My WWII vet, hero of my childhood grandfather was also very simple, uneducated (school-wise), and called blacks by that name in normal conversation, just like describing hair-color. But it doesn't mean he wasn't racist. He didn't understand how racist he was, but in retrospect, he was a racist. Just not the hateful kind - it was just sort of how he saw the world - my people, your people - all still people, and I'll help you if I can, but you're not my people when push comes to shove. Maybe your grandmother really wasn't a racist. If so, she was way ahead of her time, for sure.
Like the Black Caucus? Remember, her world was a very small place. She was humble and poor. How could she feel superior to others? That's really what racism is. Racism is a learned behavior.
A lot of black comedians and celebrities used it in the 70's. The idea was to make it so common that it would lose the stigma of a put-down. It didn't work out as well as they hoped and Pryor later dropped the term. Although the idea of "forbidden words" irritates me as Orwellian foolishness, anything that makes a divisive term drop into history is a good thing. As I mentioned earlier, in the '50's there were lots of other common ethnic slurs considered to be deeply insulting at the time, but they have fallen out of use and now when youngsters hear them . . . they laugh because they sound so damn silly. And they were. "O-fay, Jigaboo, Honky, Porch monkey, Cracker, Picaninny," . . . those slurs have lost their former power. Now they are more like amusing slang from another era than fighting words. The sooner that the Unspeakable Word can become a relict of the 20th century, the sooner we can realize how ridiculous it was, historians can spell it out again, comedians can make jokes, and your great grandchildren can laugh at it.
I wish I could hear one of my Dads tired old jokes. But he was funnier when he wasn't trying to be. He used to get the NAACP confused with the NCAA. He'd be watching a football game and they would mention something about NCAA sanctions or something and he'd get annoyed. "That Goddam NCAACP is trying to take over football now!" I never tried to explain it, because it never failed to crack me up.
What I find bothersome is the fact that these people end up resigning or being fired. Why can't you just stop tuning into her show or switch from CBS and Jimmy the Greek to NBC? Why dooes someone lose their job over something like that? It seems out of proportion considering the offense was basically a breech of etiquette. People should be able to use whatever words they want, even if it upsets some portion of the population.
If the word wasn't used by every gangsta on t.v., it woulda lost it's meaning by now. Probably wouldn't be used. btw, I thought oprah buried this word?
