Richards Got Called Out for N Word Diatribe, So Should Blacks That Use It
Earl Ofari Hutchinson


Former Seinfeld star Michael Richards quickly bowed to public pressure and apologized for his boneheaded N word laced diatribe against black customers who allegedly heckled him during his appearance at the Laugh Factory. But Richards was a soft target. He’s a white man that sprinted way over the line of racial etiquette. It was a no brainer that blacks would rage against him. They have done the same against the legion of other white celebrities, politicians and public figures that have gotten caught with their racial pants hanging down. When the predictable firestorm hits, they back peddle fast, do their mea culpas and declare they’re not racist.

The same can’t be said for the legion of black comedians and rappers that have virtually canonized the word. They sprinkle the word throughout their rap lyrics and comedy lines, and black writers, and filmmakers go through lengthy gyrations to justify using the word. During a panel discussion at the Summer Television Critics Association tour in 2005, Aaron McGruder, creator of the popular comic strip, Boondocks, defiantly told the audience that he’d use the N’ word as much as he pleased in his comic strip and in his series on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. If folks didn’t like it, well tough.

McGruder and N word users and apologists serve up the lame rationale that the more a black person uses the word, the less offensive it becomes. They claim that they are cleansing the word of its negative connotations so that racists can no longer use it to hurt blacks. Comedian, turned activist, Dick Gregory had the same idea some years ago when he titled his autobiography, Nigger. Black writer, Robert DeCoy also tried to apply the same racial shock therapy to whites when he titled his novel, The Nigger Bible.

The black N word apologists tick off an endless storehouse of defenses to justify use of the word. They claim that that it is a term of endearingly or affectionately. They say to each other, "You're my nigger if you don't get no bigger." Or, "that nigger sure is something." Others use it in anger or disdain, "Nigger you sure got an attitude." Or, "A nigger ain't s…." Still, others are defiant. They say they don't care what a white person calls them since words can't harm them.
They forget, ignore or distort one thing. Words are not value neutral. They express concepts and ideas. Often, words reflect society's standards. If color-phobia is a deep-rooted standard in American life, then a word, as emotionally charged as nigger, will always reinforce and perpetuate stereotypes. It can’t be sanitized, cleansed, inverted, or redeemed as a culturally liberating word. Nigger can’t and shouldn’t be made acceptable, no matter whose mouth it comes out of or what excuse is tossed out for using it.

There are still dozens of daily examples where whites (and other non-blacks) taunt, and harass blacks by calling them nigger, spray paint the word on their homes, businesses, churches, physically assault and even murder blacks. In the FBI’s annual count of hate crimes in America, blacks still make up the overwhelming majority of victims.

The N word reigns supreme at the top of the stack as the favorite racial epithet hurled at blacks during these crimes. Even when the word isn’t used, the sentiment is that blacks are still fair game too be abused and dehumanized, and the N word reinforces that belief. The word nigger is and will always have, grotesque, and deadly meaning to them. And, even if some blacks do occasionally go off the deep end and wrongly harangue whites for using the word, maybe that’s because nigger, pricks agonizing historical and social sores.

In all fairness, a handful of black activists have waged war against the N word. There’s a website that hawks T shirts, DVDs and exhorts blacks, especially young blacks, to solemnly pledge not to use the word or patronize anyone who puts out products that use the word. Presumably that’s aimed at those rappers and writers that have turned the N word into a lucrative growth industry.
But they have been the exception. Blacks have been more than willing to give other blacks that use the word a pass. The indulgence sends the subtle signal that the word is hardly the earth-shattering, illegitimate word that black and white N word opponents brand it.

Richards gave no public hint before his profane outburst that he was a closet bigot who routinely used the word in reference to blacks. But he didn’t have too. The obsessive use of and the tortured defense of the word by so many blacks gave Richards the license to use the word without any thought that there’d be any blow back for doing it. He was terribly wrong and got publicly called out for it. The blacks that use and defend that word should be called out too. Who’s willing to do that?

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is a political analyst and social issues commentator, and the author of The Emerging Black GOP Majority (Middle Passage Press, September 2006).

"Black people can be equally categorised."

This statement couldn't be truer.

Race and racism in America has got to be the most complicated, fucked up social phenomena to emerge in any society in a long time.

