In the wake of racial issues that are being raised by the events in Florida and Tulsa, CNN reporter Susan Candiotti has offended some by using the exact language from a Facebook entry from one of the Tulsa murder suspects. Candiotti, who is an experienced reporter was doing a live report from Tulsa and in quoting the entry, she apologized for the language then said the two words ("F-------ing N-word"). The unedited video is below.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/cnn-correspondent-apologizes-cursing-n-word-air-video-article-1.1058559
Sort of raises an interesting discussion, doesn't it?
Candiotti has apologized, as has CNN. Anchor Frederica Whitfield, herself African-American, also apologized for the language immediately in closing the segment.
First of all, I think Candiotti's apology should be the end of the story, but then again, I am not black. To me what is important is the context in which she said it. She was quoting from a suspect's writings on Facebook and alerted the viewers to the offensive language before saying it. I think it would be way over the line to fire her.
So is it inappropriate to use the F word and the N word even in quoting for context? Clearly, it is relevant to the story. Assuming the Tulsa suspects are the shooters, this seems clearly to be a series of shootings by two white guys who hate blacks. These are truly the kinds of hate crimes we need to concern ourselves with.
On the other hand, had Candiotti said, "F-ing N-word", everyone would have known what she meant. The expression N-word has made its way into our lexicon because we are making a conscientious effort to eliminate the real N-word from the English language. From a linguistic point of view, that can be achieved since languages evolve and some words do die out through disuse. As I have commented before, it would be great if some blacks stopped using the word since it simply perpetuates its use or survival, if you will.
A few days ago, in the Trayvon Martin case, I used the word "coon' to describe how some believe that word was uttered in George Zimmerman's 9-11 call (which is now dubious). Was I wrong to use the word even in context? I have not gotten any feedback on that, but I am not Susan Candiotti, and I am not on CNN.
One thing we can all agree on; racial epithets are ugly words in our language, and we need to keep working to eliminate them from the language altogether.
Then, hopefully, we can even eliminate the "N-word."
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6 comments:
Since 99% of the time I hear "N-word" it is coming out of the mouth of someone with a dark complexion greeting someone else with a dark complexion, I've become kind of jaded about the notion that we shouldn't simply say the word, in full, in quotation marks, when speaking about someone else who actually intended to say it.
I recently had a talk with my little brother about not accepting other people his color calling him the n-word, and I came right out and said it. He didn't flinch, just asked how I knew what I was telling him. Its never all right to say it, but its so ubiquitous among those who are proud to be ghetto, its silly to pretend that to even utter the word in a news report is worthy of apology.
When I was last driving a bus, almost all my co-workers were black. One of them played a tape in the break room featuring constant use of the word as a faux 60 Minutes crew went into the backwoods to interview a noted white power author -- who turned out to be a blind African American. It was funny, even use of the word. Of course, the fact that the guy who brought the tape and most of the audience were people of African descent made a big difference.
When African-Americans stop using the "N-word" amongst themselves, then it will be gone.
When asked to fill out a form regarding ethnicity, I always check boxes for European, African and Native American ancestry. According to any variation on the "one drop" rule, I believe this to be accurate. But I have never had the experience of being treated as "black" because my skin is just on the semitic side of "white." I suspect that 2/3 of so-called "white" Americans have some African ancestors, and about half of all of us have some Native American ancestors. That is ESPECIALLY true in the South. The only "pure" European strains would be the last wave of immigrants, if, that is, their great grand-children have not mixed with any tainted Anglos.
My little brother is quite dark -- we were matched through Big Brothers / Big Sisters. His mother invited me to the family reunion, but it never came off.
Findalis, you are 90% correct. At least, once they stop using the word, it will be easier to suppress the small number of others who still use it. But remember, they didn't invent it. Some man who saw a chance to make money calling himself "white" told people from Africa they were dumb, lazy, lustful, etc., and those who continue to call each other by this word are descended from those dumb enough to take his word for it, and live up to his expectations.
The "k-word" you refer to was commonly used in the nice middle-class single-family neighborhood where I grew up as a slang term for "steal." It was years later, and not having heard it for most of that time, when I learned it had ethnic connotations. Most of the immigrants in that neck of the woods were German and Polish, most of those still living were third or fourth generation.
"The slavery Africans lived through was easy compared to what my people went through."
An indeterminate number of blonde-haired,blue-eyed, genes short of half of my ancestors were some of what you call "my people," but I don't agree with the comparison. My grandparents got off a boat circa 1905, and by 1910 my grandfather was running his own grocery store. Jews were seldom enslaved, and not often used for agricultural labor either. The stereotype was that they were too smart and likely to take over, despite being a minority, out of cunning and intellectual superiority. Nobody accused Jews of being lazy, dumb, or servile. Mass killing is fatal, but it does not rob anyone of dignity in the way life ground under the heel of a master does.
American slavery was also different from European or Arabic slavery. Slaves could be viziers, military commanders, tutors, trusted advisers... Even house slaves in America were not really trusted.
Finally, if we want to get beyond race, we have to stop framing questions as "When are African-Americans going to grow up as a people...?" Each INDIVIDUAL of African descent has to make THEIR OWN decision. No whole people EVER adopted a single mind-set en masse, not even the German people circa 1937 (and thank God for that, although it was a close call!).
In your neighborhood how many of those using "that word" (As my Grandfather would call it.) were Jewish?
True many of my people didn't work the fields, but we were forbidden to own land and farm it. Did you know that? Groups of government thugs would ride through our villages raping, looting, killing at will. This happened normally during Easter, but any time of the year was a good excuse.
Our holy books were burnt by the Church. In Italy we were forced (by law) to listen to a Sermon in the Church every Saturday.
We were restricted into certain professions. Is it any wonder why so many of us are bankers, jewelers, doctors and lawyers?
We have been given as little as an hour to pack up what we could carry and leave a nation. England threw us out in the 12th Century. France threw us out quite a few times in History. Germany, Italy, etc ...
Spain gave us 3 options:
1. Convert
2. Leave
3. Die
Yet at no time did we act like barbarians. At no time did we demand that governments support us. We did it ourselves.
When my Grandparents came to the US in the 1880's, they owned no slaves, they had a profession (bakers) and they worked in their profession (having their own bakery in the 20's). Nobody would lend them money, they saved and worked until they could open their own business.
My parents went to college. During a time there was a quota for Jews to enter Universities (13% rule). No affirmative action for us. BTW, the 13% rule is back thanks to the MSU and Liberal professors.
Oh yes, African-Americans had it hard. But today there is Affirmative Action, Special Programs for African-Americans to receive loans, more money thrown into the community and they still act like the victim.
In the eyes of history they are not.
It is heart rending to hear a reasonably comfortable American citizen competing for victimhood. Let's all compare scars, and then let's go home.
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