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December 5, 2006
O.K., O.K, I'm listening...
I should have done this a long time ago:
The reason I'm "speaking my peace" is because I've had a rude awakening. I know that I have unconventional views about race and politics, which sort of make me a pariah where I come from and I'm dealing with that. Let me make it very clear: I would never deny the reality of racism, I just believe in order to expel it( if, in fact it can ever be expelled ) we must learn how to contain it.
Maybe I' m living in a fantasy world. A world in which my opinions remain just that, with no chance of changing minds or influencing policy change. Perhaps my thoughts and theories are just pipe dreams, and my eloquent and passionate words will end up blowing in the wind and I'll have to give up my dream of being the one to have ushered in world peace with a simple stroke of some letters on a key board and a network of undercover bloggers for change. Forgive me, I thought as a writer, I had carte blanche to tell it like it is! I learned that I need to think, before I write.
It was, nor will it ever be my intention to offend. Writing is my breath. I cannot survive if I cannot write. I write my politics, I write my race, I write my life. It's the only platform I have to vent my frustrations and tell anyone who will listen (good lookin' out Ray ) what I think is wrong with the world. It ain't pretty, and the truth hurts. (well, my truth anyway.) I probably should start taking my mother's advice: count to three and walk away, but writing is how I walk away.
This is the reason I call my blog Black Woman's Burden. You can't imagine the burden I carry every day, being Black, being a woman, and being outspoken on issues of race and identitiy. I have views which supposedly defy what I'm supposed to stand for. I'm expected to compromise my opinions because of what I do. I can understand that. That doesn't mean I like it, and
besides, I'm a scorpio, controversy and confrontation is my birthright) Do you know that a scorpio would rather sting itself to death than submit to defeat?
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Anyway, I digress...
While I'm speaking my piece, I have to address something that's been on my mind for a while. The recent Sean Bell shooting, and Michael Richards have something awful in common and it all came to me watching the Martin Scorcese film, "Taxi."
A few weeks ago, Taxi Driver was on Bravo.Throughout the movie they've blocked out curse words and cut scenes and stuff that might be offensive to viewers. Eventually we get to the scene where Martin Scorcese's character finds out his girlfriend is cheating on him and he asks Robert DeNiro if he knows who lives in the apartment building they are parked in front of. An enrgaged Scorcese tells Deniro's character Travis that a "Nigger" lives there. While I was prepared for that-it still felt like someone had sliced my tongue open with a razor and forced me to drink pure alcohol. Why didn't the censors block that word? Or the word spook. I suppose they feel that fuck, shit, ass et al are more deterimental to society than a word that has enabled racism, oppression, violence, slavery, dehumanization and the degradation of an entire race of people? You see people, that's why I write-because the people who claim to know and do better don't! Alright...alright, I'm counting to three...
Callous use of the n word has consequences: While I understand the need for "realism" and good movie-making, it comes at a cost. It rationalizes stereotypes and attitudes. In the Taxi scene all we know is that Scorceses girlfriend is supposedly having an affair with a Black man and according to Scorcese this is a loathsome offense worthy of murder. The audience doesn't know what the circumstances surrounding the affair are, or who this Black man is. He's just an "n" word. Michael Richards, in attempt to absolve himself of a bad comedy act tried to dehumanize the two young men he insulted so that they could share his shame.
The n word is relevant in discussing the recent Sean Bell shooting. You will never hear it uttered, especially with all the controversy surrounding the case but it doesn't need to be spoken, especially when the community feels that they've been treated as worthless "n" words, and how could they not when an unarmed, presumably innocent man is gunned down mercilessly in the street.
When is it going to end?
Posted by renee at December 5, 2006 12:20 PM