Jesse Jackson (on an off-air mic before "Fox & Friends") and Whoopi Goldberg (and another host on "The View") have raised the cultural language debate to a new level: Who has the right to say the N-word? Their answer: Blacks can, but whites can't. Unfortunately, this derogatory debate has degraded into Don Imus on steroids.
I agree with a lot that Whoopi had to say about the imbalances between the races. But I disagree with her for going off on an intentional N-word marathon, which was bleeped out repeatedly in order to demonstrate her point. There's a reason her diatribe was bleeped and our society still veils our full expression of the N-word: because it still is regarded by most as derogatory and demeaning. (Even among blacks, the N-word obviously can be defamatory, as Jesse Jackson proved when he used it in the same breath he used to describe how he would like to cut off Barack Obama's genitalia.)
This is more than a race issue and far more than a debate over freedom of speech. When will we learn that just because we can say something doesn't mean that we should? Once again, we're confusing liberty for licentiousness. It is a classic example of what happens when a society leaves its moral absolutes: Everything becomes culturally relative, with each deciding what's right in his own eyes. Language is one more infected arena in America's societal degradation.
Think about it. What word is nasty or unwholesome anymore? There are no "bad words." Words once considered evil are now terms of endearment. There's the B-word, the D-word, the A-word, the F-word, etc. Even bleeps are mere blips on America's moral radar screens. When ministers use G— d—- in their sermons and moral activists threaten to cut off a presidential candidate's genitals and call him the N-word, can't we see the signs that we're heading in the wrong direction? We have become desensitized to everything, from profanity to pornography.
Today's America is certainly not the one in which I grew up during the '40s and '50s. Profanity of any sort was wrong back then and frowned upon by most in private or public use. Today profanity has become a positive form of expression, with studies even showing that it releases stress and boosts morale at the workplace!
I genuinely believe we can do better. I believe we must do better. We need to leave a better legacy of decency, civility and respect for future generations. I believe we need to give them our best, and our best must be more than justifying the use of derogatory language based upon cultural or racial relativity or even freedom of speech.
If we're going to reverse negative trends among our youth, it's going to begin with us establishing a better model for them of how we treat and speak about others.
Whoopi proposed that we must find a "new way to move forward." I propose that that new way is not new at all, but an old way that has been discarded and forgotten. It is a way that simultaneously addresses equality, respect and decency. It is a way that was promoted by America's Founders and eventually resulted in increased unity and civility across the land. And it is also a way that I devote an entire chapter to in my upcoming book, "Black Belt Patriotism." The chapter's titled "Reclaim the value of human life." Here's a little of what I say in it:
"The Founders believed equality would give legs to freedom. As John Adams said, 'We should begin by setting conscience free. When all men of all religions … shall enjoy equal liberty, property, and an equal chance for honors and power … we may expect that improvements will be made in the human character and the state of society.'
"The Founders knew that America was not perfect. Slavery, in particular, troubled the consciences of many of them. … Nevertheless, our Founders believed there was something inherent in humanity that called it to a higher purpose. For all the shortcomings of early American society, the remedy was always there — expressed in the founding documents of our nation. The Declaration of Independence set America's course. Though we have sometimes drifted from its highest principles, all Americans have ever had to do was steer by its compass to acknowledge or rediscover the inherent equality of slaves, women, the poor, Indians, and the unborn. All were — and are — children of God, endowed by their creator with 'certain unalienable rights.' …
"The Founders could not immediately abolish slavery. It was too entrenched in the economy of the South, but the Declaration eroded its foundations in a way that made its end inevitable. That 'all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights' is one of the most powerful principles ever enunciated in the history of politics."
And that power can be unleashed again to help us in our day. The sooner we get back to our Founders' words, our country's original calling, the sooner we will start treating one another (red, yellow, black and white) as our Founders' prescribed and the sooner we will get beyond these slanderous debates about language and humanity. It's time to grow up, America — to move beyond the arguments of yesteryear. You're older than 200 now. It's time to act your age.
To find out more about Chuck Norris and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2008 CHUCK NORRIS
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.
