My response to Whoopie Goldberg regarding the N word

This is an opinion I am sending to The View TV show on ABC. It is in response to Whoopie Goldberg's awful explanation of why the word Nigger has no more power and has been co-opted by the youth. She said, to paraphrase, “The stink has been taken away from the word by kids of all colors who use it on one another. It doesn't mean the same thing to them.” It is obvious that whoopie has never read any books. I am going to suggest she read Dr. Frances Cress Welsing's essay 'The Cress Theory' on Black language to gain perspective on language and culture.



There is a constant debate about the N word in America. We Blacks use it colloquially in love and affection for one another. Other races have adopted it as they have subscribed to Hip Hop culture and refer to one another as niggers. Some people say it as the volcanoing merit of their hate, the stinging articulation of their furtive disgust for Black people. However the word is genesised in our being, 'nigger' is as American as fireworks on the 4th of July. The word has as much to do with our history and the fabulous wealth and influence of this country as anything. Nigger speaks to the caste system set in place hundreds of years ago by the import of African slaves, and the construction of a country and, dare I say, a world. I contend that the word 'nigger' will always be relevant as long as it is truth for a whole population of people in this country and hemisphere. People will always speak truth. The word 'nigger' resonates in the truth that Black people have limited opportunities in this culture, as nigger denotes the lowest, least cared for, most exploited, most abused, most violated, most cheated people in this country. Black people say it to one another, not only as a term of endearment or familiarity, but as a recognition of the obstacles we confront. It is what we call in literature 'a knowing in winter', the cultural truth of us as a people. I agree that everyone should stop saying the word. But for the word to really go away, the economic gulfs between Blacks and Whites must be erased by addressing the historical economic injustices perpetrated on Black people with regards to slavery and the subsequent abuse and theft of property and opportunities via banishment and the disguising of slavery as peonage, share cropping and, other nefarious institutions that the Federal Govt was well aware of that kept blacks in slave-like conditions well into the 1950's in the south and other places. If we, as American people commit to finally addressing the potential of this country, we can smash the caste system to finally create an egalitarian, meritocracy that celebrates diversity, as opposed to a culture that exploits its diversity for the benefit of the few.