nigger, yeah they said it (updated 3/31)

i will promptly correct any person, black or white or anything else that calls me nigger. nigga. however you want to spell it. it's disrespectful. period.

bruno, the white man on the show black/white, is annoyed that black people call each other nigga, but he would be considered politically incorrect and labeled as a racist for using the word. to him, it's just. a. word. and it is just one more thing that black people hold on to with the tenacity of a bulldog, putting a ridiculous amount of sensitivity on... it'd just be easier on everyone (read: white people) if black folks simply would drop the chip on their shoulder that they have about that word...

nicholas, the black teenager, responded to the use of the word nigger in the exact way that bruno suggested in the first episode, while he was socializing with white teenagers. he shrugged the word off, refusing to react with the anger that the white boys using the word were more than likely trying to elicit from him. the word means nothing to nicholas. he didn't give it any power. this is exactly what bruno said was the best way to handle the word. i think bruno believed that when you refuse to react with anger to the word, it will diffuse the word.

not so. when nicholas reacted indifferently to the white boys' use of the word nigger, it became a game to the white boys. they reveled in the free-for-all that nicholas allowed, repeatedly using the word in spite of the fact that it offended one of the white girls there. objective of the game? let's see how many times we can use this word in the presence of this black boy. result of the game? they took advantage of nicholas' acquiescence and called HIM nigger, repeatedly, to their amusement, in a simultaneously overt and covert way. it wasn't much different than when the white girls were in nicholas' room, cooning in his baseball caps and his wave cap, acting like every black person they've ever seen on b.e.t. (thanks again bob joh.nson and via.com) and nicholas just didn't care. didn't see the cooning and the taunting for what it was. this is what the old folks have been trying to warn people about, ever since people have been spewing that, "we are taking the power out of the word" garbage. he stood by and allowed himself to be disrespected, looking stupid, being made fun of, but seeming to not even understand that that's what was happening.

nigger has not been diffused. because even though nicholas felt nothing, those white kids did. they wielded the power of insulting him when they used it. and many black folks will still get mad if white folks call them nigger, so where is the diffusion there? if it were truly diffused, it would truly never matter who says it and to whom. but as long as it still does? it's disrespectful and inappropriate. period.

and bruno's rap video? corny. and reactionary to every stereotype of black guys ever. (even if bruno never said, "black guys" in the video, some things -and most racial things- are understood though unspoken). i could see a black guy doing that video and it wouldn't have been any less corny and stereotypical. i didn't find it offensive, i found it stupid and obnoxious. and i think his wife carmen's criticism of his attitude wasn't too far off the mark.

as an aside, here's an update. peep this video: http://www.whas11.com/sharedcontent/VideoPlayer/showVideo.php?vidId=49293&catId=49