dagblog - Comments for "The Impact of Words"

No, sorry, it wasn't your

PeraclesPlease — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 10:16:45 +0000

In reply to It isn't my point that the

No, sorry, it wasn't your point - it was the original poster's point:

West was condemned unlike the acceptance given to those Oreo rappers who do the racists bidding.

However, if you're going to toss out little gems like:

The whites in this country control the capitalist system and thereby are able to sustain the system because the collective buy-in

at least tell me where the convention is so I can jump on the sustainability bandwagon.

Really, "The Whites". Did you know there are a few Chinese who have money now? Did you know that Carlos Slim, a Lebanese-Mexican, is worth like $74 billion?

It's 2011 - your anti-whitey schtick feels about as dated as all this "n-word" hang-up.

Did you know that Wall Street stole trillions the last 2 years? Did you know it has less to do with race and more about just being able to get away with it? Did you know whites lost more money in this grand theft than blacks? But at the end of the day it sucks for everyone, whatever ethnic group.

You say it's all about power

PeraclesPlease — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 10:04:56 +0000

In reply to I don't know where to begin

You say it's all about power so it must be all about power?

Are gays so uptight about "that's so gay" that they don't use the phrase more than straights?

Most whites wouldn't say nigger in front of a black, unless they have a pack of whites to back them up. That's power. It's already worked.

It's funny for those on the left, whether self-described liberals or progressives, to be so afraid of words they need to regulate them and run PSA's over them.

Me, I was more concerned about actions, like disenfranchising blacks at the polls, not making some anachronistic racial slur that would make the kids cringe in embarrassment.

It isn't my point that the

Elusive Trope — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 07:43:40 +0000

In reply to PS - I don't get how rappers

It isn't my point that the rappers are doing the white racists bidding, but here is how it how it works -- the rappers affirm the capitalist lifestyle through the reiteration of capitalist motif/tropes as the preferred lifestyle. The whites in this country control the capitalist system and thereby are able to sustain the system because the collective buy-in (pun intended?). I could go on about how those in decision-making position make decision regarding personnel and otherwise based on how and what they feel comfortable with. You do the math.

I don't know where to begin

Elusive Trope — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 07:08:18 +0000

In reply to Huh? I can't make out what

I don't know where to begin with this tripe. Let's start with the last paragraph. As I mentioned, this is about power. So of course any attacks on the lower tier of the racial group in power is not going to effect the the overall structure of power in this country. Just as Timothy McVeigh did not become symbolic to American in general of what white Americans were all about in comparison to the 9-11 attackers became symbolic of what those who are Arabic and Muslim, the characters of Dumb and Dumber did not reflect white American males. Instead they represented the exception to the rule. Hence the hilarity. HAHAHAHAHA.

You want to believe you exist outside of words. That they are something we pull into ourselves and consciously give some level of power to. And the kids you have such faith in are so wise and insightful, there has to PSA developed to teach them that saying "that's so gay" might just make someone who is gay not feel so great. Yeah, they're so light years above their elders.

Which is to say you really don't understand the dynamics of language and its power in creating the reality it names. I'm afraid you're one the concrete thinkers, who believe they have full access to what is, and that the words merely state what is. In which case, we can't really have any kind of discussion, living in two different worlds as it is.

PS - I don't get how rappers

PeraclesPlease — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 06:13:13 +0000

In reply to Huh? I can't make out what

PS - I don't get how rappers are doing "white racists' bidding". Aren't they free, black and 21? Aren't they responsible for their own actions, not just puppets on the string of some white person?

Really, these conversations feel like Richard Roundtree will walk in the door at any moment.

Huh? I can't make out what

PeraclesPlease — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 06:09:21 +0000

In reply to Maybe the problem is that

Huh? I can't make out what this says at all.

There's a huge movement to disenfranchise Democratic voters, a large portion the black community. I don't see where it matters whether they call them "nigger" or "Mr. Fipps" or "Your Highness", blacks are getting screwed.

