SexyChattyCatty: The Dirty Secret's Out -- We've All Used Racist Slang. Now Let's Get To The Important Work
NO ONE KNOWS WHAT GOES ON BEHIND CLOSED DOORS -- UNLESS THE MICROPHONE IS ON. Oops! Another person caught with his pants down, now everyone gets crazy.
So now White America gets an earful lately of what goes on in black America every day. But they’re getting it without the context. And the context is having lived your life as a black person in America. You hear the N-word so much that you're inured to it. Not that that's okay, but some things in life are not gonna change. I personally don’t say the word, but I confess: have uttered it in my lifetime. And no it's not okay, regardless of whether you end it with an “er” or a “ga.” I have friends who say it and I wince but I don’t correct them. They’re not gonna change. I’ve changed my thinking; they did not. Whatevs.
Jesse Jackson is my figurative uncle and Rev. Wright, my godfather. There are people in my family who use the 'N' slang and have all of their lives. And they ain’t gonna change now. It’s unfortunate, but that’s how it is.
So Jesse has egg on his face after campaigning loudly for the end of use of that word, then whispered it himself. I do believe he may be slightly jealous of Obama’s seemingly smooth ride to the Oval office. I don’t want to call Jesse a “poverty pimp,” but those private utterances seem to slant that way.
We all have our prejudices and peccadilloes. They are peculiar to how we were raised, what neighborhood we live in, our families, friends, teachers, the state of the world at any given time and, yes, choice. And while we may invite other races into our homes, into our lives, we still don’t talk the same way we would if everyone in the room were the same race. And we all know that is true, whatever tribe you claim.
Jesse has accomplished much over the years for black people in America. Jeremiah Wright has done much good through his church work. Barack Obama is going to be the next president, for gosh sakes. Yet they are still not perfect, damn it.
Here's my hope for the future with Obama as Mr. President: That we'll really start talking about both systemic racism, and yes, black victimhood, instead of pointing out things that ain’t gonna change.
Sista SexyChattyCatty periodically contributes to CrabbyGolightly on TV, America's favorite snack food.
Posted July 18, 2008
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