Once again, Whoopi Goldberg and Elisabeth Hasselbeck are sparring live on TV. I don't watch "The View," but I feel like I do since these ladies are constantly in the news for some cat fight they're getting into live on air.
This latest brouhaha was over the n word -- not "nun," "nigga," stupid -- and whether or not blacks and whites live in different worlds.
Click here to view the video at The Huffington Post.
I rarely agree with Elisabeth but I'm with her on this one. Black folks : There is no justification for using the n word with one another. Period. End of story. Stop telling yourselves that lie that you're "changing" the meaning of the word. Stop lying to yourselves, attempting to rationalize the n word as a "term of endearment." And stop using the n word in the public space, in pop culture, and getting upset if a white person uses it in the exact same way. Remember how y'all got mad at J.Lo for using the n word in her "I'm Real" song with Ja Rule?
Bottom line: Whoopi was out of pocket and Sherri Shepherd, well, that idiot is hopeless. Sherri argued that because her family used the word, that means that she is entitled to use the word. So if her family had a tradition of stealing money from the bank, Shepherd would probably feel entitled to do that too. Whoopi's citation of her mother not being able to vote is a perpetual problem in our discussion of race. Contrary to what Whoopi says, her mother's inability to vote in the PAST, is not evidence that blacks and whites do not live in the same world in the PRESENT. We go to school together, we work together and hell, we even live together. Some people even go so far as to (gasp!) DATE people of the other race. So yes, Whoopi, we do live in the same world.
All of that does not negate the fact that there is still racism, prejudice and struggles that are unique to the black experience in America. But the fact that we might have different experiences doesn't mean we live on Jupiter.
Why do black folks feel obligated to defend the n word like a dog guarding the last piece of meat in its food dish? NIGGA is not a crown. At least it's certainly not one I'm interested in wearing. I've never been a nigga and I see no plus, no advantage to being called a nigga.
Elisabeth, I got your back on this one.
