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The N-word Discussion
My first step in producing a Teach Youth Radio News Break is to select which story to feature in the curriculum each month. Newsworthiness is an important consideration. I also consider how teachers might apply the piece to different subject areas and how it is written. All the stories in Youth Radio’s archive reflect a distinct perspective of the storyteller and a particular style that language arts classes can analyze.
I selected the N-Word Discussion in part because of the recent media coverage of racial epithets promulgated by Michael Richards and Don Imus and the nooses hung from a tree at Jena High School. In the full panel discussion recorded in Youth Radio’s studios, host Alana Germany questions the use of racial and gender epithets including the n-word, the b-word, and the h-word. She says some people make a distinction between insider versus outsider terminology, which dichotomizes the terms into displays of camaraderie versus hate speech. In the version of the roundtable that aired on NPR, Ayesha Walker and Pendarvis Harshaw focus on the n-word in particular.
Once I’ve selected a piece to feature on TYR, I must make sure that there is a transcript. If one is not already available online, I transcribe the piece in full. This step is crucial, because the transcript allows students to work between oral and written textual forms. The transcription process involves listening to the piece over and over again, which helps me analyze the News Break.
Click here to find the full script and audio for this story.
Teach Youth Radio
For this month's feature, you will be able to view these strategies and resources:
1. How teachers can align this Youth Radio story to National Standards in the classroom.
2. Suggestions for lesson plans that link the story's content to your classroom's themes and subject areas.
3. Suggestions for lesson plans that explore media literacy, using the story to re-read mainstream media.
4. Bios of the Youth Radio reporters who produced the story.
5. A list of resources and further research related to the story's themes.
6. Links to Youth Radio’s media production techniques as guides and inspiration for your students’ creative media-making projects.
1. NATIONAL STANDARDS: Standards Alignment
Subject: LANGUAGE ARTS
NL-ENG.K-12.1 READING FOR PERSPECTIVE
NL-ENG.K-12.2 UNDERSTANDING THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE
NL-ENG.K-12.3 EVALUATION STRATEGIES
NL-ENG.K-12.6 APPLYING KNOWLEDGE
NL-ENG.K-12.7 EVALUATING DATA
NL-ENG.K-12.8 DEVELOPING RESEARCH SKILLS
NL-ENG.K-12.9 MULTICULTURAL UNDERSTANDING
NL-ENG.K-12.11 PARTICIPATING IN SOCIETY
Subject: HEALTH
NPH-H.9-12.1 HEALTH PROMOTION AND DISEASE PREVENTION
NPH-H.9-12.2 HEALTH INFORMATION, PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
NPH-H.9-12.3 REDUCING HEALTH RISKS
NPH-H.9-12.4 INFLUENCES ON HEALTH
NPH-H.9-12.7 HEALTH ADVOCACY
Subject: HISTORY
NSS-C.9-12.2 ROLES OF THE CITIZEN
NSS-C.9-12.5 FOUNDATIONS OF THE POLITICAL SYSTEM
Subject: ECONOMICS
NSS-EC.9-12.1 SCARCITY
NSS-EC.9-12.2 MARGINAL COST/BENEFIT
NSS-EC.9-12.3 ALLOCATION OF GOODS AND SERVICES
NSS-EC.9-12.4 ROLE OF INCENTIVES
NSS-EC.9-12.5 GAIN FROM TRADE
NSS-EC.9-12.7 MARKETS -- PRICE AND QUANTITY DETERMINATION
NSS-EC.9-12.8 ROLE OF PRICE IN MARKET SYSTEM
NSS-EC.9-12.9 ROLE OF COMPETITION
NSS-EC.9-12.13 ROLE OF RESOURCES IN DETERMINING INCOME
NSS-EC.9-12.14 PROFIT AND THE ENTREPRENEUR
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Youth Perspectives on Pedagogy: In addition to linking the News Break to standards, I consult with the young people who produced the feature story. I spoke with Pendarvis Harshaw and Ayesha Walker about how they could envision teachers using this discussion in a classroom. Pendarvis said that he could see it being used in English, history, and economics classes. He talked about how the n-word is used in literature, such as Huckleberry Finn, and this roundtable could be a provocative piece for illuminating the historical context of the word. He also reflected on his comparison of the n-word to the stock exchange and the economics of the n-word as “currency” in the music industry.
