undercoverblackman.blogspot.com
") But as far as I'm concerned, the best occasion to use the word is when trying to understand the word, and thus understand ourselves and American society. This chunk of conversation dwells on the 1970s, the decade in which the four of us came of age.
Because what white people meant when they said "That nigger's crazy" is different than what black people meant when they said "That nigger's crazy." Roberta Flack and some white guy up there with her - he wouldn't say the title. DAVID MILLS: I have a memory of a talk show that Richard Pryor was on - I want to say "Dinah Shore," but it couldn't have been "Dinah Shore" - HEARD: Could've been. MILLS: But they were talking about that title - HEARD: "Dinah Shore."
Dinah Shore said, "Well, what if I called you a nigger?" HEARD: John Byner ran off stage, he came back, "Richard, you have a phone call. Everybody starts laughing, and Richard Pryor's laughing. HEARD: It shows the difference in the '70s, the different way people perceived the word.
said, "Y'all scared to fight 'cause you know you're gonna be throwing niggers' all over the place." THOMAS STANLEY: We showed in class the episode of "The Jeffersons" where the blackout occurs and they rob his store - ALEXANDER: Oh yeah. STANLEY: We had an agenda for why we were showing it, about the blackout and how all this looting happened. But I couldn't believe, during this 30-minute episode, man, they were throwing "nigger" back and forth like it was nothing.
It's edited out now if you catch it on TV Land, but Aunt Esther said, "Nigger, are you crazy?" HEARD: Back then, especially on the black shows, that wasn't a problem. "That's My Mama" - you heard it a lot on "That's My Mama." MILLS: And there were those blaxploitation movies in the '70s that defined "nigger" in a heroic way.
"The Legend of Nigger Charley," "Boss Nigger" - the nigger-as-hero because he lived by his own rules. HEARD: I thought "Legend of Nigger Charley" was a great film. But "The Legend of Nigger Charley" - he never called himself Nigger Charley in the movie. It was the white folks that called him Nigger Charley, the people tracking him that called him Nigger Charley. There was a scene in the movie where they made it a point to let us know that these people didn't view us as people. There was a scene where he was making love to his lady and these white guys burst in, said, "Look at that. When I think about it now, I'm amazed they got away with that title. I remember wanting to steal the word "nigger" and take it home.
We called ourselves the Niggers, because I kept saying, "The intimidation factor. They'll throw dirt in your eyes, they'll steal you, you know? ALEXANDER: Actually, when the Knicks were all-black in '79 - when they had the first all-black one-through-12 - they were being called the "Niggerbockers." White folks would call menthol cigarettes "niggerettes." I looked at him, said, "You know, you are a very brave man to say that." STANLEY: You talk about Sly Stone, "Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey." There is no comparable term that hurts white people the way "nigger" hurts black people. You can call 'em "honky" all day and they're like, "What does that mean?" MILLS: "Honky" wasn't a word I ever heard in DC HEARD: I used to hear it all the time. I got called a "white cracker" one time in elementary school by another kid, and he was yellow. He called me a white cracker, and I remember the teacher stepping up to correct him, pointing to somebody's shirt and saying, "This is white. That's my thing: The whitest guy in a room full of black people, the blackest guy in a room full of white people. Larry, when I was looking for songs on iTunes, I typed "nigger" in the search engine, and the results come up "n****r." STANLEY: To me, the whole "N-word" - that stuff explains why we're in Iraq. STANLEY: It's like, if you can buy that - if the country can buy that - we'll buy absolutely anything. MILLS: Where should we rank the impact of "nigger" at the end of "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" - that on-screen message? It left such a - I was ready for something, and it almost took me where I was ready to go, which would've been this very, you know, progressive - And it didn't hit me like that.
Everything about this movie said: "I'm just gonna do this. If you consider the film industry and its role in shaping images, it really was a turning on its head of 60 years, going back to DW Griffith. Here's my problem with "Sweetback": For all those things I think the film itself represents, I'm wondering about that specific usage, as a lingering moment on a Top 10 of all time. MILLS: How high should Richard Pryor's epiphany in Africa be? What was the impact of that, when he rejected the use of the word? ALEXANDER: To me, the whole idea is that here's the guy who's more responsible than anyone for the proliferation of this word through the culture, the broad proliferation. He's an incomplete person anyway, so he's trying to become a little bit more whole. STANLEY: I don't know necessarily that Richard's conversion in Africa argues for or against the use of the word. It's just a beautiful expression of him dealing with the consequences of language and looking at words deeper, looking at his own origins deeper - HEARD: My problem with it is that it had no effect on the black community whatsoever. I think given his position in the culture relative to that word, it is significant. But I don't think that his conversion has made anyone else drop it. HEARD: Amongst the black intellectuals, it was a big deal. By this time, folks were considering Richard a sellout in the neighborhood. STANLEY: These things all stand as documents in their time and speak as their time. And what's neat about Richard's thing is it does add some perspective. And I saw people that looked a whole lot more in charge of their own destiny than we look back in LA and New York and DC They're running shit. Maybe we're niggers and they're not niggers, but the word isn't fitting this context." And it's not that his conversion has to be adopted by anybody else. HEARD: But his reasons never rang true to me, because nobody I know ever referred to Africans as niggers. MILLS: Well, that wasn't what he was talking about anyway. ALEXANDER: Because he's dealing with the bullshit here all his life coming out of black Peoria. HEARD: If you're talking about the completeness of Richard Pryor, I understand it. ALEXANDER: His conversion is almost like an extension of his life as performance art.
Much of this segment deals with white artists' use of the word. ") When we sat down, we had the notion of doing a companion list to our "Nigger" Top 10 - a Worst 10, a place to put Michael Richards and Mark Fuhrman and the like. But I had it in mind when I played the Patti Smith tune "Rock 'n' Roll Nigger" (1978) for the fellas.
To just say, "I want to be a social outsider so I identify myself as a nigger" - STANLEY: You can't make yourself a nigger. LORENZO HEARD: I thought she was commenting on how punk was looked down on as this inferior music form. That's the way I always took it, so I was never offended by it. LARRY ALEXANDER: (to David) You said you don't like the word being used that way. Again, is there another word in the English language that rises to that level of scrutiny? And if you understand that context, you'll never have a problem. MILLS: Does that mean you're not bothered by any use of the word? ALEXANDER: I think it's a waste of time, just for me personally. I've come to the point of thinking it's a waste of time to be bothered, because it's so unique, if you don't understand that it's a loaded grenade, someone's always gonna be offended. MILLS: Is it worth scrutinizing Patti Smith's use of it in this song? Because when you make it a term of endearment, and then you broadcast it and it gets commodified, when it comes back and bites you in the ass, you're a fool if you go, "I didn't know you were gonna bite me!" Did he cover it just because it's an excuse to yell "nigger nigger nigger" because he's a shock artist? When this song came out, there wasn't a big uproar about this. MILLS: Dave Marsh slammed her for it in Rolling Stone when he r...
|
http://csua.com/feed/