Published: Wednesday - July 11, 2007
Words by Wise Intelligent
NAACP (Photo: NAACP)
[On Monday (July 9)] the NAACP held a ceremonial burying the infamous word "N----!" The funeral was complete with horse drawn chariots, mourners, pallbearers dressed in black and an eerie wooden coffin draped with black roses. It was like a Reality TV scene out of "Tales from the Hood." Add the media to the equation; and only Puffy Combs could have thrown a b---- party. All jokes aside, I wonder if the NAACP realizes that their burying of the word "N----" is, in fact, late! They are late by about 400 years or so because white supremacy has long since buried the word "N----" and all of its connotations and characteristics in the hearts and minds of America and ALL of its people!
Although I understand the symbolic burying of the "N" word, I am afraid it's just another case of us black people in America expending our manpower and resources to attack issues that are mere symptoms of a deeper and greater, more threatening problem. We can post billboards all over the country, march and hold funerals for dehumanizing words coming out of the mouths of our people (elders, youth, entertainers, male, female, etc.) from now into infinity, but until we find the strength of character to face the environment that created the word and the attributes of a N----, we are just kidding ourselves, and amusing the rest of the world in the process!
Hip-Hop and/or rappers did not create or embed the word, epithet or diatribe into the American heart and psyche. The word "N----" as used by NWA (who I would give credit for propagating its use in hip-hop on a mainstream level), was used to express the prevailing attitude of black people in this country for centuries before NWA or even hip-hop were conceived. That attitude being that regardless of what a black man in America does, achieve, accomplish or fails to do, he is, in the eyes of the white-power-structure, still a N----! I mean NWA stood for N----z Wit Attitudes. Did you ever ask yourself, what did they have an attitude about? They were pissed off about the poverty, drugs, gangs, mis-education, joblessness, and police brutality that they were born and raised in and forced to deal with on a daily basis. So unless we are ready to have another funeral next week for white supremacy and its entire educational, financial, scientific, and spiritual systems, these mock ceremonies will never produce any REAL results!
The word "N----" and all of the negative stereotypes that comes with it has been beat into our heads and hearts so much that the belief held by most black men in America is that whether I'm an athlete, rapper, actor/actress, professor, doctor, lawyer, beggar or thief, to the white power structure in which I am embedded, I am just a N---- who can run, a N---- who can act, a N---- with a degree, habit, or criminal record. All things considered, in spite of my vocation, I am still just a N----! And this is another reason they chose the name NWA (N----z With Attitudes).
The "N" word is apart of the cancerous disease of white-supremacy and racism that has yet to be faced and exorcised out of America's inward parts. Why are we so afraid to face this fact? Why are we so afraid to go beyond the effects and attack the causes? Why can't we have two groups? One to deal with all the "N----S" and all of their foul words and other group to bum rush and burn down the racist American system that created all of this bullsh-- from the jump! Symbolic funerals, billboards and the attached assault on hip-hop are about as effective as burying your bills instead of paying them and dealing with your reckless spending habits that got you into debt in the first place!
Black people of all ages, genders and occupations have been using the word "n----" in the exact same way in which slave-traffickers beat it into their ancestors for 260 years of chattel slavery, 100 years of lynching, Jim Crow, etc., ad infinite. The deeper problem I find when building with young black youth in America is IDENTITY! This lack of identity is a direct result of slavery and its institutionalized, systemic method of stripping black people of their heritage, language culture, families and God. This begs of the question, if I am not a "N----" what am I?
Let me just keep this real clean for you, we were not N----S until we went thru the process of N----ization at the hands of white supremacy. We were not even BLACK until we encountered white men? The same goes for bywords and proverbs like NEGRO, COLORED, JIGABOO, SAMBO, BUCK, etc. Before we discovered white men, we donned the names of our ancestors, ancestral place or places of origin. Lack of identity has caused divisions along frivolously superficial lines amongst a people who know not from whence they came.
