Dwelling On The Superficial: The “N” word vs. White America (guest commentary)

On a short road trip for work, I tuned my radio to the almost unavoidable conservative talk show. It’s either that or sports because that’s about all I can listen to on the radio where I live. It was the subject of the Mike Gallagher Show that drew my attention. Not so much for its content or the actual subject per se; it was the things that were not being said, the things that apparently did not occur to the host or the audience that got me to thinking.

The topic of this show had to do with the “N” word. Apparently, Mr. Gallagher had heard enough from his audience to make the declaration that he would no longer use the “N” word on his show. He apparently had a number of shows that dealt with how Black youth and Black entertainers - the hip hop generation - tend to use the “N” word with no guilt. No compunction. No respect for the hurt that it symbolizes.

Of course, Gallagher’s Black callers (the one’s I heard comment) all chimed in by saying that the “N” word should never be used for any reason under any pretense. It, in their opinion, should be promptly banished from (American) English. So, hearing this - perhaps via e-mail as well as from callers - Gallagher decided to revoke his journalistic license to use the “N” word even if only in academic terms because he was convinced by the responses from his Black listeners that the word was/is vile and hurtful on its face.

Now, first... Let me say this clearly. My point here in bringing this up is NOT to discuss the Ins and Outs of using or not using the “N” word. With that said, What I believe is a telling revelation about race in America is the broad cross-racial consensus about something as superficial as a word-name-term like the “N” word while there remains a huge gulf along racial lines on things that impact people the most.

At best, someone saying the “N” word is a personal insult. Yes, it’s one with a deep history but it really doesn’t go beyond one person say something demeaning to another person. It is in that respect that I call it superficial. It exists mainly on a personal level.

The correlating hypocrisy comes in when we see how little concern Whites primarily, and Blacks alike have for the greatest insult to Black Humanity: America’s continued structural and systematic hold on White Privilege and White Supremacy.

In his book, “White Racism”, Joe Feagin closes his analysis of America’s intrinsically entrenched White Racism with a powerful, self-evident point: “The base of the U.S. system must be replaced if systematic racism is to be removed, just as a sinking foundation of a dilapidated building must be replaced. A new [Constitutional] convention is required... to address restitution and [equal] rights...” and to ensure we have a true democracy that is representative of all the people.

Ironically, the sparkling consensus that appears to be present among Whites and Blacks on something as superficial as the use of the “N” word effectively dissipates when the subject of the clear and present insult of a White framed country, based on White framed document is discussed. Yes, I’d say that’s pretty ironic. Actually, it’s really cynically hypocritical that so many Conservatives, Black and especially White ones, would pretend to be so incensed by the casual non-reflective use of the “N” word by Black hip-hoppers and, yet, be so comparatively comfortable with, if not actively complicit with America’s system of White Supremacy, this is an egregious insult. I am simply asking, which is the bigger, more harmful insult: A term with a vile and distasteful history like the “N” word; or a system that effectively accords (the highest) privilege to White skin and still produces the same historical equation of Niggerization - i.e. the subjugation of Black freedom and aspirations by a White focused, White dominated power structure?

The irrefutable point is that the ultimate Power Relationships between Blacks and Whites remain unchanged. Unlike the broad and varied calls to categorically banish the “N” word, few have conceived or would ever begin to even suggest that there needs to be a complete and thorough rooting out the much more expansive and extensive, ever present reality of America’s system of White Supremacy. Most Whites either fully embrace it for what it is as it embodies what’s “good for them” or vicariously delude themselves into thinking that there is some redeeming value in it (along with fringe benefits that they would rather not forsake). Some Blacks just simply resign themselves to the idea that “That’s the way it is. It’s A White Man’s World” - and this is the logical extension of a lot of Black CONservative thinking as well as the resignation of others who buy into deferring to “the system”.

(Note: This is also the thinking of a lot of the “traditional Civil Rights leadership”. They share the same fundamental ideas in common with Whites, in general, and Black Conservatives to a certain extent. They believe there is some redeeming value in the system.) To prove my point one need only reflect on the obvious facts: QUOTE: According to Feagin, blacks comprise 12 percent of the U.S. population but less than one-third of 1 percent hold positions of power.

The idea that people can show more outrage over sometimes careless, sometimes inconsiderate and, yes, still sometimes mean-spirited remarks like using the “N” word yet seem to be essentially silent on the outrageous reality of White Supremacy in America - giving consent by default if not by design - is like attacking kids for dropping out of school while overlooking the piss poor school system that never cared whether they were there or not.

Amazingly, people - especially CONservatives - can call for the sweeping reform, if not the complete scrapping, of the public schools system but hardly few would ever broach the subject of scrapping the way American society is structured with its built-in mechanisms designed to perpetuate and maintain White Privilege and White Supremacy.

Many are willing to separate students who achieve - even those who do so in failing schools - from their assessment of the (poor) health of the public school system. Naturally, they would characterize those students achievement as one of “achieving In Spite Of” the poor school system. Ironically, many of those same people will fail to distinguish and some intentionally won’t view Black success and progress in the same light: That Black progress and success is achieved In Spite Of the deep, inherent flaws in America’s [WHITE] institutions.

But, when you have so many White people willing to agree with what words shouldn’t be used but adamantly uphold racists like the “founding fathers” as men to be revered with very little question as to what their flaws meant to the very core of America’s “democracy” itself... you don’t expect anything beyond the superficial. And, lip service, for one, has always been superficial.

Nmaginate