Richards revisted: can we all get along?
 

OK...Jesse asks *everyone* (including rappers) to quit using the "n" word.

Can we get an "amen"?

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/11/27/michaelrichards.ap/

I'd rather we got rid of the word "amen." :rolleyes:

Instead we should lie about our illegitimate children until we get caught and then fess up, just like the good Reverend. right? He's a hypocritical poverty pimp who profits from other people's misery.

could you be anymore angry sammy? :rolleyes:

Actually, he's a world-class extortionist. But he's right about abandoning the "n" word. It serves no one.

Angry? I would say I'm angry. I am frustrated that people like the good reverend get away with what he does and others lap it up.
I'm frustrated that people give him money just to get him off their backs, and that he knows this and takes advantage of it.
I'm frustrated that he and his twin brother sharpton get rich because they are willing to jump on the bandwagon any time there is a photo op.
I'm frustrated because Michael Richards will sell out and become a spokesperson for the black cause, going all over the place speaking out against racial injustice, and he will profit from this hypocracy.

I'm frustrated because all this hoopla and rabble-rousing came about because one person called another person a freaking name.

sticks and stones.

EDIT, I forgot the amen.

Thank God maxine Waters was there to bring some dignity to the room...:rolleyes:

I disagree. Not using the word is one thing. Abandoning it because of its projected meaning is completely short-sided.

If at all, the word serves a cultural purpose. Yes, it is offensive, as are many other distateful words - the f-word and c-word included. But the n-word has a much deeper social context than the f or c-word, s-word, a-word or any other inflamatory word who someone could find offensive. T n-word is important because it holds connotation and definition in this country which should not be conveniently swept away. To refuse it refuses a part of American's past and present.

I think the same idea was tried in Germany with the word "Nazi." Obliterating the word, however, did not obliterate the fact Nazis did (and still do) exist.

Or, as another example, take "fat" which is an offensive word in many cases. Should we abandon that word because it, when used from one person to another, can be offensive, hurtful, and in most cases, egregious?

It may be hard to believe, but abandoning words because they are rendered offensive or archaic, is how societies lose their history and definition.

U mean CIA sellin Crack in Compton Waters

Re: Richards revisted: can we all get along?
 

I agree with Jesse Jackson for once. Man, the world must be due to spin off its axis soon too....

My opinion on the issue (for what it is worth which is about zero) is along the lines of Bill Cosby's. I think that the black community as a whole should make a point of divesting themselves from the entire slavery/discrimination/racism culture as a whole. Yes, black people in this country have gotten a bad deal. Yes, in some cases they still get bad deals. Yes, they start life with a strike against them. This is all true. However, until young black people in this country decide to stop playing the victim card as an excuse for their failures and just press forward, they will perpetuate some of the stereotypes.

Perhaps my words are coming out wrong, to be honest I'm having trouble putting my thoughts down in words here. Basically it's the old "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" idea. If I were a young black man in this country I think the best way to give the big middle finger to the power establishment in this country would be to nut up and be successful. I think that it would take all my energy to do that, and making excuses for my failures before I even start seems counterproductive. I think that the younger generation today starts out with a big chip on their shoulder, sometimes before anything has even happened to them.

At some point, the black community is going to have to stop asking for reparations and making excuses based on what happened to their grandparents or great-grandparents and move on.

Perhaps that time is now.

What was the difference between Michael Richards and Cris Rocks stage show?

The color of their skin.

Rappers and comedians have taken a word that was once responded to with a gasp and made it a household word. Every little white kid in America knows the word. I think back to when I was in grade school and cannot remember ever hearing the word Nigger growing up on Long Island in the early 70's. I would venture a guess that I first heard the word was in Middle School.

Today? Its everywhere but dont say it if your white. Only blacks can say it and they can say it 50x in one song.

I want to see him enforce that with likes of Cris Rock or Earthquake.

Is the revrend jackson also advocating that we no longer say "Heime town"

Eliminating "Nazi" sure would change the way we argue on the interweb. :)

oopsy

I think you may have missed the whole discussion in the previous thread about INTENTION - and the difference between a direct personal attack against specific individuals on the one hand - and calculated satire of a racial/ethnic stereotype on the other.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaa....
meeeeeeeeen!!!!!!!

(Sung in a deep gospel blues style)

No I understand his intent, I know he was out of line.

If you took the transcript from that night and had Cris Rock say it word for word no one would have batted an eye.

Cris Rock could have called those hecklers stupid N-words and he still would not have ruffled a feather.

Its all about skin color and nothing more. If you want respect, act respectable.

As much as I do not like Jesse he is right, its about time black entertainers stop using the word nigger in their songs and comedians too.

Interesting, Paul Mooney was on TV talking about it. He's a black comedian that used to write for richard pryor. Been on Chappelle's show, etc. So pretty plugged in.

He explained that in his view, blacks used and use the word as a way to "de-power" it. You innoculate yourself to it by exposing yourself to it.

But after seeing Kramer's outburst, he has changed his mind. He said it gave him a different perspective, finally being able to see it "outside of myself." The word has such negative connotation, that he's not going to use it any more, and doesn't think it is helpful for anyone, black or white, to use it, even in comedy acts. If there ever was any purpose for blacks using it themselves, he believes that time has passed, and there is more harm than good being done by blacks who continue to use the word.

+1

Re: Re: Richards revisted: can we all get along?
 

This is EXACTLY how I feel.