Typically right-wing hucksters have adopted all the genteel niceities of language to get away with this, layering it all in a cynically transparent veneer of "voter fraud" that never existed except on their own side (see Florida, electronic voting machines, Wisconsin - suddenly appearing bags of votes).

And no, "identity" has not been dismissed, except by some naïve folks who thought there was no identity politics in blacks voting for Obama. But really, the use of the word "nigger" has to be one of the most irrelevant trifles of 2011 compared to the meltdown going on.

Plus there are other cultures where the majority youth use terms equivalent to "nigger" when razzing each other, and somehow the culture doesn't fall on its face.

Really, it's a non-issue. Words often have exactly the power we give to them. Most of this sounds ridiculous anyway, like people out of bad 60's movies. Kids especially see this - they've moved on, even if the old farts haven't.

Anyway, energy's better spent on teaching black kids how to hack code for fun and profit, or get them accounting/stock trader jobs so they can be part of the grand heist next time. You'd think the sole reason for expanding the black middle class was to listen to more crap music and have bigger screens to watch sports? Should the trials and tribulations of Lindsay Lohan and Tim Tebow drive the economic future of the white community?

Note, whites laughed at "hayseeds" and "rednecks" and "white trash" and whatever for ages. Did that destroy the white community, hold back their possibilities, lead the next generation into despair? There are movies like "Dumb and Dumber", are cartoons like "Goofus and Gallant" - the message is basically, "don't be an idiot". Certainly not a life-destroying message.

This is an important

Elusive Trope — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 00:59:56 +0000

In reply to There's a bigger basic

This is an important distinction between the dynamics between "queer" and "nigger." Another significant distinction was the taking back of "queer" had to do with a issue of acknowledgement. Unlike the black community, the homosexual community had lived in the shadows and closets. Their existence was denied by the society in which they existed. Taking back terms like queer was done in part as a way to say "yes, I am queer and I exist."

Maybe the problem is that

Elusive Trope — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 00:48:57 +0000

In reply to Uh, first, it's 2011, does

Maybe the problem is that people don't care. One would have hoped that by 2011 there would have a general collective understanding in the nation about language and the power contained within.

Because whether we're talking about the "nigger," "oreo," "fag," "liberal," "woman," or whatever, what we are talking about is the manner in which power is manifested in our society. Power (and powerlessness) which manifests in the external world and within the internal world of individuals.

The notion of identity as it has been tied to politics (i.e. identity politics) has been generally dismissed as, at best, an annoying facet of the political environment, which politicians have to maneuver. Yet who we understand ourselves to be, and who we understand those around us to be, is at the core of all the ideologies.

We are immersed in our culture, and regardless of how independent of a thinker we like to believe ourselves, the power of the language through reiteration to make real that which it names makes itself felt within each of us.

There is no outside the text as one soul put it. If our experience is nothing but text in the end, it makes a difference what the exact text is.

I think your version would

artappraiser — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 22:59:11 +0000

In reply to During my exile on main steet

I think your version would work and be a healthy usage but that it would take at least a couple of generations. As then it would be making it a historic reference (i.e., like we can use peon or serf because they are no longer relevant in current culture;) in many black families, the hurt is still too close, generation-wise for that to happen.

Your point is interesting because you are venturing into Springtime for Hitler playing in Israel territory (or, the old fav, can a Jew appreciate Wagner painlessly?)

During my exile on main steet

jollyroger — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 22:32:13 +0000

In reply to There's a bigger basic

During my exile on main steet (north Main Street in East Granby, Ct., to be exact) surrounded by the E. Granby chapter of the KKK, I had more than one occasion to bristle at the casual use by white boys of this offensive word, and not used in anything but an offensive manner.

When challenged, it was not uncommon for the user to reply with feigned innocence that no harm was meant, I have lots of black friends (never within earshot at the moment, needless to say) etc.

I used to tell them that the only permissible use by a white person was, after a profound favor had been done them, to say "I am your N....r"

How do you deconstruct this usage? Does it not rehabilitate the word?