I am from the southern part of the United States. Growing up
in the sixties and seventies I know people used what are now considered deplorable
words for people's ethnic origins. The "N" word to be one of them. I
heard it growing up and believe me; older people are not going to give up that
word no matter how many times you tell them it's wrong to use it- I've tried
too many times myself to stop them. Now I won't say 'I never used that word.'
There probably isn't anyone who grew up then in that atmosphere who didn't.
Some of us just learned not to use it. I didn't like that word anymore than I
liked the derogatory phrase for poor white people (questionable morals or not)-
'white trash'. I heard that a lot and not just from the African American
community- by the way they called us 'crackers'*. I haven't heard that lately
though. I remember knowing even before I started school (for some reason I can't
explain) that if I dropped the 'N' word, I probably would have the ever living
crap beat out of me and not by my parents. Someone once yelled it across the
playground at school, and because it was in my general vicinity, even though it
wasn't me, I got accused of it, and back then corporal punishment was the way
they handled things, and I got clobbered. It reinforced my innate intuition
that its use was not acceptable.
Now, fast forward to the issue with Paula Deen, renowned
cook, cookbook writer, restaurateur, and host of three television cooking shows
on the Food Network. Because she has
used it in the past, she is now out of her hosting position. She'll probably
lose her cookware line and possibly any publishing deals. Her restaurant may
suffer as well. Whether the person who accused her of using that word while planning
a wedding reception was telling the truth or not, those of us who were not
there have no idea of the veracity of the allegations. It is he said/ she said.
As she said, it is just something everyone from the south back then used as
everyday language. We can understand that part. Does that make it okay to use
it? No, of course not. It wasn't okay then either, but the wheels of civility, they
do turn slow. The best we can hope for is that the younger generations teach
that it is not alright to use racial slurs (any of them) so that it is not part
of the culture any longer. Will you answer that challenge?
*I once looked up the term 'cracker' when I was a kid. I
turns out it refers to the Spanish and/or Seminole cattle drovers who used
whips and cracked them to get the cattle to go where they wanted them. It
probably also spread to the plantation owners and managers who used whips on
the slaves, but they left that part out of the definition. Imagine that.
