Whoopi and Jesse Jackson’s Actions Are Unacceptable

H. Lewis Smith

Though he has issued a formal apology for his use of the n-word, Reverend Jesse Jackson’s actions were irresponsible, incomprehensible, and reflect poorly upon him as a supposed role model for today’s African-American youth. And to compound this issue even more, Whoopi Goldberg sang praises to the n-word before a national television audience of millions of people.

Not only did she devalue herself — as she is an African-American, but also the sacred memories and history of her ancestry, and the black community in general. This type of behavior is totally unexpected of such influential African-Americans and completely unacceptable by any African-American.

Today, in this 21st
century, the n-word has been reduced to being only a racial slur — in
that it solely refers to one’s complexion, and none of the struggle,
strife, degradation, and dishonor that pieced together the very
foundation of the term. Thus, in this light, some people believe that
the word can be desensitized; metamorphosed into this acceptable,
unsubstantially mind-controlling term; and embraced by all. These same
people believe that the n-word is just a word, no different from any
other negative word. However, they are wrong.

I challenge anyone to take any word in the English language, pit it
against the n-word — 300-plus diabolical years of heinous acts, mental
and physical bondage of a people, and tell me unequivocally and without
a single doubt in your heart that neither of the terms is any worse
than the other… Impossible. “N**ger” is the most infamous, profane
word in the English language.

Although I do not, in any way, attempt to diminish any other race’s
struggles, no other term — whether it be a racial slur — equals that of
the n-word. N**ger(a), because of the historical baggage and true
purpose at its core, cannot be stripped down to only a racial slur that
chunks ridicule at one’s outer skin tone. Color is where it starts,
true, but beneath the thin layer of skin, just as beneath the earth’s
thin crust, an extremely complex mechanic ferociously works to fulfill
a higher-level, long-term, incomprehensible plot — one above that which
can be seen by the naked eye.

White America claimed that the slaves were subhuman; three-fifths of a
human; lesser than a brute animal; bestial and savage. This very
definition, therefore, gave them the right to dehumanize the slaves by
slaughtering, butchering, and maiming them; brutally raping slave wives
and daughters; executing mental genocide on a race of people;
sodomizing with hot pokers; boiling and burning alive innocent people;
disemboweling and castrating young men; and unmercifully beating
ascendants until slivers of skin, shown to the red meat, dangled from
their bodies — only to be met with more unbearable pain as the
ridiculers poured whiskey and kerosene on the open wounds. As the
victimized gasped for their last breath, they heard the jeers of
“n**ger, n**ger, n**ger” in their final moment.

For those who say this glimpse into the past is nothing more than a
hyperbole of America’s racist mentality that prevailed for more than
300 years, they do not have to look any further than the recent West
Virginia, Megan Williams case of kidnapping, raping and torturing to
realize that this is not an exaggeration and that racism, and its
foundation logic of mental enslavement, is still alive and well.

The n-word cannot be sanitized, cleansed, inverted, or redeemed as a
culturally liberating word. The argument that the n-word can be changed
into this endearing and meaningless term is a fallacy of enormous
proportions — regardless to who utilizes the term or the excuse for its
use. It is impossible to undo all that was executed upon
African-American ancestors, so why would one believe that they could
miraculously transform the meaning of the term and disregard all of the
indignity attached to the idiom?

All African-Americans should regard the argument for transforming the
n-word as an insult to their intelligence. Regardless to how the word
is used today, its sinister and evil history cannot be eradicated,
transformed or successfully redefined. The term will always suggest
that black people are second-class citizens, ignorant and less than
human; proponents’ use of the term implies that they have accepted
their role as such, and informs others that it is okay to live up to
the definition and expectations of a “n**ger.”
Whoopi and others like her have forgotten and/or are perhaps blissfully
ignorant to the pain, sacrifices, life and death struggles of their
ascendants and how they survived tremendous obstacles, trials and
tribulations. Embracing the n-word is an effrontery to her ancestors’
glorious legacy, a mockery of their memories.

N-word supporters fail to
understand their effect on the minds of today’s youth with their
deleterious dysfunction and culturally degrading acceptance of this
word.

The n-word is a surviving remnant of a psychological warfare conducted
to create dependency and behaviors that support achievement of a
devious national objective: mental enslavement of a race of people. It
is a passively slick form of psychological, social, mental, and
spiritual abuse that only results in the death and destruction of a
race of people at the hand of that race of people — African-Americans.

H. Lewis Smith is the founder and president of UVCC, the United Voices
for a Common Cause, Inc., and author of Bury that Sucka: A Scandalous
Love Affair with the N-Word. Visit UVCC online at
www.theunitedvoices.com

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