23 March 2008

[us_politik, zeitgeist] One Thing Some White People Apparently Don't Like

1436. The perception that they "aren't allowed" to use a certain condescending famous racial pejorative for black people beginning with the letter "N" when they see black people use it.


I just don't get it. WTF is it with you people?


Naturally, the use of such a word depends on context and has everything to do with the Gordian knot that is the history of racial relation in this free-ish country of ours. Nevermind that. Black people get to do it, and some of us Caucasians don't, and that's just not fair dammit, and I'm going to whine and moan and slander people with dark skin who we don't understand and who scare and bother me. I mean, is that it?


In the Greenwald Salon article perforce linked above (some of the excerpted text is not really for the squeamish), it was indeed hard to sympathise with the whinging of the so called "Instapunk" (who's working real hard on "Instadumb@ss", though I'm betting he's worked his whole life on that one), whose panties are in such an unbelievable knot that they're going to require surgical intervention for removal.


Is the quality of his life that diminished because he can't call black people that?


I personally talk to black people all the time. I use this amazing device thought only to apparently exist for Caucasians. It's called a given name. You have one, and, hey! it's been recently discovered that black people have them too!


Don't know what the nearest black person's name is? Here's an advanced technique just discovered: Ask them what their name is. Most of the time they'll tell you.


You won't be able to refer to a whole group with an impolite term, so it might get a little edgy for you and a little tough. You might have to "think outside the box" and treat black people as actual humans ... but hey, live on the edge!


What follows is an open letter to "Instapunk" and anyone who might agree with him, who, I'm betting, are almost completely white (I kept it short), and who can't stop getting hung up and intimidated on modern hip-hoppish urban fashion:


It isn't about you. Get over yourselves.


(HT LTB)


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