in their cause,” Paul Wall told AllHipHop.com. “I think the word is offensive for anybody to use. It’s a disgraceful, offensive word that was used to belittle people because of the color of their skin. Its become such a general term, that everyday good people now use the ‘n-word’ in general conversation. Its meaning and definition have evolved, but its roots are still negative.”
[...]
“I don’t use it because my mother raised me to believe that it is an offensive word regardless of who says it,” Paul Wall explained. “But being that the word is so common, I am referred to by the ‘n-word’ everyday. ‘Paul Wall, n***a you my favorite rapper.’ ‘That n***a Paul Wall got a clean grill.’ Last year in Ozone Magazine, I won the “Realest N***a Award. It obviously was a joke though.”
Okay for starters, Paul Wall is A WHITE person in a heavily Black influenced industry. No doubt he saw all the heat Eminem caught a few years back for using the N-word in a tape he made in his basement back in the day. Paul Wall’s decision to stop using the word is not as deep as he is making it sound. Stop using the word (if you are white) or get clocked! In the meantime Black folks can call him a N***a, just not the other way around on a regular basis.
“The activists are hoping rappers will follow Paul Wall and Mooney’s lead…”
The hip hop industry follow a moral lead of a WHITE MAN???? Jesse is right when he says “Keep hope alive” because that is about all he can do on this one. (LOL)
The devil makes us do it!
Davey D speaks his mind on the matter:
“One thing to keep in mind about the popularity of the ‘n-word’ is that corporate owned media outlets and record labels gave platforms for folks to use that word at will,” Davey D. told AllHipHop.com. “The end result has been everybody feeling they can use it, without the general connotation and association being changed.
He continues..
Sadly, those same outlets are quick to shut down access when these same black folks who like to use the ‘n-word’ come to the table to speak about politics or against Bush, white oppression, Katrina or the War in Iraq, suddenly we get shut down. Suddenly they don’t have platforms or time to hear us speak. When a person or institution makes you believe that you are somehow being empowered while they are simultaneously oppressing you, its called pimping.”
????????????
There was a “table” set up at last years “State of the Black Union”. I don’t remember reading about the “oppressed” millionaires of hip hop being present — let alone contributing. Why comment any further here?
Reverend Jesse Jackson and other activists are planning a series of meetings with TV networks, film companies and musicians to discuss banning the ‘n-word.’
Earth to Jesse, you are going to the wrong crowd.
(PS, can you pass out a demo tape for a brotha while you are making your rounds?)
And finally, this is from rapper Noreaga:
“What hurts me the most, is when you have an actor of such stature and he says your a n****r, and I think that’s how he really feels. What also makes me mad is when you got Jesse [Jackson] running to his aid, as if he didn’t mean to say it. Man f**k that motherf***er.”
I’ll just leave you with a excerpt from one of this “hurt” brotha’s songs:
(I thought about editing it, but I figured its best to “keep it real” here)
From “Banned from Another Club”
“Now put your cards on the motherfucking table and see whats, what
Give life the dick hard she a slut
That will make her feel it in her gut
Then I move to my career
So fuck your perspective, your thoughts get neglected”
But its all art, right?
Fact: Youtube.com has over 12,000 videos containing the n-word in its description [link]
Sphere: Related Content
November 30th, 2006 at 10:24 pm
Sorry, there is just no way to trivialze what richards said. Two wrongs do not make a right, so as far as this incident is concerned, it really does not matter what anyone else has said or done. Also, I will never, never, watch Seinfeld again.
I would find an analysis of the new talented tenth (or hopefully more), and how they can be supported, to be much more constructive and interesting. Or how about a discussion of how individuals in poor school districts can home school their children… Anything rather than articles about the “N” word, or about how hypocritical Black people are..
November 30th, 2006 at 10:25 pm
P.S. I think that Davey D, as quoted, is exactly correct.
December 1st, 2006 at 1:21 am
…it really does not matter what anyone else has said or done.
The problem here is that it does matter. If Richards’ actions has you pissed off enough not to watch Sienfeld again, I hope you vent off the same way when the same yuck comes from our community about other races.
and how they can be supported, to be much more constructive and interesting. Or how about a discussion of how individuals in poor school districts can home school their children
All of this and more takes place here on the regular. I ask again, how is this trivializing what Richards said? What he said was just as wrong as what others have said about white people under the guise of comedy. Holding Richards to the letter of the law while laughing off cracks on white folks is plain hypocrisy–weather you want to deal with that or not. Until we deal with this double standard, we have absolutely NOTHING to offer the poor folks you want to help.
P.S. I think that Davey D, as quoted, is exactly correct.
No need to continue here since you would be unable to provide solid examples of when Blackfolks have been shut out from discussion on the topics he mentioned.
