clipped from: www.chron.com | Tammie Campbell of the Honey Brown Hope Foundation and Bishop Gideon Adjei will lead a burial ceremony today at Houston Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Pearland. JOHNNY HANSON: FOR THE CHRONICLE |  | |
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The battle to 'bury the N-word'
Efforts to ban the epithet gain momentum here
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
IF YOU WANT TO GO
WHAT: A diverse group will conduct an interment celebration for the N-word to educate the public about the word's racist origin so that it eventually will not be used.
WHEN: 9 a.m. today
WHERE: Houston Memorial Gardens, 2426 Cullen, Pearland
As a child of the '60s, Tammie Campbell endured an era when white residents frequently used the N-word to degrade black people.
Local rapper D-Red knows the word's hateful history but says it's now just a hip-hop expression and a term of endearment.
Those two thoughts about one of the most divisive racial epithets in America are at the center of an extraordinary movement in recent months: to abolish the N-word from our lexicon.
Campbell, 48, is leading a diverse Houston-area group focused on eradicating the term's usage and teaching its history. They are hosting an unusual event at 9 a.m. today at a Pearland cemetery to ''bury the N-word" in a coffin.
"This word wasn't created by blacks," said Campbell, the former president of the Missouri City NAACP. "It was created by whites. They have a responsibility as well as blacks — more so than anybody else — to destroy and annihilate this racial term that has hurt this nation as a whole."
This emerging campaign against the N-word stretches from New York to Texas.
Early this year, an ordinance was proposed in Brazoria to make offensive use of the N-word a misdemeanor crime. Several cities including New York have recently passed nonbinding resolutions to ban the word.
Houston City Councilman Adrian Garcia, who is Hispanic, said he has obtained a proclamation from Mayor Bill White to declare today as a moratorium on the N-word.
Tirade sparked move
The drive against racially derogatory terms such as the N-word is the focus of Ebony magazine's July cover story. In one influential move, prominent hip hop label owner Russell Simmons in April called on recording artists to stop using the N-word, ''bitch" and ''ho" in songs and videos.Many experts say the momentum against the word grew after actor Michael Richards used the term during a racist tirade last year toward black patrons in a comedy club. The other incident that emboldened the movement, some say, was in April when shock jock Don Imus described the mostly black Rutgers University women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos."
Imus' comments cost him his job and prompted Simmons' rebuke of the racially offensive terms.
Brazoria Mayor Ken Corley, who is white, proposed the N-word ordinance, but dropped the idea after stiff opposition. He had wanted his town of 2,800 to blaze a trail in fighting against offensive language.
"I was completely 100 percent wrong because you cannot legislate morality," said Corley, who is working with Campbell's group. "I still think there is absolutely no use for that word."
Leroy Comrie, a black New York councilman who sponsored that city's resolution, agreed that an ordinance is not the proper method. He said the city's resolution is intended to educate people about the word.
"You don't want to get into having people writing tickets about verbal behavior," said Comrie, who will be the speaker at today's burial event. "You fall down a slippery slope against the First Amendment."
Their hope, instead, is that if people to stop using the word it will become obsolete and eventually die.
The so-called interment celebration will be at Houston Memorial Gardens in Pearland. A casket, draped with a banner, will contain a hanging noose, a burned cross, a replica of a Ku Klux Klan robe and an ax. It will be buried in an unmarked grave site.
Participants will include the Houston Area Urban League, Rabbi Jack Segal, the Islamic Society of Greater Houston and Houston rapper/actor J Xavier.
"We really need to start upgrading and stop degrading," said Xavier, 15, who doesn't use the N-word or profanity in his music.
Another educational event is planned this summer. Quanell X, a black activist, is hosting a summit to ban the N-word Aug. 24 at the Houston Grand Plaza Hotel.
"There is a vital need right now because of what took place with Don Imus and the subsequent backlash against the hip-hop community," Quanell said. "I have always encouraged the hip-hop community to stop using the N-word and the B-word."
'It's everyday language'
The hip-hop and rap industry has often been criticized for its casual and glorifying use of the N-word in lyrics and videos. Critics say these artists show a flagrant disregard for the term's dehumanizing legacy.Rapper Lil' Troy, whose real name is Troy Birklett of Houston, said he hardly uses the N-word in his music, but he still doesn't see the need to banish it. He does favor teaching children about the meaning.
"It's everyday language of my vocabulary," said Lil' Troy, also black.
"It's part of my environment. We glorify what we see in our neighborhood. ... At the end of the day, it's all about making money."
Roy "Big Roy" Mata, 27, who is Hispanic, said he uses the word frequently with his black friends, but never with disrespect. He said he grew up in a diverse neighborhood in Florida where the word was used among black people.
"Why is it OK in that term to each other and I couldn't use it as a term of endearment?" said Mata, who produces hip hop music. "If people really want to stop it, it has to start with black people."
Ahati Toure, assistant director of African-American Studies at the University of Houston, said today's event will foster discussion but it won't lead to the word's wake.
To make the word obsolete, he said, black people need to gain significant social, economic and political power in America.
"I think that what has to be dealt with is a solution for reversal of that subordination in this society, that the word is emblematic of the condition that we face," Toure said.
Clipped from CNN.com
First of all, it is a word.
It is out.
It will never stop being used.
You can petition all day and night.
You cannot stop a universal word. Ever. You can complain, it will never stop. I could honestly care less.
Our problem is bringing them into this country. And as long as they're here, they will continue to take everything racist.
How many times did YOU feel racially slurred by an "African American."
And why are they called that? They are not all from America and yet the politically "correct" term is African American. They are not American. Isn't THAT racist? Assuming?
Since when is the term racist used correctly?
This world is terrible
-Sky.
Another job well done. :)
This is Kaleigh, adding onto what Sky posted above.
I love how black people.. excuse me.. "African Americans" can say 'Nigga', 'Nigger' or any other type of words and yet they aren't called racist. They can also call white people "Crackers/Cracka" without any racist comments to themselves.
How about BET (Black Entertainment Television)?
Do we have a WET? No. However if we DID -- Racist.
How about Black History Month?
Do we have a White History Month? Nope. And if we did? It would probably end up being racist in some way.
If a new show were to be aired that had no black main characters in it? Racist.
If a new show were to be aired that had no white main characters in it? Perfectly fine.
(Cosby Show as an example)
If there were a contest show... such as something where you have to be selected to be on it and no blacks were picked? Racist.
If whites weren't picked? Absolutely fine.
Point is, many people are obsessed with calling all white people racist, when really, African Americans have very many things for themselves that include no whites whatsoever.
So the question is...
Who's REALLY racist here?
Another job well done.
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