I guess this can be seen as a continuation from my last post. In class we’ve read an essay by Gloria Naylor called “A Word’s Meaning” and a newspaper article called “In Bid to Ban Racial Slur, Blacks Occupy Both Sides” b Anahad O’Connor. Both readings deal with the widely use of the n word in today’s world. I personally despise the word, I think it’s degrading, and I don’t understand why rappers and other media high figures feel the compelling urge to use it a million times in a short amount of time.
In the newspaper article there were a few websites that I went onto. Abolishthenword.com had this very disturbing flash presentation in the beginning before entering the site. Pictures upon pictures of cruelty towards a specific group of people. I believe that each person who died from cruel attacks were called the n word before dying, which just makes me even more angry that today it is a term of endearment or power.
What is it with our generation to take such cruel words used to attack several groups of people who aren’t the same as us and turn them into a “positive” term? It’s disgusting. What’s even more disgusting is when it is acceptable among people of the same group using the same word to each other as a sign of respect.
I applaud those who are taking steps to educate today’s youth about the origin and vulgar use of the n word. No matter what race you are, there is no reason to use words like that. “Words are stronger than actions.” That is true. I think the spoken word is the strongest weapon ever created. Physical pain can heal is what I always say, but that emotional and mental pain will never go away. Never. The spoken word attacks emotionally and mentally, scarring those attacked for life. A child will forget the knee scrapes and the bruises, but call that child the n word or any other derogatory word…and they will remember it for the rest of their life. Without the proper education, we can lose hope that respect will prevail. If we do not educate the youth today about words such as the n word, they are just going to keep using without paying respect to those who died before them from that word. And that’s what make is disgusting to me.
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2 comments:
i totally agree it makes my blood boil when people use the word so lightly like there is nothing to it!
i do understand peoples anger twoards demeaning and racial words. but keep in mind that the words are not racist its the people that use them. african americans were not the only slaves, and not the only ones tourtured for their skin color. how meny native americans, do you think, heard "filthy brave" or "stupid redskin" before they were killed off (they weren't offered slavery)but yet we have baseball and football teams named after those once very hurtfull terms. the concept of eliminating a word because of how it was once used or will be used is silly. take a look at my blog on the subject if you want. where words come from very rarely compare to what they mean now... and slang is constantly changing words and how they are used. i do agree we should look to create a society where we dont demean or insult people. but like comunisum the idea sounds great but nearly impossible to impliment without taking it too far. sorry about the rant just showing another side of things... words are the most powerful tools and we should have them all at our disposal.
-ben
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