OK, I'll admit it...I USED to use the n-word (but NEVER in a derogatory fashion or with malice) back when I didn't know any better (think mid 70s). I was born in 60, and Richard Pryor was one of our comedic icons in the early/mid 70s. 'Nigga please' was one of his trademark lines, and often repeated by me and my white friends (even amongst our black friends), without even thinking twice about it (...it IS all about setting, and the intent of the word imo). Several years later (I think it was after his lighter incident), I saw a Pryor interview where he displayed remorse for his proclivity with using the word in his comedy routine, and vowed never to use it again... I haven't either.

If we resort to Orwellian "newspeak" by purging words from our vocabulary (even offensive ones), we run the risk of losing a part of our history and the lessons taught by it.

As distasteful as it may seem, slavery, oppression, racial predjudice and bigotry are part of our history. If we engage in revisionist history through this kind of P.C.-gone-amok stuff, we'll inevitably make the same mistakes again.

Words are purged from our vocabulary all the time. Compare Shakespearean leanguage to modern. Does that mean we engaged in revisionist history when we quit using "thou" as well?

I am usually staunchly anti-PC, however I don't think the idea that racial slurs should not be part of common language is necessarily PC. I think that the "n" word is very hateful and damaging and it should be placed on the scrapheap of useless and outdated words, no matter what the color of the skin of the person using the word happens to be.

i think it was saturday night live that did a skit about a cereal or something called 'nigga please'.

It's already on the scrapheap, but there's always people digging around in the garbage, using what they find

That's evolution of language - we're talking about deliberate exclusion of words for the express purpose of writing something out of history. Entirely different. Undoubtedly the "n" word will eventually fall into obscurity all on its own, but we should let it run its own course rather than trying to artificially bury it.

Think of the scary precedent it sets if we're allowed to "Disneyfy" our history. . .

I didn't even realise the N-word was an offensive name, probably until I was close to my teens. I remember looking through photographs at my Grandma's and seeing pictures of my Dad as a kid with a black dog. Both my Grandmother and my Dad told me about his dog and there was no shame what-so-ever in his name, which was N***er. His dog was named after Guy Gibson's (of Dambusters fame) dog, and the dog's name is clearly mentioned in the movie.
This was perfectly acceptable then. Imagine my Dad as a kid, standing in the middle of a field and calling his dog. But I doubt a kid would be able to do that now. So when was it decided, and by whom, that this word is suddenly offensive?

To me, if someone uses the word in an offensive manner, it just shows their ignorance.

The problem seems to be that some folk just refuse to let anything die. For goodness sake, it's history and there is nothing that anyone can do about it now, so just let it go and move on.

I see the same thing down here in the South with the civil war. For some reason there are people who can't let that go either. On one side there are the Southern born and bred who still think they're confederates and they want their flag, and on the other are the people who equate the confederate flag as a sign of oppression. I understand both sides, but again why can't you just let it go? Let the folks have their flag if they want it, but if you have it use it with respect, not on bumper stickers. It isn't that difficult is it?

I agree with Jeff, that the word should not be banned, it's part of history after all. But it should be used in context and with respect, no matter whether you're a comedian, a rap singer, or a news reader of any color.

If I choose to call someone N, it would be Jesse and his Frodo sidekick.
Both cause more seperation than Richards ever did, or will.
Rika

I don't think if people stopped using the word it would suddenly write slavery and oppression of black people out of history at all. It would simply help to stop some of the continuing discrimination against blacks and perhaps help move the black community more into the rest of America.

Right now every group wants to be separate. They are more concerned about the African or Mexican or Cuban part of the hypenated term than the American part.

No one is going to "stop" using the word. The entire Jesse Jackson et al proposal to do so is ridiculous. Why doesn't Jesse just declare his candidacy for '08 and get it over with (because that's probably his intent), instead of attempting a political platform by calling on people to slice and dice obscenities from the American dialect?

"Negro" morphed by southerners to "negra" morphed to.....You get the idea. Words are simply words. It is the relevance we give them that makes all the difference.

One of my old hunting buddies had a female black lab. We spent a lot of time standing in a field hollaring her name. She went by "Oprah".

Did you see that now the victems are suing Richards:mad:

Pair of punks don't deserve a dime, here is a quote by one of them. http://www.buzzhumor.com/videos/4781...urst_Speak_Out

i feel hurt, too..actually more than just a little. i want my money, too.. :( i have many black friends..we want to join the money parade. :)
ryan

30 years ago, my grandfather used the "n" word exclusively when talking about a black man. He didn't seem to use it as derogatory label, it is just what he called them. I can remember as the years passed, my grandmother would start correcting him by saying "negro" or colored's. Last time I heard him, he used the word "blacks". Is "afro-american" now the only PC correct way to refer to someone who is black? Are the words: negro, black or colored acceptable anymore in many parts of the country or is afro american the only correct way nowadays?

My grandpa grew up in the midwest and I respect him more than anyone else I know when it comes to morality, so please don't make any assumptions that he was a hood wearing KKK member. He doesn't have a mean bone in his body. :)

I just got to wondering what the concensous was on acceptable terminology around the country.

I have never understood why blacks refer to each other as "nigger" in the first place. I'm white, but I don't call my friends "cracker", "honky" or "whitey".

Can one of you well-informed "crackers" clue me in on this?

It might be different 'cos the rappers spell it nigga. But what would I know, I'm a vanilla faced limey!
:)

Sorry....

Can one of you CRACKA'S clue me in!

I remember years ago reading a story in a hunting magazine about a gentleman that had fled Kenya and taken up residence in Texas. He was a professional hunter, or "white hunter" as they were known. His family had been in Africa since the mid 1800's. He rather cheekishly described himself as an "African-American" at times, asserting he had just as much claim to the title as some one whose family had been here, rather than in Africa, for the last several generations.

So is john kerry's wife