This Monday the N.A.A.C.P. will bury the "n" wor... hold up, why don't we just say it? Nigger. That's the word the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People will symbolically bury at its 98th Annual convention in Detroit.Give me a break. Why are we assigning so much power to the word ? I hear the cries now. "It denigrates us! It diminishes us! You traitor! Blah. Blah. Blah." Even one of the other brothers said we would not be using the word on this site anymore.
Well, I for one refuse to allow a word, six letters, to rob me of any of my glory, power or joy.
Maybe I wouldn't be so blah on this subject if our venerated NAACP and black leaders would bury other things like "the cultural acceptance of tardiness" (affectionately called "colored peoples time") or "our prison influenced value system" or the "denigration of our women in music" or our "young people's focus on wanton materialism" or "declining enrollment in college." Need I go on?
The debate over the word nigger is wasted breath. Our ancestors were called that and they still rose up and kicked butt to move forward. So how is it that we, the beneficiaries of their hard work, become so derailed by the mere mention of nigger today? Are we that weakened? Do we now stand on just the bony legs of victimization?
(Want to see how "other" folks use the word, read the comments after this post)
If the NAACP wants to bury the word, fine. Undoubtedly the word nigger will rise and stay alive within our music, in our homes, amongst our friends, our enemies, wherever.
Maybe they should consider burying "colored" -- since it's not used as often. But if that happened, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People would lose one-fifth of its name, and oh, I shudder!