December 1st, 2006 at 9:55 am
i am SO over this whole issue. well, the kramer aspect of it, anyway. and yes, i do refer to the man as “kramer” on purpose. it entertains me. aaaanywho, i’m tired of people referring to “nigger” (or any variation of it) as “the n-word.” call it what it is, and if you’re afraid to, then you shouldn’t be using it, no matter the context. if all these news stories about “the rant” (grrr, i hate that, too) replaced every usage of “n-word” with “nigger,” it would be that much more apparent how offensive it was in the first place. seems to me like media is trying to soften the blow of it by referring to is as a lapse in judgment or a slip of the tongue.
as far as banning use of the word…i still haven’t decided yet…but my blog is open
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=94079356
December 1st, 2006 at 1:58 pm
The Richard’s incident is an excellent example of individual racism, media overkill, and an uninspired African-American response. Yes, I’m angry too. But enough already! This word holds both psychological and historical power. It feeds off hate and will never go away. But the problems African-Americans continue to encounter daily will not be lessened by our visceral reaction to this word. I don’t believe black and white America and the international community will ever stop using it. But if “public discussion” continues, our best option is to rise above the impact of this verbal weapon. In our minds, this FIRE-HOT WORD already burns way too deep.
December 2nd, 2006 at 8:42 pm
“..I hope you vent off the same way…” , and “… holding richards to the letter of the law…”This is a tatic that we used in our high school debate club many moons ago, it is called; “changing the topic”.
It is impossible to prove Davy D’s theory wrong, as is claimed, because you are asking someone to prove a negative. So his theory is right until someone proves him wrong.
Thats it from me about this dreary topic.
December 2nd, 2006 at 11:06 pm
Changing the topic???
Admit it, you are a straight up bigot. You have two sets of standards when it comes to race: one for White people and the other for Blacks. Speaking of “changing the topic”, you have yet to address the questions DIRECTLY that I asked you in a earlier post on this same topic. If I remember correctly, I asked you 3 questions pertaining to this issue.
It is impossible to prove Davy D’s theory wrong
You have YET to prove him right.
December 4th, 2006 at 10:38 am
I’m a “Bigot”?!, I had to break my silence on this topic to let you know that my wife of 18 years, with whom I have had several children, is Scottish and Austrian.
When you get a chance you might look into what the “weapons of the weak” are. and Consider how it applies to African Americans and the expressions of anger, resentment and racism.
December 4th, 2006 at 11:38 am
A bigot is a bigot. It does not matter the color of your wife (congrats on 18 years of marriage btw).
I have asked you several times throughout this conversation to explain your two sets of standards for Blacks and Whites on this issue. You have flatly refused to do so while accusing me of “changing the topic”. What you should have refered to here are the Weak Weapons you have been using here because you flatly refuse to accept the fact that what Richards did is no different than what hip hop artists and comedians do professionally — demean folks based on their race. This by no means lets Richards off the hook, instead it places ALL racist “expressions” in one trash heap. Like the Black individuals in that club, your rights as an American were not threatened neither did lynch mobs gather outside your door. This was a dumb comment by a pinhead whom you (based on your comments) elevated to the level of a slave master of all Black folks with the power to send us all back to the tobacco and cotton fields.
December 4th, 2006 at 12:15 pm
The “weapons of the weak” is term from a paper that was written by a philosopher – his name escapes me right now. It refers to the many tactics that have been used throughout history by the oppressed, enslaved, and those who are being taken advantage of by the more powerful. In the work force unions have used such tactics as strikes, work to rule, ..the enslaved have used sabotage, theft and escape. Today, many in the underclass have no other weapon but the ability to speak badly of those who
oppress them. So we often hear Black people speaking about whites, in general terms, with derision. Because there is such an imbalance of power between Blacks and whites, there is no way to compare the effects of expressed racism. Nothing that a black person can say will have much of an impact on a white person. On the other hand someone has noted that the history,of white oppression of Blacks, along with the reminder of lynchings, the denied employement opportunities, inferior education, redlined mortgages, and the current position of blacks as an underclass, has been condensed into one word: “nigger”. When a white, rich celebrity with a microphone attacks Black average Joes who cannot even speak back with the same volume – we should condem this person outright, without attempting to somehow “bundle” his actions along with those of selected Black people who may have done something wrong.
I do not elevate richards to any level of importance, and I do not have two standards about what is right. I avoid racist Black comics, and Black comics who use the word nigger every two seconds also. I just hope that you as a person who has chosen to give a voice to Black interests will not get trapped in the conceptual tangle that is often spun in the name of conservative thinking…
December 4th, 2006 at 1:19 pm
Black average Joes who cannot even speak back with the same volume – we should condem this person outright, without attempting to somehow “bundle†his actions along with those of selected Black people who may have done something wrong.
What about the Black average joes who make millions doing the same thing that Richards did? Again, this is not a Conservative vs. Liberal issue here–hence we are right back to square one of this conversation.
Last thing, I do not buy the notion that Black folks are so weak that the only weapon we have to defend ourselves is stereotyping others. We are a whole lot better than that and history has proven that fact. Trust me, most folks that use the n-word on the regular are not thinking about oppression.
December 4th, 2006 at 11:18 pm
exe,
I am very serious about my congrats for your 18 years of marriage. That is certainly a great accomplishment by today’s standards.
December 6th, 2006 at 12:39 pm
May God bless you for 18 years of marriage. Please bottle up what you have and send it to these youngsters.
December 8th, 2006 at 4:29 pm
Thanks. It’s easier than it seems really. Two generations ago it was typical.