There was a lot of noise about the disparaging and inflammatory comments from Don Imus, Isaiah Thomas, and Dog the Bounty Hunter. These comments ranged from bitch to black, attached to hip hop artists. These words are not the exclusive responsibility of hip-hop, but it is used as the most accessible target. Is this the only problem that is racially related to our nation?
NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) had recently had a ceremony in Detroit to bury the N word. In all honesty, most young people have no idea what the NAACP stands for in education in history. in the XXI century. There was a coffin and a whole ceremony to bury that word. This is a racial epithet used in degrading and insulting blacks. It is a word that is so offensive that it brings to the fore all types of media that are offended! The coffin to bury a nasty word wasn’t big enough for all the racism Americans display every day!
There are synonyms for the N word, which are not used daily, but they are still there. The list consists of Porch Monkey, Spade, Gigaboo or Darky. Love is not exposed when these words were used during slavery, the Civil Rights Movement or during
a lynching. Black and white Americans are so at arms about the terms since history between the two different racial classes. The difference between now and the era of slavery in our society has become even more diversified.
Walking down any street you will see a wide range of faces that belong to Mexican, Middle Eastern, Oriental, homosexual, or a combination of any of the wild animals of “our” America. They, as different races, did not endure the ugly past of blacks and whites, but they are exposed to racial epithets for each of the dominant verbal discharges thrown by blacks and whites. Hypocrisy and racism go hand in hand. There is a clamor to stop using hurtful and racist comments against black people, but why shouldn’t it be at the national level? Is racism limited to blacks only?
Fighting words that hurt means getting rid of our language of the epithets used for our fellow Americans who are Hispanic, Middle Eastern, or the many different races that immigrate to America each year. Words are symbols of what our thoughts are verbalized in our head. So racism is in our thoughts before hateful words come out. These words aren’t usually funny, but hurtful enough to feel powerful.
The next time there needs to be a burial of a hurtful word that inflames us to the point of protesting and boycotting, let’s get more coffins! Once the coffins are made, these words must be buried in the ground and out of our minds. Words like Spic, Jew, Rag Head, Jap, Chink, Bassoon and any other word that is not a proper label to use in public.
Hate is afraid of sunlight. These words are not often used in the presence of the victim, but behind closed doors using jokes as a cover. Racism is not based on music or color. It is based on ignorance even if a minority degrades another minority. Prime time news is not the teacher telling us what is right or wrong, we must have self-control over ourselves.
The transport of justice at the national level is circulating through major cities, record companies and magazines denouncing the N word. Let the same determination have the same fervor in simply ridding our language of all epithets about “any” race or alternative living arrangement. Don’t just draw attention to one word, make a real difference and be fair to everyone.