Ayesha pointed out that although the discussion was originally about the b-word and the h-word as well, the n-word became the central focus. She wanted to make sure that discussion about those other words did not get ignored. She expounded on the term “urban,” which she invoked during the discussion, and the way that she saw it linked to working class people. We talked about whether there was a way to incorporate the Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Experiment as a way to illustrate the oppression of black people. Another element from my discussion with Ayesha was the issue of code-switching. We talked about being at ease in a discussion versus the anxiety of preparing something written, which would then be read. She had the idea of adding a formal and informal letter-writing activity as a lesson plan suggestion.
2. NEWS YOU CAN USE: Story content in your classroom, Suggestions for lesson plans
To develop the actual lesson ideas, I listen to and read through the story several times, highlighting particular phrases that stand out and lend themselves to classroom work. This part of the process is key. It involves looking closely at the exact phrases that are expressed and the aesthetics of the composition. As I highlight these phrases, I try to put myself in the shoes of educators working across different subjects, asking questions such as: How has this author/producer approached this story? What aspects pertain to language, health, history, science, geography, or economics? How does this piece promote critical media literacy? In the following section, I include a series of transcript excerpts, where you can click on highlighted phrases to see my footnotes, which reflect some of my thought process in developing activities.
Views Notes
Language Arts:
Linguists at work:
What is the history of the n-word? How is the n-word used in literature, such as in Huckleberry Finn? Students can trace the linguistic history of different racial and gender epithets and discuss their usage in works of literature. They can additionally research insider and outsider usage of words that have come to mean different things depending on who uses them and how. Ask students to provide suggestions for how teachers might effectively contextualize works of literature that include hateful terms if they use these texts in their classrooms.
Metaphorically speaking: How does Pendarvis convey how he views the n-word as an unspeakable, yet spoken word? Note his rich array of metaphors and imagery: “break glass in case of emergency,” “the untouchable,” “the trump card you try to avoid using,” and “the stock market…” Students can practice using metaphors and similes in their writing or speech by describing what a racial or gender epithet used against them looks, tastes, smells, sounds, and feels like. How do they feel when they hear these words?
Roundtable discussions: Modeled in this News Break is a form of commentary that allows for a multi-voiced perspective on an issue. We hear each person playing a different role. Alana is the mediator and Ayesha and Pendarvis take turns speaking on a particular side. Students can replicate this model to hold a discussion about a topic that currently affects teenagers. You can find Youth Radio’s tips for hosting panel discussions at www.dropthatknowledge.wordpress.com.
Talking vs. writing: In addition to this roundtable discussion, Ayesha, From Blacksburg to the Bay Area
Alana, Killing Off Cancer? and Pendarvis (or Dru), The Turf, The Village have written and produced works individually that we’ve used in the Teach Youth Radio line-up. How do their speech patterns and their personal stories show their ability to code-switch? Do any of your students feel that they switch between the way they speak and the way they write English, or depending on whom they’re talking to or writing for? Students can choose a topic and write about it in a formal letter and in an informal note to a friend. Compare and contrast the two texts.
Health:
Sticks and stones: Further discussion of the n-word should include direct exploration of racism, black people in American history, internalized racism and institutionalized racism. The National Resource Center for the Healing of Racism provides articles and other resources dealing with these specific issues. Students can brainstorm words and symbols that have been used throughout history against people of their same ethnic backgrounds and research and share the history behind these practices.
Going outside: Ayesha talks about having to go outside of her city to find positive programs for youth. Is this an issue that your students encounter as well? Have your students map positive resources for young people in their immediate vicinity, and in other geographic areas nearby. Can they find a relationship between the availability of these resources and health data such as rates of disease and violence? What are some similar struggles that your students have faced in terms of finding resources and programs linked to their interests? You could have them produce a resource guide identifying health providers other young people can turn to for after-school activities and other services.
History and Civics:
Blue eyes and brown eyes: In her introduction to the panel, Alana talks about today’s media blaming black people for the use of words with negative connotations and Ayesha rethinks that culpability. Ayesha’s questions about the n-word, “It’s like what about what somebody done did? Why are we using this word first of all?” refer back to the history of oppression of black people. Then she continues to show that black people are still struggling because they are not the people who hold power in the United States. Students can view Jane Elliot’s brown-eyed versus blue-eyed student experiment, which
helped to teach an all-white third grade class how it feels to be discriminated against due to a physical characteristic. How might they update that experiment or modify it for different student participants and settings?
