Everyday Ethics: 18 APR 14 Conchita & the N word
‘I think what's happened within the BBC is there's been a timidity and a heightened nervousness, which has actually complicated to make matters worse, because I think, largely, and especially legally, the battle has already been won. In terms of using that word, that highness word. And the hysteria that has been evident in the BBC, it's a little bit disappointing in a way. It reminded me when I've been monitoring it, of the old comedy series Fawlty Towers, back in the 70s, where Cybil, the wife of Basil Fawlty, with the expectation that there are going to be some German visitors, reminds him Captain not to mention the war. And because she does that, he's in all the flummox. And of course, when the Germans arrive, out comes mentions of the war, and I think Jeremy Clarkson’s faux pas is of that order. I don't think he's a racist. And I think that actually the highlighting this slippage, it's actually compounded the problem.’…
‘We may be reviewing a movie or a drama on the radio, and the N word may be used in, in its full version within that drama. But we're not allowed to use it in reviewing the drama.’
‘Yes, it's odd isn't it? I would say that we need to be a bit more robust. And to think about why, why that word might be used in the drama and whether it's legitimate. And if it's legitimate to use in the drama, why would it not be legitimate to discuss it thereafter?’
‘Alan, can you think of any other word, which is so obnoxious, so heinous, that it cannot be used?’
‘In terms of being a slur, the N word probably sits at the top of that pie. But given that our language has a great potential to be racist, or sexist, or sectarian, and the degree of that is about the context in which we use that language. And it's about the intention as well. So sometimes words which in other usage might seem okay, if they're used in, with the intention to offend... when it first begins, probably in the 1600s, it was, it was actually just the wrong pronunciation of the Spanish term Negro, for example. And, and we know that there are many dramas, songs, which still have the word within it. So if we cannot eradicate it, we shouldn't use it with the intention of being offensive.’
‘We look at this 1932 version of the Sun has got his hat on... are we now saying we can never ever hear the 1932 version of the Sun has got his hat on in its full version, even in a documentary about the 1930s?’
‘Well, I think that would be a terrible mistake… we need to remind ourselves about past events, in the same way that we need to remind ourselves about other horrible events in our history lest we forget. So I don't think that they should be removed. And, but I think that in context, and to explain the use of the word, then I would be very happy to hear that word. And in such a program, my son listens to that rhyme and wonders why the word Tigger is, is in that rhyme. It makes no sense to him.’...
‘The word colored, because it's now considered an unacceptable description. And yet in America, you have the NAACP and the word colored is in that name in the campaign.’
‘Very interesting, because I think what we were describing is the evolution of acceptable words. And actually, the title of my book on Marcus Garvey, this black nationalist, was called Negro with a hat. And Negro came to represent a word of politeness. It’s the polite way of saying black people. And it was embraced by black people from the 1920s throughout to the 1960s. But it became a contested, a contentious word thereafter. But I would say that actually, we have to remind ourselves about the way that the words were embraced, embraced by black people in the past’...
‘That worked on by Donna Boyd in her new book, it's complicated, where she showed that very many young girls who are, it is claimed being bullied on Ask.FM are actually writing the bullying questions themselves. In other words, they're bullying themselves. So we need to get to the aspect of what the users are doing and come at it from that end as well as coming at it from a legislative end… they're doing it for status reasons, it gives them status amongst their peers, and it gives them sympathy from their peers’
‘They want to feel like victims’
‘They want to be victimized. It's almost like Munchausen syndrome online, they want to be victims in order that they will get attention from their peers.’...
‘I think the idea that gender is entirely fluid. So you know, you now have a situation where on Facebook, for example, there are more than 50 gender choices... You know, you no longer can say I'm a man or I'm a woman, you've got 50 choices between what you want to describe yourself as, I think it speaks to a real sense of relativism in modern society, an unwillingness to say that this is the way things are, there are some truths out there, there are measurable truths about what people are and what they define themselves as. And instead, you create this free for all, where people basically define themselves according to their own tastes. And I think that is a fairly anti social thing to do sometimes, because it kicks against the way in which the vast majority of people understand sex, gender and society.’
‘Why is it anti social?’
‘Because it's a retreat from reality in my view. You know, radical politics, including radical gay politics used to be about opening society up to people. It used to be about demanding the right of minorities and other groups to enter into mainstream society without discrimination and to work, and to be educated and so on. Now, what we have is radical politics, which is much more concerned with retreating from society, retreating from reality, and saying, I live in my own bubble, I will define myself as I choose, and what society expects of me has no bearings whatsoever.’
The obsession over the harm of 'nigger' is a self-fulfilling prophecy!
Strange how this cultural taboo has crossed the pond
Self-victimisation explains why feminism has appeal to so many women - even as teens they like to pretend to be victims to get cachet