WHY THUG IS THE NEW N WORD If Orange is the new Black then Thug is the new N word. In so called post racial America, it is no longer in vogue to use overt racial words. Today the racists have moved from dog whistle expressions to more racially coded language that is deemed acceptable. For instance Ronald Reagans welfare queen analogy is replaced with takers and makers; law & order is replaced with the school to prison pipeline; the lazy welfare recipients has been replaced by the social safety net is now a hammock and Newt Gringrich found it politically correct to call Obama the welfare president. The list goes on and on.. However while you cannot equate thug with the N word, when you think of thugs the vernacular evokes criminal behavior, prison, etc. and all the negative stereotype that is applied to African Americans and blackness. A recent sporting incident has brought this phenomenon into sharper focus. In a post game interview after the the NFL game between the Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers, Seahawks corner back Richard Sherman displayed some intensive exuberance because he had just made the final play that won the game for his team. By not expressing the usual boring and humble verbiage that is common after a big game, he instead carried over the on-the-field thrash talking between his opponent (wide receiver Michael Crabtree) to the interview. This elicit an emotive response by many Americans through the prism of race and caused a firestorm that was both hateful and racist. The most prevalent reaction was the word THUG was used to describe him. Said word was used 625 times on TV the Monday after the game which was more than any other day in the last 3 years. Coupled with this were the racist rants about Sherman on Twitter. Because Sherman is a dreadlock Afro American, he was subjected to the usual dehumanising monkey/gorilla/ape analogy. What was completely ignored is Shermans humanity. This is an articulate young man with a Stanford degree who graduated with a 4.2 high school GPA and who is committed to community service. Instead he was seen through the eyes of a racialistic history that rendered him an invisible human being owing to the well worn narrative that was instantly activated because he is a black man. It is through these historic and jaundiced eyes that Sherman was seen by those who defended and dehumanized him. Very few on either side of the argument, including some African Americans, were able to see an exuberant young man expressing his individuality because he had just made a fantastic play that would take his team to the Super Bowl. In a later interview, a very articulate and eloquent Sherman put the whole incident in perspective. He stated that thug is now the accepted substitute for the N word. It is the new way of using the N word without having to be condemned for saying something offensive. The word has become very racialised and is used only in reference to blacks. No one calls Justin Bieber a thug for his recent illegal indiscretions. Nor the NHL hockey players who brawled on the ice even before the game began. As I previously stated the word is reserved for blacks. We all remember Treyvon Martin who was innocently murdered and his assailant freed because the innocent victim, Martin, was portrayed as a thug. Sherman posits that when you hear about a young man coming from cities such as Watts or Compton, etc, he is a thug or a gangster. But when he is a Stanford graduate the response is that that does not make sense: its an oxymoron. This gives credence to the notion that black citizenship in America is dependent on you behaving in a certain manner. White America will not think less of you but, if you step outside of those white established parameters you will be put in your place. This incident has exposed a problem in the black middle class. From their perspective, if you come from a well educated middle class family and is a Stanford graduate you cannot be a thug. What they are completely missing is the fact that black people are still defined by white society and not by their individuality nor who they are. African Americans still do not define themselves, especially as individuals, and there is that historically impending fear that any negative behavior by one of their members will set back the advancement made by the race. How many of us have whispered that silent prayer when an individual has committed an heinous act: LORD, PLEASE DONT LET IT BE A BLACK PERSON. Take for instance this pertinent example: after the famous bus boycott initiated by Rosa Parks that led to the Civil Rights movement, black leaders implemented a program that taught their members how to behave on the integrated buses, even though they had been riding the buses all their lives. The point I am making is not to knock the black middle class and past civil rights leaders but to show that black acceptance is dependent on a contingent liberty. Even though no one else has these restricted protocols placed on them, African Americans are restricted from being themselves as individuals. Contingent liberty is whereby whites dictate what blacks can do that is acceptable to society in general. The problem is , that given their historical beat down, African Americans have bought into this narrative that they have to model their behavior in order to be accepted. (Even President Obama is exposed to this degradation; he cant be president and be too smart.) The flaw with this argument is whites do not have any such constraints. For instance, what is seen as confident and articulate in whites is seen as uppity and aloof when Obama exhibits similar characteristics. All this does is to attempt to perpetuate an inferiority complex in African Americans since they must always know their place or else they will embarrass the entire race. It is no wonder that Republicans, right wing media and Tea Party talking heads can today quote Martin Luther King, whose teachings they opposed, to attack the President by calling him a racist and a thug. Rocker Ted Nugent in a racist rant called Obama a communist sub-human mongrel and community organizer gangster. But Nugent is not admonished nor called a thug for his over the top diatribe. Instead he is treated as a spokesperson for the right wing on Faux News and is celebrated by Tea Party Republicans. These are the same people who refuse to discuss racism in a meaningful way so that they will not have to accept the fact that the problem exists nor to address same. Whenever the the topic of race comes up, including the very few instances that it was discussed by the President, they are quick to shout race baiting. However they show no compunction is using the modern racially coded language. Sherman is considered the best defensive corner back in the NFL and, like Ali in his time, he is suppose to jinn up the hype and supply ratings for the main event. And like Ali even though he is allowed to claim a space in his sport, that space is narrowly defined by the culture as a whole. He is not allowed to be too big, too bold , nor too brash or to expound on his athletic superiority. Which begs the question, what is it that frightens white America to hear a black man screaming? Ali, the most adored and respected athlete in all America has shown that there is nothing to be scared of. Ali is a classical example that there is nothing wrong in Black America that the elimination of white supremacy cannot fix. America, you have elected a black man twice as your president which shows that you are willing to give full citizenship to African Americans. With the Republicans war on women, will you do the same in 2016 for women by electing Hillary Clinton president. There is nothing wrong with women equality that the elimination of white male superiority cannot fix. Do not squander this wonderful opportunity to prove to the world that you can be the great country that you think you already are.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 02:41:54 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015