Paula Deen, 66, was born and raised in the south during an era where segregation was just a way of life. The N-Bomb was thrown around so casually that it was just another word. Since she is now a public figure on The Food Network, do you think she is covering her true self when in the public's eye? Or has her true self really changed fundamentally where the N-word is no longer a part of her vocabulary, thus no longer a part of her true self, but she just had a slip-up? She says that she only used that word when she was held up at gun point by a black man, and discussing when other black people use it. But this whole situation makes me think of the dialogue of people that I interact with, people on the internet, and Americans as a whole. Sometimes this word slips out at the wrong time and a conflict arises, like so:
Around 2007-2008, The NAACP and Barack Obama were looked upon to take some action to "Bury the N-Word," which would hopefully end the use of this word once and for all. And today it is kept somewhat out of white mainstream media(news and entertainment outlets that cater to the white demographic in the US). But is this word dead? Or do people cover and pretend that it's dead? Louis CK believes that white people have found a way to say this word, and I think he hits the nail on the head with this one (Start at 2:03 and watch until 3:00):
I think if we want to bury this word, we should stop being afraid to talk about it. And by talk about it, that partially means don't stumble around and stutter when trying to describe someone's race like "And he was bl.. er.. African American." Also, the argument that comes from some white peoples' mouths, "black people can say it, why can't I? That's not fair!" The reality is nobody should have "permission" to use this hateful word.
It's time to talk seriously and cut the PC bull. People need to understand that their rights are not being infringed upon when they are told to not say a particular word; there just happens to be a terribly bloody and dark history behind this one particular word and when it's used, it sometime offends certain people a great deal. We should be proactive, not reactive. It seems that this word gets its publicity whenever it slips out of a celebrity's mouth and then people talk about it. Maybe we should put it all out there--get everyone's voice and opinion heard in the first place, so instead of a media frenzy/controversy/ridiculous apology tweets and videos. Let's find out who's covering and get everyone out of the dark on this issue.
Let me know what you think: do we already talk about this as a people? Do people just not care? What solution would be better?
HAGS everyone!
Dillon, I think it's interesting that you use covering to describe Paula Deen's use of the N-word. I'm not sure if covering is the most accurate way to describe it (at least not in Yoshino's sense) because I think there is a fine line between someone's cultural identities and someone's opinion/choice of language. If that were the case, it seems like almost everything would boil down to covering.
ReplyDeleteHowever, even though I might not call it covering, I think concealing racial prejudices is a widespread phenomenon that's important to look at. Last time I was talking to my mom about race, I was explaining to her that even I was still somewhat racist (everybody is - it's so culturally embedded in society that we all carry traces of the -isms against our better judgment) and her response was a shocked "Really Sara?" and a sad head shake. The word racist conjures up extreme associations even though it shouldn't necessarily. People are racist, but nobody wants to admit it because of the stigma that comes with the word. (I think the first paragraph of this article states it somewhat well: http://www.salon.com/2013/06/20/paula_deens_racism_isnt_shocking_at_all/).
I think we need to confront all of our discriminatory and prejudicial tendencies and acknowledge the fact that the U.S. is still a very unequal place. While I definitely don't condone Paula Deen's behavior, I think we could all benefit from admitting these sorts of ugly truths to ourselves in an effort to move forward.