Further "nigger" will never be "just a word" until we've adequately addressed race relations in this country.
Racial epithets are NOT equivalent, no matter what you say, because they have denotations and social context.
If a jailer said to a prisoner, "When you sleep, I'm going to come in there and slit your throat," those words have MUCH more power than if the prisoner said to the jailer, "When I get out of here, I'm going to catch you in your sleep and slit your throat."
The reason is that the jailer has the power, and the prisoner's threat is impotent.
With the history of racial inequality in this country, "nigger" has much more potency than any other racial slur ("Wetback" is a pretty close second considering all the racial animosity and issues with illegal immigration) because it has the baggage of the years of not just slavery, but also Jim Crow, segregation, and discrimination that continues today.
I've known people in the last few years that were denied jobs or were not shown appropriate housing because of racial discrimination (in one case, I knew this because my boss straight-out said he didn't think he'd ever hire a black sales agent), so this is not some issue that happened hundreds of years ago. This is a problem TODAY.
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-11 02:56 pm (UTC)Racial epithets are NOT equivalent, no matter what you say, because they have denotations and social context.
If a jailer said to a prisoner, "When you sleep, I'm going to come in there and slit your throat," those words have MUCH more power than if the prisoner said to the jailer, "When I get out of here, I'm going to catch you in your sleep and slit your throat."
The reason is that the jailer has the power, and the prisoner's threat is impotent.
With the history of racial inequality in this country, "nigger" has much more potency than any other racial slur ("Wetback" is a pretty close second considering all the racial animosity and issues with illegal immigration) because it has the baggage of the years of not just slavery, but also Jim Crow, segregation, and discrimination that continues today.
I've known people in the last few years that were denied jobs or were not shown appropriate housing because of racial discrimination (in one case, I knew this because my boss straight-out said he didn't think he'd ever hire a black sales agent), so this is not some issue that happened hundreds of years ago. This is a problem TODAY.