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4 Comments | Post Comment
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Jeeezus Sir; don't you think it is possible for different people to have different opinions of the same object, the same word, or the same idea? I know you only play a smart person on the silver screen, if that is the case. How about you trying to understand the nword from and black to a black might have a totally different meaning from when you use it. Maybe when black people say America, it is with mixed feelings about a place that will accept their blood, and demand their labor, but denys them dignity. You seem to think they are hypocrits. I think anyone giving money to a black thinking it will help anyone but jwords, or the kwords, or the chwords, iwords, or awords is an idiot and a hypocrit. If you want to help some one, enforce their rights, Engage with them, and get to know them, and then ask what sort of help they think might they might need. You might find that we have been talking a different language for many years, and usually using not to communicate, but to miscommunicate. As much as you may want to dance on the heart of society's victims; I wish you would look hard for a real difference between you and the nwords. I think in their shoes you might be more violent and bitter than they. I think you should try it on for size, to see if you fit, and see if you're cool. I thought I was cool once, and a nword told me I wouldn't last ten minutes as a black. And now I believe him. I don't think you would last two. Thanks; Sweeney
Comment: #1
Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Tue Jul 22, 2008 5:43 PM
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Correction: What sort of help they think they might need. -That is just to show that my fingers are faster than my eyes. But my patience is still shorter than my shoes. So give it some thought, karate kid. The celebration of human triumph is always more entertaining than grinding away at human weakness. And; there is so much human weakness to grind at, that to grind at it is too common. Why not do something heroic, and try to mend this place and this people. We will never know strength or freedom until we are united. We will not even be a nation unless united. And no matter how you fault black people, they fault us as well and often more justly. And trust me on this: I am not likable, and I certainly don't like anyone I don't know, regardless of their color, or country of origen. But, I respect more those who must endure more, and that is true of blacks and many others. I won't stone their paths because it is within my power as a white to injure them, or point out their faults. And such behavior might pay your bills, but I can hardly believe such meaness is emotionally satisfying. Thank agin; Sweeney
Comment: #2
Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Tue Jul 22, 2008 6:00 PM
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Thanks, Chuck. First up, you are a saint now that you're saved, as Paul states in Romans 1:7, writing to Christians, "To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints." The "to be" is not a future aspiration but a present and everlasting condition bestowed upon the child of God at the instant of conversion. However, being saintly consistently in day-to-day living is of course 'something else,' as you folk say over there and as you and I both know. I appreciate your theme that liberty does not mean licence, including where language is concerned. Why, for example, should any articulate person with God to thank for fully functioning vocal apparatus abuse that gift with "corrupt commnication" Ephesians 4:29, as you righly note? I agree with your conclusion summed up in Matthew 12:34, that the speech problem, in whatever form*, is really a heart problem, for as the 'olde' Good Book** says, "for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." *I guess anyone who habitually wishes to "complain in the bitterness of my soul" like Job, Job 7:11 about his lot in the US is free to emigrate (like folk the world over are doing, 300,000+ coming to the UK alone each year). Africa, for example, is a huge land mass, much of it empty (including many areas where white farmers have been forcibly ejected from their properties). Emigrants exit the US could find wilderness taming both a satisfying challenge and a salutory experience. White folks did it when they crossed the Atlantic 400 years ago. No reason other can't, if in fact we're all equal. **You seem to have switched from the NASV to the NIV. You're hard to keep up with, brother, I guess like Walker, Texas Ranger.
Comment: #3
Posted by: Alan O'Reilly
Wed Jul 23, 2008 6:43 AM
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Quote: "There are no 'bad words.' " Exactly the point. Words are mere arrangements of consonant and vowel sounds uttered in a specifc sequence. They have no power other than the power we give them. The very concept of so-called "bad" or "obscene" or "profane" or "indecent" or "dirty" words is a relic of ancient religious superstition. Does anyone still believe, as primitive man once did, that speaking a taboo word will arouse the anger of the volcano god?
¶As for the use of racial epithets, it's context and intent that make all the difference. When young blacks call each other "nigger" or "nigga" as an expression of endearment or ethnic solidarity, obviously they don't find it offensive in that context. Offensiveness is a perception, not a fact. It has always been acceptable to say certain things within one's own group that would be labeled unacceptable if said by someone outside that group. Call it a double standard if you like, but it's human nature and it will never change. Get used to it.
Comment: #4
Posted by: Scot Penslar
Wed Jul 23, 2008 10:25 PM
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