Speaking freely: Have students look up freedom of speech as it appears in the Bill of Rights. How are hate speech and other vulgarities regulated in terms of media usage?
How does the colorblind usage of the n-word by non-blacks and colorblind disapproval reflect larger race issues in society? Compare the conversation above to the following article about Buchanan High School.
Symbols of hate: Ayesha says that words are symbols. The n-word can be associated with white sheets, nooses, and swastikas. Students can research other symbols that represent discrimination against people of their same background. They can read about the Jena 6 trials against six young Black men of Jena, LA, who were involved in an altercation after nooses were hung from a school tree. (view story)
Economics:
Money and Racism: Pendarvis eloquently compares the n-word to the stock market and Ayesha importantly questions the history of why it is being used in the black community in the first place. Students can chart or create a timeline showing how racism has marked and helped shape core U.S. institutions since the times of slavery. This graphic can include the prison industrial complex and the free labor provided by privatized prisons. They can also design a chart/timeline that shows eras in which the n-word would be in high circulation, as if it were a stock. What forces and measures would determine the term’s “value”? What would its fluctuations reflect about the state of society and the conditions faced by black people in the United States?
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3. CRITICAL MEDIA LITERACY: Putting This Story in Context
In this section, I look for overall themes that can be used to discuss media through a more in-depth lens of race, class, gender, often challenging the way mainstream media constructs narratives, expresses various interests that aren’t always transparent, and presents partial truths.
Points of view: The questions an interviewer or roundtable host asks lead the way a conversation goes. Given that, can journalism ever be 100% objective or unbiased? How are Alana’s questions indicative of her opinion? How does each speaker’s opinion come through in this discussion? Students can find proof to support why they think each person feels the way they do. At what points do Ayesha and Pendarvis vacillate and negotiate as they share their opinions? These are important points to note as they consider both sides of the issue. Have students compare this roundtable to one found on the commercial television news. What are the similarities and differences? (for example, look for ways that discussions can sometimes be polarized to generate “good TV”).
Gender issues: Along with the n-word, the b-word and the h-word (‘ho’ short for whore) are heard frequently in the media. In this News Break, there is a discussion about the race and class of people who use the n-word but not as much discussion about gender. How does the gender of the person who says a word and the person who is called a word play into the meaning of the words above?
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4. MEET THE COMMENTATOR
In the following sections, I wrap up the News Break by seeking out a biographical sketch about each commentator and then I compile all of my resources used to create the lesson plans.
Alana Germany has reported on youth culture and religion in schools for Youth Radio. She is a senior in high school, headed to college in Los Angeles.
In 2003, Ayesha Walker was introduced to radio during her sophomore year at El Cerrito High School's radio station, KECG. In 2005 she was elected Director of Communications, where she supervised her own radio crew and hosted the morning announcements. "Esha" is a graduate of Youth Radio's Core and Bridge classes of 2004.
Commentator Pendarvis “Dru” Harshaw was raised around all three corners of Oakland, California. After attending Edna Brewer Middle School, he was granted a scholarship to the Athenian School, a college preparatory school in Danville, California. He struggled mightily with the social scene (only about 20 out of 400 students were African-American), rigorous academics, and financial flaunting by some of his privileged classmates. But in his senior year, Dru was elected Student Body President and accepted by a historically Black university. >
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5. RESOURCES AND RESEARCH
• Documentary Explores Politics of 'N-Word' (NPR's The Tavis Smiley Show, July 6, 2004)
• The N-Word
• Hip-Hop News: Documentary Explores The 'N' Word
• N-word use increasing, not without protest (SF Gate July 29, 2001)
• Teacher uses the N word (YouTube)
Funeral for the n-word:
• NAACP symbolically buries the word "nigger," entertainers resurrect it
• American Morning / Funeral for the N-Word
• Racial slur on sofa label stuns family
• The National Resource Center for the Healing of Racism
• The National Resource Center for the Healing of Racism
Related Youth Radio stories
• N-Bomb
• Black Is
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6. MEDIA PRODUCTION FOR LEARNING: Making Audio Narratives
Click here to link to Youth Radio's guidelines for conducting interviews, writing commentaries, and producing features.
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