Opinion

Using the pejorative

Saturday, April 19, 2008

I was sitting with several friends over cocktails the other day, talking about one of two topics you should never talk about when alcohol is involved and that was politics. The other, of course, is religion. There were five of us sitting at the bar. Two expressed support for Obama and three said they wouldn't vote for any of the three remaining candidates. There was a sixth guy down towards the end who I had never seen before who had been listening but not participating until he heard two of us say we supported Obama. The stranger then said:

"America's not ready for a n****r President."

It's an unfortunate thing that I wasn't shocked at his pronouncement and his choice of words. I've heard the same sentiment many times before. My friends know I'm not a racist and out of respect for what I believe, they never use that word around me. And because I believe in standing up for the things I believe in, I told the guy I was offended by his use of the word and would appreciate it if he didn't use it again. He didn't use it again but he also didn't apologize for using it the first time and whether he used it or not, I knew that's what he believed and I know that's what a lot of people believe.

Blacks were brought to this country as slaves when we first started colonizing. John Adams, our second President, publicly voiced his opposition to slavery but it still took almost a hundred more years and a civil war before slavery was abolished. It took a hundred additional years, a period during which blacks were beaten, raped, ran out of town and killed in wholesale numbers before the Civil Rights Act was passed by Congress.

In my lifetime, I've lived in a segregated town, attended a segregated high school and a segregated university, observed separate hotels for Blacks and Whites, separate water fountains, separate bathrooms, separate restaurants and lunch counters, the nationwide "back of the bus" policy when forced to share common transportation facilities, and state constitutions that legally declared Blacks as being "less than human."

We've made tremendous progress in the past 50 years but we still have so very far to go. We are still, to a very large extent, immersed in the same stereotypes that have existed forever. The fact that we're eight years into the new millennium and we are still treating people stereotypically is a blight we must overcome if we have any aspirations at all to be the best we can be as a nation.

I say this because it's not the color of our skin or our gender, or where we're from or our family heritage that makes us bad or good, it's our behavior. It's what we do and how we act. We know that racism and sexism have always been most popular among America's lower classes because they were the ones most threatened with the loss of jobs and income when women and minorities began competing for the jobs that were once the lower classes' exclusive domain. But even then, if you did the job better than anyone else and worked harder than anyone else, you would not only get the job but keep the job.

I know that affirmative action was and still is opposed by a large number of people because they've always seen it as reverse discrimination. Theoretically, I see it as reverse discrimination too but practically, it's something that had to be done if everyone WAS going to get a fair chance to compete. Without affirmative action, white men would have continued to hire only white men and, consequently, women and minorities could have never broken through the threshold. We've seen tremendous contributions to our society because they finally were allowed to participate and contribute.

It was an unfortunate, contentious period of time that caused huge rifts between the different competing elements and, for a time, made matters worse instead of better. But we've finally come out the other side and now employers, for the most part, hire the people they believe will be the best people for the job, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, or religion and that's the way it should be.

But there is still a segment of our population who hold on tightly to those old stereotypes of superiority and inferiority based exclusively on a person's group identity rather than their individual characteristics and they continue to use the "buzz" words that attach some to those group characteristics but not others. And this diminishes us, not only as individuals but as a nation as well.

There are good people and bad people from every group category on the face of the earth. A couple of other terminologies we also hear a lot are "poor white trash" and "rednecks." But most of us know that whether people are considered to be "poor white trash" or "rednecks" is not based on someone's income or social status or the kind of house they live in; it's based on what they do and how they act. If they act like poor white trash, then that's where they're assigned. Jeff Foxworthy became an instant millionaire doing exactly that.

Our perceptions and definitions of people should always be based on what they do as individuals and never on their group membership alone.

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  • I'm pretty upset about the 'N' word. I though we were over that.

    Personaly I'm ready for a Woman or a person of color

    -- Posted by kenosb on Sat, Apr 19, 2008, at 2:07 PM
  • I don't share you enthusiasm for your candidate, but AMEN to your thoughts. I have also seen much discrimination, but less and less, as we make progress in our society.

    I was very lucky not to learn to hate people of other ethnicity. I went into the military, and found out quick that we all bled red, and learning ability knew no color.

    On the political side, though, please folks, vote for the person who you feel/think will do the best job. Don't vote because 'we are finally ready to accept.' Our way of freedom requires, and deserves, educated voting. I, for one, am very concerned about many american voter statements, and attitudes. Think, Pray, Vote!

    Shalom in Christ, Arley Steinhour

    -- Posted by Navyblue on Sat, Apr 19, 2008, at 3:36 PM
  • Having a colored person would be OK IF he was actually raised by two colored parents in America with American values and understands the meaning of being a true American. I don't have a problem with a colored person being our President, I do have a problem with Obama since he wasn't even raised in America with a "questionable" religious upbringing. I do feel that the N word is a very inappropriate word even to have in the English language. There's a time and place for everthing and everyone...Obama just isn't right.

    -- Posted by FNLYHOME on Mon, Apr 21, 2008, at 9:44 AM
  • read this rural citizen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama

    there is nothing more american than the story of his life. Divorced parents, pseudo immigrant father. And why does it matter where he lived. he WAS raised in america, he only spent a few years in jakarta, AND nowhere in the constitution does it say that the president HAS TO BE A CHRISTIAN!

    -- Posted by billybobi on Mon, Apr 21, 2008, at 1:58 PM
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