The War on Vocabularism

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/11/27/michaelrichards.ap/index.html

That's an article showing just how damned silly Jesse Jackson can be. I hate to say that, as the man has done a great deal of activist work in this country. Martin Luther King rubbed off quite a bit on this man, who, understandably, demands equality in the face of adversity.

But it's just a fucking word. It can't be "unprotected." And hell, if we ban the word (were that somehow enforceable), we would just be opening doors for some sort of replacement. Banning a word doesn't ban hatred. It's akin to the war on terror, really. We've become so hooked on this idea that declaring war on a concept or inanimate object will somehow make the thing go away, as long as we keep the propaganda flowing and the angry pundits yelling; somehow, it seems, it will all go away eventually.

Not unlike it's predecessors, the war on drugs and the war on terror, the War on Vocabularism (a word I've handily crafted on my own) is another adorable distraction that will do Mr. Jackson's arguments more harm than good. No racist is going to pick the word "friend" over the word "nigger," especially when there are plenty of quaint antiquities in the racist lexicon to keep them warm for many a long, bitter, hate-filled winter to come. Sure, they may not say it in public, but they'll always be thinking it. Hell, if a black man somehow finds a way to enforce the idea that "nigger" is unprotected, I'm fairly certain there will be plenty of racist douchebags who feel slightly more hatred for the black community because of it.

What Mr. Jackson needs to learn, along with the other purveyors of the Wars on Concepts, is that there is only one key to keeping bigotry out of the mouths of babes - education. Yet for some reason our country refuses to tackle it. The "no child left behind" act has been a colossal failure so far, not meeting its goals. And yet we persist on fighting these wars and even creating new ones when some off-the-radar lame-ass celebrity who dropped from A-list to Z-list faster than anyone I can think of goes off on some bigoted rant that, inexplicably, brings him up a few positions on the totem pole of fame.

The lesson to be learned is this - Exposing racists doesn't really solve anything. Trying to stop a racist from being a racist by preventing him from expressing himself is un-American in the worst way. You can protect your children from monsters like hatred, ignorance and bigotry by telling them they don't exist. Teach them to identify these monsters, hate them and keep them out of our country clubs.