That Word

“Oh Negrodamus, will Arnold Schwartzenegger ever leave Maria Shriver?”

“Yes,” answered Negrodamus, “Arnold Schwartzenegger will divorce her and marry Shirley Temple Black, and she will be called Shirley Temple Black-Negger.”

It was funny, to me anyway, when Paul Mooney said it.

As comedian Michael Richards continues his post-meltdown Forgiveness and Healing Tour, several black leaders have begun calling for an end to the use of the N-word, asking television networks, film companies, and musicians to discuss its ban. Jessie Jackson went so far as to say it was “unprotected” by free speech.

At the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University a strong case is made that even within the black community, where it is often used as a term of endearment, it remains “the ultimate expression of white racism and white superiority, irrespective of the way it is pronounced,” and “Historically, [N----r] more than any word captured the personal antipathy and institutionalized racism directed toward blacks. It still does.”

Yet one wonders if its common use – especially among black artists in the music industry – was not a vehicle for healing, an identity with which to unite against racism and the inevitable social consequences that follow. In comedy, stars such as Chris Rock, Paul Mooney, and Dave Chappelle occasionally used the term in reference to whites, as if to invite the very inclusiveness they themselves have been denied.

It now seems that some have taken the word and invested it with the characteristics of unity and struggle, and though it remains a word whose best use is by those who have suffered under its stigma, it is undeniably evolving before us.

Richards' tirade undoubtably aggravated an open wound in our country. But would the proposed cure – that of limiting free speech – actually solve the issue of racism?