Alright this is going to be a combination/ re-examination of a couple of my old posts. Namely I'm going back and looking at how I feel about the N-Word and by extension cursing itself.
Recently Oprah has has expressed her opinion and she's kind of an agenda setter. When the O speaks people listen. But at the same time I feel that Oprah is one of those monolythic figures in Black culture that people mistakenly believe represents everybody. Or to put it as South Park would. Oprah is not the queen of Black people.
One of my personal grouses about African-American representation in the media is that there is generally a lack of diversity. Yeah I know how that sounds but hear me out. There are a lot of ideas, opinions, and backgrounds and we generally get only two variates. Elder statesmen who are the epitome of class, or well various shades of Nino Brown, without a lot of room in the middle.
Anyway that's not the point. When I first started commentating on my blog about race my opinion on the matter was if your white don't use it. I still kind of feel that way. But here is the thing, personally the use of the N-word doesn't bother me so much as much as I understood why it does other people.
Alright first off let me say my parents read this blog and yes they do comment about the cursing, but here is the thing when I curse I typically do it for a reason. For instance I use the mild curse bastard, when I'm trying to evoke a sense of old school John Wayne, cleft jaw, machismo suggesting that this is an issue or topic I would, even though I totally wouldn't, get into a physical fight over.
I use hell and damned when I'm trying to either sound folksy and/or about 30-50 years older than I actually am.
And I use the phrases dickmove, jackass, and asshole to ironically enough refer to what my parents would call, classless behavior, largely because a 20 something male talking about "grace and class" especially when my concepts of those things differs significantly from that of the people who would probably talk about that stuff regularly, sounds kind of like a jackass.
Hell on occasion I'll even break out "fuck" and "cunt" because they're so rarely used breaking them out is a way to signal that I'm pissed and the gloves are off. Do not run. Do not hide. For those things will not save you from the verbal trouncing you are about to receive. The restraining bolt has officially been deactivated and I'm tired of acting like the nice guy I'm not, so sit down and take your damned medicine!
My point is that when I curse I do it to generally invoke something contextually. Language in general, but adjectives and exclamations especially are really flexible largely because what the words mean depends the context surrounding them. For instance, "That was fucking awesome!" is probably one of the best compliments I could ever hear. Please someone utter that sentence to me. Please I am desperate for your approval. Anyway in this case "fucking" is being used as an adjective to extenuate it's object "awesome". And I really really want to awesome enough that people need to add "fucking" to get across just how awesome I am.
So why is the N-word different. Well because context can also be caused by the way in which a word has been used in the past. For instance in my previous example the reason why I use "bastard" is because in my mind the ur usage of the word would be George C. Scott's Patton. So when I use it I am trying to associate the image of a don't care about appearances or politics, just kick ass and get it done WWII general to whatever I'm saying.
The in the case of the of the N-word the ur usage would be... do I even need to say it.
That said, I'm Mr. Free Speech so yeah go nuts.
(By the way the Niggers With Attitude over here were using the word to say that they did not have the submissiveness that the word was used to enforce.)
My position on that is what I consider to be a more interesting thing. See I am a lot more socially liberal than my parents. My general experience is that even historical most young people are. Literally the stuff that turns their heads and raises their eyebrows is stuff I couldn't care less about.
Is that permanent. My "do what you feel"ness is an aspect of my personality that is so central to my identity that I kind of think it is. At the same time well I am eventually going to turn into an old man, and I already know just by my current oldmanness that I am going to be a bit of a curmudgeonly codger.
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