N-word gets the banhammer in New York

[PK8]

New York City symbolically banned use of the word nigger on Wednesday, the latest step in a campaign that hopes to expunge the most vile of racial slurs from hip hop music and television.
The City Council unanimously declared a moratorium that carries no penalty but aims to stop youth from casually using the word, considered by most Americans to be the most offensive in the English language.
The New York City measure follows similar resolutions this month by the New York state assembly and state senate, and supporters of the ban are taking their campaign to The Recording Academy, asking it not to nominate musicians for Grammy awards if they use the word in their lyrics.

Many rap artists and young New Yorkers toss the word around as a term of endearment or as a substitute for black, angering some black leaders who consider those who use it as ignorant of the word's hate-filled history in slavery and segregation.
"This could be the beginning of a movement," councilman Albert Vann said.

Councilman Leroy Comrie, a sponsor of the moratorium, said the campaign against the word has gained strength since comedian Michael Richards spewed it in a racially charged tirade in Los Angeles.
The Laugh Factory club where Richards performed has since banned comedians from using the word there and the former "Seinfeld" television star has apologized.

"The Michael Richards incident really brought it to another level. It has forced people to express their outrage. Many people had been seething quietly," Comrie said.

Comrie also asked TV network Black Entertainment Television to stop using the word in its shows. Representatives of BET did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A Grammy spokesman said he doubted the academy's 11,000 voting members would support any measure that might censor artists.
"They are not going to be supportive of something that excludes someone simply because they are using a word that is offensive," said Ron Roecker, vice president of communication for the Recording Academy.

The city resolution calling for the moratorium traces the etymology of the word from the Latin "niger," meaning black, to its first documented written use in 1786 as a term slave masters used to label their African slaves.

Use of the word by blacks exploded with the rise of rap music in recent years, and some black comedians like Chris Rock continue to use it in their routines.

"What, is there a fine? Am I going to get a ticket?" Rock mocked in a Reuters interview when asked about the City Council move. "Do judges say, '10 years, nigger!"'

Rock said politicians were trying to divert attention from real problems: "Enough real bad things happen in this city to worry about how I am going to use the word."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070301/tv_nm/newyork_word_dc_3
Credit: Thank you Verafor for putting this up in another forum.

Discuss.

 

[Zodiac]

I'm not crazy about the popular use of the word, but banning it is just silly.

 

[EmuMaster2002]

All I can say is,

"Nigga please!"

Seriously, it's ridiculous.

 

[sixtyandaquarter]

It's asinine.
And I'm actually offended by it.
I don't think any word should be banned, even if it's being said to someone who views it as the worse possible thing to say in the world. I don't care what the word meant, or what it means today, or what it can mean if said differently or in this manner - it's a word. To penalize the use of a word is... is... I can't even think of a word for the stupidity of this.
All I can think of is asinine and that's not even close enough for the impudent thinking that this will somehow save or help some one some where.

Does this mean I can't read Huckleberry Finn aloud? Or do a lil sing along with half - at least - of the hip hop songs on the radio today? Or that I can't watch a pop-urban comedic routine in a movie or on the stage anymore?

 

[Samboy]

I totally agree with sixtyandaquarter, it is an offensive word. But banning it? Ridiculous. How the hell are they going to police that? Someone lets slip a swearword and they get a small fine. I bet it's nearly impossible to police such a thing.

Lol. It reminds me when they banned the mexican wave in the middle of a cricket match in Oz about a week or two ago. I've never seen so many things thrown in the air at once!

It's just a derogatory comment used to call an African-american person. There is a number of more offensive words out there, but I suppose now that's one less to care about.

 

[sixtyandaquarter]

Actually the word doesn't offend me, the people who say the word negatively does.

And the offense I feel is toward the banning of the word. To say that I can't speak freely my mind is completely against what I believe in. I didn't get forced to not be racist, I chose it. And even though I think racism is a disgusting phenominon, I won't stop them from the ability to chose what to believe. Though I would have hateful actions policed, but not thought and speech.

I can't wrap my head around this. I protested this, and now I'm just boggled. I can't simply find a way to not be offended. I'm ranting over this every time it's brought up. My own home, the powers who govern within, decided to actually police verbal communication - and in an essence thought. I just can't believe it. I feel like I just watched someone get shot again.

They sat in a room, and got paid, to pass this...
4 kids just got shot dead the day before last, over a dime bag of weed found on the street, because the 5th kid wanted it for himself - and this is the important issue in NYC?
To police verbal communication?

 

[Seefour]

Well, you can say the word all you want, I doubt your going to get a fine or anything silly like that. I don't see the big deal really, It's a word with hateful roots, who cares if it slowly goes away? There are already words you can't say on network tv, or the radio in nyc, why is this any different?

 

[OS]

It may just be me, but isn't the banning of certain words the kind of thing that leads to totalitarianism? I mean, this one little event is making me think of George Orwell's 1984, <Author Forgotton>'s The Giver, etc. People try to control stupid little things and end up controling everything in order to make the world "a better place." It seems Big Brother needs to take off the shades and take a good long look at what he has before him. If he continues to break away our freedoms, he's gonna have to deal with a bunch of pissed people and a Revolution. Who wants that?

So they are trying to delete Nigger from our vocabulary?

All I can say is,

"Nigga please!"