It operates on institutional, social, and personal levels. We all participate in the maintenance of this race complexity to one degree or another if by only failing to have absolute, clear and honest conversations about it. Its dimensions are so vast that no one conversation can encompass its entirety. This is where we lose out because in order to plumb its depths we would have to have these conversations on a sustained basis. Most people don't have that kind of psychological or emotional stamina. Most people ususally regress to some level of anger, rage, indignation, frustration, denial or avoidance long before all of the honest ideas are even on the table.

Me, I'd say I fall into a combination of categories depending on how I feel and what life experience I let influence me at any given time. There are times when I am totally humanistic and the whole race thing is like bile in my gut. Other times I feel like I can't stand whitely when I think about white privilege (and the general unwillingness to acknowledge it), when I think about our history as an African diaspora in the west, etc, etc. Some days I want to be around as many people who are different than me as I can possibly find... other times I crave all-black all day. Go figure... the shit ain't easy to decipher and I generally refuse reductionist definitions of peoples' stance on race primarily because I know that there are multiple forces that influence us all.

Here is a scenario...

The white guy who grew up in an international/multi-racial environment may be cool until the day the thugged out brotha decides to jack him for his iPod and the next day he has another unfortunate encounter with someone black. Now everytime he sees a young black man he has that knee-jerk reaction of fear and maybe even loathing that is then reinforced by media portrayals of black men. On the one hand he has black friends, on the other hand they are now the only blacks he is willing to trust. Part of his dysphoria regarding blacks is due to the evolutionary forces that drive him to avoid perceived danger (the potential thug), part of it is conditioning (sensation new broadcasts that feature black men only when they are fucking up and the assinine rap videos that serve as their perfect accompanist). On the other side his inner turmoil heightened by his long experience of embracing diverse people. So maybe he doesn't call blacks 'nigger', but maybe instinctively, almost unconciously, he denies the young black man (with a stellar business plan) a business loan at the bank where he works based solely on a gut feeling that the risk is too high. What happens when this becomes a pattern and his black co-worker (with whom he gets along famously) calls him on it. He protests... parades his multi-culti photo album around as exhibit 'A'... then goes on to defend his actions as just.

Not a perfect analogy, but certainly one that hits on many points relevant to many of our lives. I could have just as easily made our protagonist black, or native, or Asian, or Latino with the antagonists being of any other ethnic group. Point is we want to reduce the conversation into easy to digest bite and that usually is the beginning of the end... cause the shit just ain't that simple.

Kramer is a jackass...

now THAT is simple.

Molly I believe that you are certainly one of the B category white folk {said laughing with a smile}. I sense your honest desire for clarity and amity. But I also sense your defensiveness. I recognize how difficult it is to be white in this particular forum so I laud your attempt to do so.

I also agree with you about catagorisation of any people. I also agree that Black people can be just as easily categorized. However; I feel that I must point out that your statement, "There has surely got to be more to the debate than some whites are nice, some are so-so and some and scum", while completely true is somewhat off target in that I was not engaging in a debate, only responding to the inital statement, "It just makes me wonder if underneath all the public nicities, what white people are really thinking is nigger nigger nigger nigger, while they smile in my face."

In all fairness I must admit that there are Black people who are thinking; cracker MF, cracker MF, cracker MF when they smile in a white person's face. Race in America is one of the most complex collections of issues ever assembled. Since you approach this matrix from an entirely different culture, let me try and help you understand what we are all experiencing as Black people, which we all sense (believe) that Whites are feeling. We have (all of us as families, if not as individuals) personal experiences of being cheated and harmed because of the condition of our birth. We have all endured being denied opportunity and have been misjudged and mistrusted because of only how we look. White people have control of the institutions and mechanisms that perpetuate these situations. White people further know these things to be true. Whites knowing these things to be true either refuse to acknowledge that these situations exist, minimize the impact on the lives of Black people; stating that we must take responsibility for all aspects of our condition, or actively perpetuate the preceeding. We are senstized to these racial matters in ways that you as a white woman never can be. That is because you will never be on this side of the line. You will always be seen as a white woman and receive the full benefit of being white in this culture.

You know, I went home last night and really couldn't even watch Seinfeld. It's on about 24 hours a day, and I used to like it and sometimes I watch it. But yesterday, I just couldn't, I felt kind of disgusted. I was forced to watch the latest developments in the Aiken vs. Rippa scandal on Entertainment Tonight. This saddens me.