Swearing off the ‘N-word”
0 Comments | Telegraph – Herald; Dubuque, Iowa, Aug 27, 2010 | by Clarence Page
Oh, no, Dr. Laura. Don’t go there. That’s what crossed my mind when I heard that Laura Schlessinger, better known as the blunt- spoken and socially conservative host of radio’s highly rated “The Dr. Laura Program,” had dipped herself in hot racial waters.
Her offense: flagrant on-air use of ” the N-word.
Yes, the “N-word.” That’s what I call it. In accordance with today’s racial etiquette, I avoid trouble with the word’s power to offend by simply not using it at all unless I absolutely, positively have to. Those times have become increasingly rare.
There’s was a time back in the 1960s when, say, Dick Gregory could use the unexpurgated N-word to title his best-selling autobiography. In the 1970s, Richard Pryor used it in the title of a breakthrough comedy album, “That (N-word)’s Crazy.”
The idea in both cases was to neutralize the word’s negative power through overuse. But we’re in a different era. The rapper Nas was refused the right to use the word on a rap album a few years ago, reportedly out of his label’s fear that Walmart wouldn’t sell it. The times they are a-changing’- back!
Of course, as a black man, I might try to claim the special privilege that our society affords me to use the word. But since Obama’s election, I’m turning over a new leaf. Some folks have become so sensitive about any hint of racial privilege by nonwhites or, in Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s famous case, a “wise Latina,” that I am steering clear of the N-word, among other similar social traps. For one thing, I want to avoid the confusion into which Dr. Laura perilously plunged.
The talk show host’s problematic N-word episode occurred when a woman called in to talk about “an issue” with her husband. She’s black and he’s white. She was growing resentful of his friends and family members who had made “racist comments.”
“Give me two good examples of racist comments,” said Dr. Laura. She dismissed the first example, saying a black woman who is married to a white man can’t be hypersensitive. Dr. Laura approaches domestic relations in the bite-sized way that certain political talk shows reduce international relations to “Nuke’em!”
When the caller asked, “How about the N-word?,” Dr. Laura observed that, “Black guys talking to each other seem to think it’s OK.”
When the caller reminded Dr. Laura that she is not black, she snapped, “Oh, I see. So a word is restricted to race? Got it. Can’t do much about that.”
The conversation became more heated as the caller objected Schlessinger’s “spewing” the word repeatedly on-air. This resulted in Schlessinger spewing out a string of N-words like oil gushing out of the Deepwater Horizon.
At best, she was trying to desensitize the caller to the power of the word. That trick’s been tried. Even Richard Pryor, among others, eventually backed off, vowing never to use it jokingly in public again.
At worse, Schlessinger’s sarcastic tone made her sound like she was enjoying the word with a bit too much glee. She hinted as much in her on-air apology the next day.
Unfortunately, she undermined her show of contrition with her later announcement on “The Larry King Show.” There she expressed the sort of self-pitying characteristics that she usually denounces in her callers: blame shifting, victimhood and exaggerated entitlement.
She was leaving the airwaves at the end of the year, she said, to “regain my First Amendment rights.” In fact, the First Amendment applies only to rights that the government might try to take away. They don’t protect Dr. Laura from the consequences of embarrassing her sponsors or affiliate radio stations.
Here Dr. Laura’s sense of entitlement was showing
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