What happens when you “lease out” the N-word
on February 7th, 2006 at 1:18 am
I know, I know, this is a very old and tired discussion, but I just recently came across two scenarios where there was/is an unintended effect of this word being used in the general public. I’ll try to be brief.
Dave Chappelle
I was able to catch his recent interview on Oprah the other day. Most of his interview was about his hard time trying to adjust to overnight success. Although I have never had to deal with the pressures of being handed $50 mill, I could definitely understand how that could have a dramatic effect on anybody who have never experenced being rich.
Now we get to the part of the interview that had me rolling my eyes.
Anybody who has ever watched his show knows that he does not hold back when it comes to making fun of any racial group—especially black culture. I have really tried to sit down and watch some of his skits, but after the second “nig–” joke, I am already switching to another channel.
Chappelle has been doing this kind of comedy for years knowing full well that his audience included whites and other races as well.
In the interview, he then shares with Oprah that one day on the set, he notices that a white film crew member is not laughing “with” him, but “at” him (if you know what I mean). It is at this point Chappelle realizes “They” (meaning the white establishment) got him”. Now all of a sudden his brand of comedy has now revealed itself as one big conspiracy by the white man to make him and other black folks like him look foolish.
Com’on Dave!
Then he mentions a scenario on set of a movie with Martin Lawernce where he was told to play the role of a hooker (meaning that he had to wear a dress), while Martin played the pimp. Now the situation becomes “poor lil’ black man versus the mean ol’ white producer”. In short, Chappelle puts his foot down and tells the producer that he is not going to do it, and they fold to his demand. While he may have seen this a “win” for blacks in the entertainment industry, I couldn’t help but wonder if he would have taken a similar stand if the producer was black?
“Soul Plane” anybody? What about “White Chicks”?
Chappelle may not have been in either of those films, but if he was trying to convince viewers that blacks in the entertainment industry are nothing more than mindless slaves who are forced to do these roles by whites, this is one negro who ain’t buying it.
What I found very disappointing with Chappelle’s account was that it took the reaction on ONE white man to force him to “reconsider” his ways. Nevermind the untold numbers of non-whites who now feel somewhat at ease with the usage of the N-word thanks in part to his show and others like it.
I used the word “reconsider” lightly because in the end, he still eluded to the possibility of continuing where he left off with his show and his brand of humor. The only difference is that he wants to make sure that some of the less fortunate in this country get broke off from his success.
Ahhh! A minstrel show…with a purpose!
Don’t get me wrong, Chappelle is very funny. It’s just unfortunate he has to resort to black stereotype humor.
The other example comes from the result of one of my recent web searches.
The show “Dateline NBC” recently did a two hour exposé on sexual predators that use the Internet to prey on children. What really struck me about this sting operation that was orchestrated by the Riverside county, CA police was that the demographic of these predators was very diverse in age and ethnic background.
Being the amateur researcher, I wanted to find out just how this issue affected the black community which brought me to my Google search.
While combing through my results, I come across one that immediately grabs my attention. I click on it and here is just an excerpt of what I found:
“The word (pedosexual) is not without controversy, even amongst its own activists within the movement. Some activists feel the abandonment of the word “pedophile” is a cop-out and is not the correct move for public acceptance. Others feel it is the “only” way to go and that any attempt at positive connotative reestablishment of “pedophile” is futile. Some within the childlove communities consider the word “pedophile” as a negative connotation as well and use it in equivalence as the word “nigger” is used within the black community to describe childlovers that openly act and speak in what they consider an “immoral” fashion. The term “childluster” is also used interchangeably in this fashion. Then, there are those which prefer not to use either “pedophile” or “pedosexual”, sticking only to “boylover” or “girllover”, exclusively. (more…)
So now child molesters (you gotta love their PC description: childlover) also have an “internal” vocabulary that they compare to Black’s usage of the n-word to each other.
I listed other organizations who try to cloak themselves in the plight of black Americans:
Dealing with the devil: Black Americans and Modern Liberalism
Using the n-word may get a few laughs, but in the end all it does is perpetuate the image we claim we want to erase. If there is money to be made to demean our culture, history has already shown us that there will always be a line of black folk ready and willing to do the job.
History has also shown us that there is not a such thing as “leasing out” racial slang. So why do it?
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