Shortly after the Imus incident, my friend immediately called me and yelled, “You nappy-headed ho!” Then quickly added, “We have to claim it like the “N” word!” Never have I laughed so hard. And, coincidentally enough, when we see each other we refer to each other as nappy-headed ho’s even though our hair is cut short. Thank you, Imus. You’ve brought two black, gay friends even closer together.
Yesterday, we were watching Fox News for some news entertainment. The best news entertainment is the O’Reilly Factor and Hannity & Colmes. Indeed, O’Reilly’s fervent conservatism and Hannity’s iamreallyacoolguy attitude is just hilarious. Colmes’ intellect and insight is often attenuated by the fact that he is the most alien-looking, nasal-sounding liberal in the United States. But I digress. Both shows suggested that there is something “wrong” with black music and the “N” word. As usual, Fox News brings on the most uneducated, ebonics-speaking blacks on the show to prove their point. All the while, Hannity and O’Reilly are sitting in the background nodding emphatically as their guests mangle the English language, "You is . . . . " instead of “You are.” Or my favorite "I be . . . " instead of “I am”. When watching this minstrel show on Fox News, I always get this image of a impressionable white girl pulling at her father’s sleeve and asking, “Daddy, why do all the black people talk like that.” The father smiles and replies, “Because they are niggers, honey.”
I am not blind to the fact that recent exposes such as “OMG! Black people don’t snitch!” or “Look at gangsta rap! It’s horrible!” have appeared in the media after the Don Imus incident. Indeed, I am convinced these stories have been rushed to our television screens to assuage the pangs of white guilt over the whole Imus debacle. Because of this press, we even have our black leaders (sigh) talking about burying the “N” word forever. Why? I ask this with seriousness: What is wrong with the status quo?
We can say the “N” word and white people can’t. I don’t care if Eminem or Jennifer Lopez say it in their music as along the meaning isn’t derogatory. After all, music is art, right? I don’t even care if white people refer to themselves as the “N” word or use the word to demonize blacks as long as its not done purposefully and publically to incite hate.
Concerned parents complain that the “N” word is pervasive in black music. Not true. Parents can purchase, just like my mother did for me, albums with the explicit lyrics bleeped out. The “N” word is also bleeped out in radio and on televised music videos on BET & MTV.
The real question, at least in my mind, is why are all of these white kids listening to black music anyway. If the content is so crude, hateful, and mysogenist why are they the primary consumers of rap music? And, more importantly, why aren’t the parents preventing their children from listening to it?
This is a question I always wanted to ask a white person: Is it wrong or hypocritical for me to respond differently to the “N” word depending on whether its a white or black person saying it? If yes, do you think its hypocritical for a gay person to be upset that a non-gay person called them a “fag” if that individual affectionally uses the same word among his gay friends?
- Honesty