Quote:
Originally Posted by ArizonaBear
In a lot of countries; Kravitz would be 'White' in the legal sense.
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Perhaps, but the US has a long and infamous history of applying the "one drop" rule... (And this seems to be a rule conceived by the normate perspective.) In the US however, we are allowed to "identify" ourselves and sort of self-label... (this is one of the really nice qualities about the US--ability to have one's own thoughts and voice them)
If an African American wants to use the term (as some people above have stated) to reference a quality--it's not a GOOD quality they're refering to... Well, they have a right to use the word
, because their ancestors bore the brunt of slavery and all the hatred that still trickles down with it into everyday life TODAY. Whites do not (and should not) use this out of common courtesy, if nothing else!
By using the N word, a white person is sending messages:
1.) "I think things were GREAT back 150 years ago! The slavery era--ahh, now those were the days!"
2.) "I think so little of you and your ethnicity that I will bash it at every chance I get...Hey, it's just a word!... Get over it! You're lucky we let you live in our neighborhoods! Geesh!"
Do you understand how a word can have so much historical context, because it relates directly back to slavery...
a way of life so filled with hatred, abuse, injustice, evil and the vilest forms of human behavior... that it (the word) left an imprint on society which still is felt and is yet to be washed clean from the fabric of our culture.
Further, Jackson and Sharpton have made public pleas to the AA community (in particular, musical artists) to STOP using the word... No, it's really not appropriate, and the excuse "Well, the rapper [fill in the blank] says it..so why can't I?" is a school boy's excuse for having done something that the majority of the population (I hope)
knows is very, very wrong...
Of course, in the US, we have "Freedom of Speech" but this protection only goes so far...HATE speech is not protected... The Klan can march, they can "say" their beleifs...But the moment there is a burning cross-- THAT IS HATE SPEECH, and it's not covered by any part of the Constitution....
I remember crosses burning on the mountains near Lake Bomoseen Vt. (no, not the South), in the early 70's. I remember an evening being rushed to the car by my Grandmother as that "beacon" on a high plateau signalled fear, and communicated immenent death... I remember going to a "friend's" house and seeing "The White Man's Bible" on a coffee table, telling my Grandmother, and avoiding that house for the next 20-someodd years of my life... But I also remember the day I logged onto "Hatewatch.org" (run by Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Ctr.) and discovered that "The Exhaulted White Knights" were no longer listed there as an active group on Lake Bomoseen('05). So long, good riddence...
In my mind, I have lots of other things to say...But I don't.. I not going to hate people as much as they hate me.
An important note: if you think you're a fairly descent person, why would you want to say something so horrendous to a portion of our culture? What are you trying to comunicate? If, by using the "N" word, you think you're being cute, endearing, showing you're "really into" a culture... Maybe you should consider that many of the people in "that" culture you're talking about consider the use of the word by people (especuially outside the culture) right up there white sheets and burning crosses..
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