The Big Brother Issue - As a Community we Need to Make a Stand

Greetings and Solicitations Everyone

“A contestant from the Big Brother house was evicted today for using a racist epithet, in the latest scandal to hit the Channel 4 reality show. Emily and Charley were dancing together in the living room when Emily used the word in an apparently light-hearted manner. Rather than react angrily, Charley responded by pointing out that her actions were likely to get her in trouble.
Emily was called into the diary room at 3.30am this morning and told to leave the reality show immediately.” Excerpt taken from http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article1898239.ece

Thoughts to ponder. The above incident certainly caused much debate generally. Chat shows and phone-ins were inundated with incensed callers, a plethora of blogs and other online forums too vented furious debate, the papers of course had their field day - debate, debate, debate. Once again this incident brought back the Shipla Shetty race row which caused uncomfortable and angry ripples worldwide. Yet as I listened, and maybe I have become desensitised, I refused to get angry at Emily or other ignorant individuals who use the word liberally I got angry at us. Why? you may well ask, simple fact. We have allowed ourselves once again to become the puppets at the hands of anyone who has a string to pull and I was struck by how many people felt the same as I and that is to some extent, we as a black community had to take some responsibility for the Big Brother contestant feeling it was ok, to mention the “n” word in what is described above in a “light-hearted” manner. For me, this word should not even be in out vocabulary because of what it represents.

How many times do we hear rap artists blazing their perceived glory of nonsense into our children’s lives and minds using the “n” word? Standing like glorified buffoons in hypothetical salutation of pride (their Oscar of Ignorance) gold dripping from every crevice of their muscle bound bodies, ranting and raving using the “n” word and disrespecting women? Hardly able to smile through a mouth of gold encrusted teeth, they face the world with fierce expressions, the new studious and educated look of knowledge!! Little do they realise that within the body and context of their so called “songs” using only two or three syllables does not make for good music nor any form of intelligence.

These artists, though powerful and maybe even classed as successful, money burning the lining in their pockets, girls on every arm, offering a false sense of purpose and vision to our misguided youth are partly to blame. They laud over our tv screens, controlled and dictated to by the powers that be, rapping using derogatory messages which rolls easily off their tongues, yet causing an uneasiness amongst the more educated and knowledgeable within our community. As if we do not have enough battles of our own by trying to keep our youth on the straight and narrow by offering them more positive viewpoints on life, and trying to educate them about our history and identify role models which they can look up to? If you are keen to notice, these artists never actually refer to themselves as “N…”s but they slyly use it as a term of endearment when talking about and addressing their “bruvas” as if this represents solidarity or a cohesive union of brotherhood.

How often do we hear this word used liberally on the streets by our own black boys (and sometimes by others outside our culture) and more distressing adults. It seems that 2005/6 were the years when the “n” word became “hip, ” and using it somehow elevated individuals into a kind of superior social status. It was often disturbing to see this sort of behaviour with brothers greetings each other with a “whatz up N….” and laughing like monkeys who had been thrown nuts full of dynamite, but not yet fully realising that there was a possibility that this nut would explode in their hands sooner or later. I even noticed my sons used it a few times when greeting their friends, caught up in the delusional sphere of youth culture and “following the crowd” but you know I had to put a stop to that, with some very serious lectures and some strong verbal breakdowns of what the word meant, its connotations and requesting them to go-online and do some research. They got the picture and haven’t gone there since.

So in effect, how can we expect anyone to take us seriously, when we use this word freely amongst ourselves, with liberal frivolity, seemingly ignorant about the true meaning and far-reaching implications of using such a word, which is so derogatory and which stood for so much pain, humiliation. No wonder often times, we are the laughing stock and not taken seriously, because of our own failings. How can we expect other cultures to RESPCECT us when all the above dynamics are in place? I say no more on this score, but leave the below with you, for further ponder and thought.

Regardless to culture, it is about making a stand and not accepting certain things which have serious messages and connotations behind them. When the Shilpa Shetty row broke out, there were fierce demonstrations in her homeland and within the political arena – these people made a stand advocating that this sort of behaviour would not be tolerated and I am sure that many people would be very very careful in the future if they found themselves in this situation because they’d realise there would be consequences.

There have been many comments by individuals online who have stated that “the word was not said in malice and as black people we should get a life and move on” – my point here is this: whether the “N” word is used or any other negative, derogatory words which are used to depict ANY culture which have serious connotations, people should make a stand. There are boundaries in life which are set and there are certain places people just should not go and because we have embraced this pushing of the boundaries, that is why people think it is “light banter and ok” to be using words which should be banned from out vocabularly. Whether they be words against the Asians, Europeans, Africans etc, it is about making a stand and letting other people realise that as a people, as a community there is something called RESPECT and that using certain words are just not on. It is anyone’s right to challenge the mindset of using certain words with frivolity.

For more information

“The history of the word nigger is often traced to the Latin word niger, meaning black. This word became the noun negro (black person) in English, and simply the color black in Spanish and Portuguese. In Early Modern French niger became negre and, later, negress (black woman) was unmistakably a part of lexical history. One can compare to negre the derogatory nigger and earlier English substitutes such as negar, neegar, neger, and niggor that developed into its lexico-semantic true version in English. It is probable that nigger is a phonetic spelling of the white Southern mispronunciation of Negro.

No matter what its origins, by the early 1800s it was firmly established as a degenerative nickname. In the 21st century, it remains a principal symbol of white racism regardless of who is using it. Social scientists refer to words like nigger, kike, spic, and wetback come from three categories: disparaging nicknames (chink, dago, nigger, etc); explicit group devaluations ("Jew him down" or "niggering the land"); and irrelevant ethnic names used as a mild disparagement ("jewbird" for cuckoos having prominent beaks or "Irish confetti" for bricks thrown in a fight).

http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/2420/Nigger_the_word_a_brief_history

I’d therefore like to leave the following with you for further thought, hoping that we do not continue to be the monkey as described below:

TEACHING TALE

“A monkey whilst swinging through the forest one day spied a glass bottle glinting far below. Excited, he made his way down and saw that it contained a huge tasty looking nut. He put his hand through the neck of the bottle and grasped the nut. He pulled and pulled but despite his efforts his hand just would not come out of the bottle. When he tried to run away with the bottle he found it was tied to a tree.

Just then he heard a man approaching through the forest. Despite his increasing fear, the nut captivated him with its promise of rich flavour. He pulled and pulled but to no avail and so the greedy monkey was caught.”