How do We Get Rid of the N-Word?

Did you catch the Sean Hannity interview last night with bounty-hunter, Duane "Dawg" Chapman? I watched part of it, then turned the channel when I couldn't take anymore. Chapman, without going into details, is the latest white celebrity to get caught using racial epithets on tape, specifically the N-word, which he repeatedly used as he spoke on the phone with his son (who dates a black girl). Unbeknownst to the "Dawg", the little "Dawg" was taping the conversation, which he then sold to a tabloid. How nice. Now, Chapman has donned sackcloth and ashes as he does the repentance tour. Apparently, an audience with Al Sharpton is in the works. In the interview with Hannity, Chapman tried to put his own spin on his use of the Magic Word (as many blacks refer to it.) He says that he had assumed that he was so close to the black community, that he had a license to use the word as some sort of bonding mechanism-"brother to brother" (I am paraphrasing.) He also said that as of 3 days ago, he now knows how much hurt the word causes to blacks. Huh?

First of all, let's be clear. One look at Duane Chapman and you know he is no Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. This is a man who has been around the block quite a few times including time in prison for his involvement in a homocide. (He didn't actually commit the killing himself.) If you've ever watched his show on TV, you know that the Chapman family makes the Addams family look like the Nelson family. So now, like Michael Richards, Don Imus, the Greaseman and others, Chapman is scurrying around trying to salvage his "career". He even told Hannity last night that he wants to be buried in a common, unmarked grave at Mt Vernon, where slaves were buried. The interview went on and on ad nauseum, interspersed with Chapman's bursts of crocodile tears: "Uncle Dawg made a mistake, Uncle Dawg made a mistake......Boo-hoo-hoo."

But let's put the "Dawg" aside and focus on the bigger issue. The N-word. Once again, it rears it's ugly head and is subject of national attention. Why is it still around and how can we as a society get rid of it? Undoubtedly, the word is used much less among whites than it was 40 years ago, when it was commonplace. Today, few whites would use it even among other whites for fear of being rejected as a racist. It is generally reserved for use among whites in select circles who know that everyone in that circle feels the same. Even when I was a small child, I remember my aunt telling me that "only poor white trash" used that word. (My aunt and my mother are from North Carolina and grew up in the segregated South.) As I recall, in those days, white teenage punks, not knowing any better, used the word among each other. The Civil Rights Era and a new awareness changed much of that.

Still, we are periodically reminded that the word is still out there. The main point, as I see it, is how do we get rid of the word, as well as all other ethnic slurs in the English language? A big part of the problem is the free and indiscriminate use of the word among some segments of the African-American community-to the horror of many of their older generation. On the streets of the inner cities, among gang members, the word is used, largely spurred on by hip-hop rappers who sprinkle the word into their lyrics. This raises the question of whether it is acceptable for blacks to use a word that if uttered by a white represents a punch in the nose or the ending of a career. Many would argue yes. Many would argue no. I would side with the latter, and here is why.

First, the use of the word by blacks can only serve to trivialize the word. Some whites ask why there is a taboo on the word when many blacks use it themselves? This undermines society's considerable efforts over decades to remove the word from our use. Make no mistake, the word is alive and well in hip-hop and gang vernacular. In spite of societal disapproval of the word, it perseveres. Chapman and others notwithstanding, whites have largely done their part to discontinue the word while many blacks have not.

Since I have studied linguistics and teach English, let me put on my pinhead cap for a moment. In any language, in any country, there is a universal rule. Language changes over time. It is a largely unavoidable and natural process that man cannot fully control. Think how English has changed over centuries, even over decades. Pay attention to the speech and accents of actors in movies from the 1930s and 1940s. English has changed-dramatically when compared to 800 years ago and subtly over the last 50 years. English is just one example. Spanish has evolved. German and French have evolved. Virtually every language has evolved, and many have actually died. This evolution is due to many factors which I won't get into here. What is especially important is that individual words are constantly being born (computer) while others slowly die out. How do words die out? Through disuse.

That leads me to the point: We have to find a way to make the word and others like it obsolete. As I said before, whites have used societal pressure and disapproval to make the word unacceptable in any polite company. The Chapmans of the world will pay a price when they are caught using this kind of language. But what price do the rappers and gang bangers pay? Very little if any. That has to change. It cannot change by law since we live in a free society with freedom of speech. Somehow, the black community at the grass-roots level (family, church, schools and community) have to bring about a change. In other words, the Bill Cosbys have to win the day in black public opinion-especially among youth.