Peace!

 

[sixtyandaquarter]

Well, you can say the word all you want, I doubt your going to get a fine or anything silly like that. I don't see the big deal really, It's a word with hateful roots, who cares if it slowly goes away? There are already words you can't say on network tv, or the radio in nyc, why is this any different?

The difference is the networks, the radio, and all other mediums, make their own rules and regulations.

Because Fox can say "ass", "bitch", and "damn" doesn't mean another network television channel will allow themselves to say it.

And many radio stations only keep a language protocol because of the backlash they would receive. You can say nigger in alot of radio stations here if you are a black man rapping, and you will hear it on the radio in songs and interviews.

The thing is, the network can censor themselves, they aren't forced to. They are allowed to do it themselves - sure the damn FCC would get involved in national degrees, but as a local channel goes, or a cable channel goes, they have the ability to decide for themselves what to show - just like we the viewer has the ability to decide what to experience on TV.

If we don't want to hear the word nigger, then we shouldn't watch things with the word in the language. But that's up for us to decide individually, and no one else.

The whole idea of being PC is getting over blown, specifically when it makes an artist off a list of awards (even if the awards are redundent) because of usages of a word.

Artistic expression is, too many artists, one of the most important thing in their work. To limit that, to take it away, turns an artistic expression into a cencored mockery of an expression. It's like going back in time and making it so Billy Holliday couldn't perform the strangely beautiful song "Strange Fruit" because it dealt with black men hanging from a tree, being to graphic in poetic example. That it might "offend" someone.

Lenny Bruce's amazing comedic performences and career were put on trial for his language usages, and he battled for free speech in court numerous times until he died penniless. Richard Pryor and even Carlin, too has had their respective career subjegated because of language choice and polotics. Sure, you can make the same jokes either of them did, mostly, without the vulgar obscenity but it's not the punch lines or stories in their routines that were the expressions, it was the setting and scene. Words, vulgar as they may be to some, dealing with fornication and racism were in the essence of their expressions. To take that away from them and people like them is like saying you can't be a painter anymore, if you paint with the color "red"... because red is associated with bloodshed and lust for god knows how long, and it has been deemed offensive.

 

[djzalzer]

Hmm. First they banned trans-fats and now they're trying to control speech.

I wonder what's going to come next.

 

[JabberwockyAi]

I personally don't use the word, but that's just me execising my first ammendment rights.

Oh! I was never particularly fond of the word 'cracker'. I vote anyone using the word gets penalized.

 

[sixtyandaquarter]

Seriously, I'm waiting for the following:

"I can't call 'em a nigger but they can call me a kike?"
"Oh, so I got fined for saying the n-word, but he called me a spic!"
"Umm... I can't say the word? I'm black!"
"Jesus! They called me every word possible and I can't say one little word?"

(And in those examples I'm not trying to portray any racial stereotypes, or to say what people do. Just a point that what goes around comes around, and if you want to play fair - everyone needs the same rules. Either ban all racial slurs, or don't. Either make hate crimes just that, or don't. The only good thing about this ban - even if it's such a small stroke - is that they didn't ban all white people, or anyone not black, they banned everyone.)

 

[Rhazdel]

First of all, I think that the word is a terrible slur, and I, personally, try to never use it. But this ban is utterly ridiculous. It is a gross violation of the First Amendment, even if it is only banned symbolically. The fact that this made it through the government is just scary. As terrible as words can sometimes be, the First Amendment - The Right to Free Speech (which was, of course, written first in the Constitution because the Founding Fathers found it to be the most IMPORTANT of the Amendments) - is set up to protect us from government censorship.

The word itself carries absolutely no weight. It is the sentiment and meaning that the person who says it that gives it its power. Even if the word slowly dies away, unless the sentiment is also erased, then what good was it? New slurs pop up all the time, and if this one dies, a new one will take its place.

It is not the government's place to decide how WE, the people, use words. It is up to all of us. The PC craze in the US is totally out of control. As soon as someone mentions racism, sexism, etc., every trace of logic goes right out the window. Everyone is so scared of being called a racist or a sexist that every time someone mentions the word, they cave in immediately, regardless of the fact that in doing so, they may offend or infringe upon other's rights.

As I said, I don't use the word, but it is not up to the government to tell me that I CAN'T say it. That is how you breed totalitarian governments: By allowing them to dictate how you live your life.

I appreciate the gesture of it all, but this PC bull has got to stop.

 

[Anonymous]

i love the fact that "freedom of speech" really means "freedom to say what we tell you to say and if you say something else we'll be on you like tinfoil on yesterday's lunch"

 

[DarknessMonkey]

I'm not one for hearing this word used in the wrong way as in to offend someone of the African-American / African decent but if people would like to use a certain word in their music, let 'em. I could just totally see all rappers moving to different states or countries. What has this country come to?[/FONT]

 

[Grandor]

What are they going to start banning swears too? No matter how offensive the word is, they can't just go around like that and start banning words. I thought free speech applied to everyone. If you don't like to hear the word used, ask the person who is using it to stop, or just stopping listening to music which incorporates the word. Their is no need to go banning words. Fuck is a offensive word, and yet it hasn't be banned. I thought it was the most offensive. But suddenly these officials take favor in words in which to ban. The sentence is dumb.