"From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines, going where I list, my own master total and absolute, Listening to others, considering well what they say, Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating, Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me."
Walt Whitman (1819-92)
"When I look back now over my life and call to mind what I might have had simply for taking and did not take, my heart is like to break."
Akhenaton (d. c.1354 BC)
And now, the current weather, from some random person we pulled off the street:
Thursday, October 14, 2004
N Word
slur Function: noun
Etymology: obsolete English dialect slur thin mud, from Middle English sloor; akin to Middle High German slier mud
1 : an insulting or disparaging remark or innuendo
2 : a word that has no place in modern society
You'll have to pardon me here, I'm getting ready to be politically incorrect.
It's just that, you see, to me right is right and wrong is wrong with a lot of things, even if they take place in a group of people that I'm not a part of.
You may have noticed that I never use profanity here in this blog. In "real life" my use of it is limited to quoting others. I may use a word like "darn" or "sheesh" but that's as far as it goes. To me, profanity is a sign of a limited vocabulary and an even more limited amount of class.
Others are not so, well, verbally adept, it seems. They won't dig for the right word or phrase, but instead will just pepper every line with filth, trying to impress anyone around them that they speak forcefully. Well people, it doesn't come across that way.
Yesterday I went to the grocery store.
When I was getting out of my car, there was a car parked in front of me that contained several young American men of African ancestry. Now, if you know me you know that I am pretty much color blind, and respect any culture for what it is. I never refer to any people group with any disparaging slur.
I have also found that amoung all of the people groups and nationalities, there is only one that refers to itself that way. And that is the Americans of African ancestry.
The car door opened, and one young man got out. "Hey, nigger, quit leaning on that f***ing horn!" "Sh*t nigger, you were sitting in the driver's seat!"
And on it went. I was doing something in my trunk and so I listened for a couple of minutes. Not one statement was made without profanity. Even after several others joined them in the parking lot. The "N" word was scattered throughout as well.
I can't even conceive of using that term to describe someone.
Not only that, can you imagine an Italian referring to another Italian as a "whop"? A native American as a "redskin"? Or a German as a "kraut"? No, and those terms aren't even half as offensive.
The use of slurs tells everyone that something is wrong with a people, that they are thought of as lessened.
When people refer to themselves using the "N" word, it says that they also think of themselves as lessened somehow.
And, knowing the quality, talent, compassion of some of these people, I just sit here in stupifaction, unable to understand why they allow that to happen to themselves.
Their situation will remain as it is until their own culture rises up against such idiocy, cleanses itself, and values achievement over confrontation.
Anyway, that's my opinion.
The way to procure insults is to submit to them: a man meets with no more respect than he exacts.
William Hazlitt
English essayist (1778 - 1830)
