The words that are holding us back.

 Throughout my life I have lived, and worked  around black and whites. I often wondered was there one word that would ignite a white person to want to fight or riot? So I set out to ask a few people that I work with and hopefully come up with the answer. 

Now why would I want to know this information? I'm trying to find out if words are keeping Black Americans, stuck in the days of slavery, and the 1960's. Are our so called Black Leaders keep us blinded by racial words to promote their own political and financial agenda? The more Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson stay in the media the more money they make. I look towards our black leaders to keep us moving forward, not to hold us stagnant, bringing up the same issues over and over again. Jesse  Jackson led the march to bury the "N" word, for about a week, now since that has gone and it's not in the media head lines I haven't heard him speak about it since. Don Imus called a college female ball basket team "nappy headed hoes" and all hell broke loose. Al Sharpton jumped on this with both feet,  and led the charge to get Imus fired.  Imus said nothing worse than any rapper has ever said in a song, but its OK for rappers because it's entertainment, if you believe that, or is it OK because the rappers where and are  black? Do you see how Jesse and others  keep themselves in the media's eye over the same issues time and time again. I don't care about Imus, or what he said, because I have heard it from rappers, actors, and political figures as well, but it was OK because they where black.

So I started my research, the first article I came across was an article from WISTV in Columbia SC. The story was about a concert being held at the South Carolina Sate University where similar words where being used by rap artist. One of the rapper's used the n word over 100 times, why is this OK? When WIS asked students about the lyrics this is what they had to say Kendra Johnson " The radio host was out of line when he said it. Some rap artist may be out of line, but they don't mean any harm." That seems like a double standard. It's OK for one person, to speak derogatory, and another person it's not. Is it because one is black and the other is white? Justin Miller has this to say "There's always a time and place for everything. With hip hop music that's a certain situation where those remarks can be used, but on a public radio station pointing to a particular group it's not proper." Wait a minute, so basically hip hop artist have a free pass to say what ever they please. Rappers are pointing towards a particular group, women. So it's not OK, once again we have a double standard that needs to end. This is what student body president Deven Anderson had to say " Being they are a performing group they're merely here to entertain us. That nothing serious in content, they're here to entertain." OK so once again it's OK for entertainers (Rappers) to say it, but Imus whom was entertaining his listeners is berated. So basically we have a do as I say, not as I do mentality. Asha Camille Jennings has this to say about the whole situation " We can't continue to embrace the "Do as I say, not as I do' mind-set. It never works... We need to turn the mirror on ourselves and see if we're participatory in our oppression," said Asha. She also stated " it starts from within. Whether Snoop calls me a ho or Don Imus calls me a, I don't care," she said. "I'm tired of us blaming other people. Nobody held a gun to 50 Cent's head and said call that woman a ho!' He wrote the lyrics and he presented to the record they didn't say, 'I'm worried, you only said "ho" three times , I need more." 

 What in the hell gives us the rights as blacks to say what ever we want to? Whether in jest, in a song, or being earnest. This is what confuses me. Why are we still hurt by words like jiggaboo, coon, sambo, and of course the "N" word? Why can't we as blacks get passed these words? These words don't define us, yet in still if we are called a coon we are the first to fight. I asked a few of my white Friends to name a racial word that would demean them enough to where they would want to fight, none of them could think of one, why is this? Maybe it's because there aren't any white leaders that use race to hold back the white community, and use race to perpetuate the on going struggle because of  their color. I know, some blacks reading this will say white America doesn't have a struggle, they don't know what it means to be black in America, maybe that is correct, maybe not, but some of our black leaders are continuing this campaign based on race. One of the first problem we as blacks need to over come is color, and stop calling ourselves African Americans, and segregating ourselves from the rest of America, we are  Americans. I wasn't born  in Africa, I was born in  in the United States of America.