Dr. Bobby Wright said that if you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there. So, when you ask your seven closest black friends what's your nationality? You'll more than likely get seven different answers: I'm Black or I'm African or I'm African-American or I'm Christian or I'm Muslim or I'm a Blood or I'm a Crip... everything from colors to religions. Then there's the cop out or anxiety avoidance responses race doesn't matter or I just don't see color. We have been turned around and upside down for so long that we would rather be an abstraction, a non-entity, or invisible before we dare to go back and claim who we were before Kunta Kinte was forced to call himself Toby! Black man and woman your race does matter! White supremacy taught you that YOUR race does not matter and is, in fact, worthless in comparison to other races; especially white ones. This is why they continue to target YOUR race with all forms of genocide in the form of CIA/COCAINE, Eugenics Programs, Tuskegee Experiments, Unfair Drug Laws, Prison Industrial Complex, etc. Your race does not matter and this is why it is on the verge of extinction!
Concerning the issue of IDENTITY or the lack thereof, lets take our leaders for instance. Being that this article highlights the NAACP's burying of the "N" word, we can use the organization as our first example. How is it that in 2007, you are still the National Association for the Advancement of COLORED People? The term "colored" was used by whites to serve the same purpose as the word "N----"; that is to dehumanize and disconnect you from your heritage!
Let's use our well respected elder Al Sharpton for our next example. Earlier this year when Sharpton discovered that his ancestors were possibly slaves owned by the racist Strom Thurmonds' ancestors, he said in an appearance on "The Daily Show with John Stewart" concerning the revelation, "A guy asked me for an autograph: first time in my life I had to think about the reason I'm named that, is because my great grandfather was owned by someone named Jefferson Sharpton, who was married to Julia Thurmond Sharpton." This is a 70-year-old leader of the black community saying that he had not before 2007 thought about the reason his last name was Sharpton? (View full report here)
How can the leader not know? If Al Sharpton, the leader of the assault on Don Imus and the subsequent assault on hip-hop for its use of the word "N----," did not know, or ever consider how he came to be Al Sharpton until February of 2007. How in hell can we expect the average young man, woman, and child to know who they were before they were called N----S?
What we must admit is that this IDENTITY problem is a pandemic crisis in the black reality and the root of many, if not all, of our woes! We know that in order to deal with the real causes of our problems as a people we must confront our past. And that requires that we confront the enemies of that past. Our FEAR of confronting those who are responsible for kidnapping, enslaving, dehumanizing and n----izing our people is indicated by our behavior. All the talk about banning the "N" Word, degrading women and hip-hop are all cleverly calculated evasions of the deeper problem. Getting rid of the Joe Camel cigarette ads did not stop people from smoking or cure the people of lung cancer, and burying the "N" word will not stop our young black men and women from seeing themselves and believing that they are N----S!
So now that the movement to destroy the N----S and all of his offensive words is in full effect. Will there be an equally intensive effort to destroy the N---- makers and all of their N---- inducing systems? In other words, after will get rid of Frankenstein, are we going to confront and get rid of Dr. Frankenstein as well? Now that we've buried the "N" word, what are we going to replace it with? Are we ready to back and find out who and what we were before the N----ization process stole our minds, bodies, and souls? Are we ready to go back to when hip-hop tried to motivate black youth to call each other: Brother, Sista, Young Ladies, Beloved, King, Queen, Africans, Gods, Earths, and Goddess back in the late 80s and early 90s? Are we ready to bury the SICKCO American mentality that created the N---- and all his words to undermine African rebellion, revolution, unity, revolt, and rebirth? Are we ready to deal with the reality that it was a tragic mistake to let your enemy teach and train your children? Are we ready to be about the business of building for ourselves regardless of what old wounds that may be re-opened (although they have never been closed)? Are we ready to make all efforts to take 100% control of the education, economics and politics of our people regardless to who that course of action may offend? Because if we're NOT ready to do all of those things and MORE after we get back home from the mock funeral for the "N" word, then I'll conclude this with the words of my great aunts, uncles, mother, father and grandparents. N---- PLEASE!
Proper Education Always Corrects Errors
It's NO LONGER Smart to be DUMB!
This editorial was written by Wise Intelligent, a rapper from the legendary trio, Poor Righteous Teachers. For more information on him, visit MySpace.com/WiseIntelligent. The views expressed inside this editorial aren't necessarily the views of BallerStatus.com or our staff.
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