Dawn’s notes: I find it interesting that she hadn’t mentioned the n-word at all, yet it became the main focus of the discussion. She also brings up the issue of non-blacks blaming black people for their own oppression. How interesting that the originators of the word have escaped culpability. Language Arts classes could research the origins of these words.
Pendarvis: One side of me wants to say don’t use it but that lends it power. Because it’s out of common use, break glass in case of emergency, use this word and then that means that this word is the trump card. That’s when everything stops and it’s like aw man, he used the unspeakable word.
Dawn’s notes: True! Not using the n-word gives it power. Pendarvis uses several metaphors for the n-word, like “break glass in case of emergency,” “the untouchable,” “the trump card you try to avoid using,” and “the stock market” as a way of describing the fluctuation of usage. His use of metaphors would be great for Language Arts classes.
Ayesha: Words are symbols but people outside of the circle see that symbol differently than someone inside of the circle and being inside of the circle I don’t see no wrong in using the word
Dawn’s notes: This idea of words as symbols is powerful. What about the confederate flag, the swastika, the noose. These are all symbols associated with racism and violent discrimination, just as words are. What are their histories?
Alana: Do you think it’s realistic to try to stop using the word?
Dawn’s notes: This is the second time Alana has asked this question. Is it due to clarification or is this her opinion?
Ayesha: Nah, it ain’t realistic to stop. I mean, I’m not tripping off of nobody calling me a word because I’m certain of who I am but then like I’m not going to try to stop nobody from using words because they just words like I mean I say that but then at the same time I do feel weird when I hear somebody that’s like you know not black or doesn’t, you know not urban use that word. Like Condeleezza Rice if she called me the n-word I would probably get offended…
Dawn’s notes: Ayesha brings up the complicated issue of freedom of speech, although racism came before hate speech, so it is more an issue of ending racism than ending racist speech. She also speaks to how the n-word is race and class related.
Pendarvis: I don’t know man. If I said anything I’d be lying to you man. Cause I, the first thing that popped into my mind was NWA Niggaz 4 Life. And that’s when I was like, oh yeah, that’s when my generation picked it up. Cause I know my sister had that album and I know I stole that album from her and I listened to it and that’s where I got the word from and so I think it’s recycled man I see my little nephew say it the other day and I probably said it accidentally when I was on the phone with one of my friends so we gotta stop this somewhere man I mean how you gon’ wipe it out from a whole generation of kids? Man you gon’ I don’t know man not allow it on playgrounds or something like that?
Dawn’s notes: The usage of the n-word has followed a cyclical pattern. Pendarvis got it from music, and older generations were saying it along with Richard Pryor, who later after a trip to Africa stopped saying the word. Does that signify a self-awareness combating internalized racism? He talks about stopping the cycle but hesitates to suggest an n-word prohibition because as Pendarvis said earlier, stopping its use lends it power.
Ayesha: That word has been magnified for what? For what? It’s like what about what somebody done did? Why are we using this word first of all? You know, a whole bunch of black people we out there doing what selling drugs, we out there killing each other, We out there pimpin’, we out there just, we not, we not together…Like in my city, Richmond, California it’s like all these youngsters don’t have nothing to do, we don’t have nothing to do. Every time that I done tried to go to get into some kind of program or something I have to go outside of my city. I guess the system is designed to keep us separated so we don’t come together. And I feel like once we start fighting against it, I’m still not going to stop using that word.
Dawn’s notes: Ayesha brings the historical context of racism to the forefront and the present conditions that reflect continued racism. Although the Civil Rights Movement was touted as the key to solving problems of inequality, she finds that black people are not unified and still struggling. She can feel the structural inequalities as a youth involved in an after school program where she has to travel outside of her city to find positive programs. How many other students can relate to that same situation?
Alana: But what do you think has happened to the discussion and the use of the word in recent light of people like Michael Richards and Don Imus?
Pendarvis: You said what does it do for the conversation or something like that? And it made me think dang, what if the word nigga was an industry right? Y’all gotta follow me on this one. So, what if the word nigga was an industry right? And had a stock in the stock market. Everyday in the Wall Street Journal you could see how the word “Nigga” was doing?
Like it’s up ten points because Don Imus used it. Or it’s down thirty points because we had a march on Washington cause people aren’t even thinking about that word. It’s obsolete for that day and what if you could just see it through history. Like I wonder, in the 1920’s when Blacks were affluent how the word was being used. And I wonder like in 1995 when Def Row and Bad Boy was battling how it was doin? It’s probably just a steady stock. I’d invest in it because I don’t think it’s going nowhere.
Dawn’s notes: I could see graphs that show economic trends of black people in the United States. Slavery and the lack of reparations, during segregation a significant number of small businesses, and then post-integration where corporations and big business have made it more difficult for small black-owned businesses to thrive and also have worked with the criminal justice system to return to free labor, deeming the prison industrial complex as new age slavery. These stages could be illustrated with economics research.
From the notes and the discussions with commentators, I move to the next section where I make suggestions for lesson plans.