The report of its demise is a bit premature

by David Grand
July 18, 2007

The mock funeral held by the NAACP at its national convention in Detroit on July 9 for the purpose of putting to rest once and for all the "N-word,"which while  it may be in its death throes, is still a long way from being interred forevermore.

And to the disappointment of its sponsors it  didn't capture the media or public's attention nearly as much as the pending release of Paris Hilton from the slammer.

But what it symbolized surely touched the hearts of African Americans who still bear the scars of hundreds of years of bondage; and to a lesser degree among the white population who are empathic of the suffering their ancestors endured.

That word that all of us white skinned Americans are afraid to use for fear of being racist is, however, widely used in the black community as a put-down and by black comedians and Hip Hop performers. In other words, it's only a racist term as long as the speaker of it is not black.

Having growing up in the big band era, when words to songs were understandable and easily memorized, I have great difficulty in deciphering the words of rap artists as they gyrate on the stage like wet washing in a high wind. It could be because my hearing isn't what it once was or because my eardrums aren't attuned to being bombarded with racist and sexist lyrics, if they can be called that.

Interestingly, "cracker," a racist term against whites, is completely acceptable when used in any context or on any national broadcast. That's some paradox alright, considering that a white man can lose his job or be discredited as Mark Furman was in the O.J. Simpson trial for his reported frequent use of that taboo word when describing blacks he dealt with. It was the turning point in the trial.

 In the best of all worlds, they'd both be forbidden terms. But in the real world they'll be with us for as long as we walk the earth and cling to our mostly inherited prejudices, albeit that more than not they're now only spoken in muffled voices or in private.

And the same may be said of such despairing terms as: Gook for Asians, Wop for Italians, Kike for Jews, Mick for Irish, Hunkie for those of central or east European birth or descent, Frog for French, Kraut for Germans and Spic for Spanish Americans.

So its too bad that the mock funeral for the N-word didn't also include caskets for those of other races and ethnic groups who've felt the pains of discrimination in the past, and still do as regards Jews and Mexicans, in particular.