America is in the Fifth Grade

"Ooohhh... You used the N-word..." So would have been a taunt back in elementary school had some poorly-raised classmate uttered the epithet out loud. You knew calling another kid out had better not include the ACTUAL word, or else the kid could, according to childhood rules "tell the teacher on you back," as many times as you might utter the requisite "nuh uh."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/16/jackson.nword.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Jesse Jackson, no surprise, has been making an ass of himself by supporting Obama and then getting recorded talking shit about him, to put it simply. To be frank, I don't care that Jesse Jackson said the word, because I'm not surprised. Why? Because he's a politician. They're notoriously opposed to things that they do themselves. And it's not that they're being contrarian. It's not ALWAYS that they're trying to hide their true feelings - I don't think Larry Craig opposed homos just because he likes penis. It's because that's what people want to hear. And the last thing you want to hear from a leader who marched with Dr. King is that he used a word he tried to ban. So... Mistake. Yeah.

Hypocrisy is funny, even if he did use "the word." But what concerns me most is that CNN, a national news organization, and the one I tend to default to, if only because they admittedly collect their news from all over, has to use the phrase "the N-word." This is an unofficial ban of sorts on the word, similar, of course, to how they might have reported Jackson if he'd have called McCain's supporters "Fucking conservatives," at which point they'd likely use the word "expletive." I understand the need to self-censor (not that I agree with it, but money talks, even to the news), but... at least "expletive" is an adult-sounding word. Isn't there an option? Yes, "racial epithet limited to those of dark skin, usually originating from the African continent" is a bit wordy, but there has to be a middle-ground. Otherwise it sounds like a dirty little secret and, to me at least, draws more attention to what "the N-Word" is and gives it a little more power, which it doesn't need.

Think of the impact of seeing "Jesse Jackson reportedly said that Barack Obama was 'telling niggers to behave,'" in print, and what it tells us about Jackson. It gives his lame apology considerably less credibility and hits home that, just because he's Jesse Jackson does not give him the right to be a douche. It certainly makes that possibility much more likely, but that's, again, because he's a politician. If you've come to expect something else from politicians, then you probably believe Al Franken will one day be president.

Point is, if you're a news organization, grow up. Say "racial epithet" in the headline, because it AT LEAST makes me curious which one Jackson used. Use the word, like a grown up, in the article. This way you aren't talking down to anyone. No one is going to fire-bomb you - I hope - for QUOTING A POLITICIAN. I guess this is one of those words you have to learn to use correctly, as long as its academic. The news media simply hasn't realized that the news ought to be devoid of emotion, which means less catering to our hearts and more to our heads.

I don't like the word, myself. Because using it in a non-academic sense USUALLY means you're a douche or a rapper. And neither of those is ideal.

...Minorities...

A very close friend who critiques most of my work not with kid gloves but with an eye for truth pointed something out to me about my most recent blog on gay marriage. An ironic mistake on my part. A glaring misinterpretation of the world based on my own personal biases. I said women were a minority.

Firstly, that was a stupid mistake. I meant something more along the lines of "person of a group which historically has been treated as a second-class citizen." I do find it funny, however, that in my attempt to be so even-handed and to feel enlightened, I still managed to default to something so innacurate.

Everything else, though, I'm pretty sure I meant.