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Sticks & Stones Cover the Bones of the Words that Cannot Hurt Me by Therí Pickens

Written by Theri Pickens
Tuesday, 18 September 2007
Since we're giving words funerals, I wonder if there are a whole host of words that need to be buried, forgotten to the annals of time. Recently, the NAACP gathered to lay "nigger" in a casket. The rationale behind this was that the word has done irreparable damage to the Black community, when used by Blacks and non-Black others. Linguistically, it carries a historical baggage of hatred, violence and systematic degradation. Though some argue its current use as a term of endearment, the NAACP counters that such a word – by virtue of its linguistic heritage – can never be turned around. Based on this description, there might be a laundry list of words that need adjacent burial plots: What's the criteria for forcing the dirt nap? Advertisements After all, each minority group (where minority is not determined by numbers, but by socio-political circumstance) endures a group of words that has done it irreparable damage. For instance, the disabled community has had to endure the use of the word "cripple" for quite some time. Not only does it confine the definition of the disabled to those with mobility impairments, but it also implies a brokenness and a helplessness that is not necessarily the hallmark of the disabled experience. Said understanding of disability coupled with the use of that word compounds and implicitly endorses government and personal policy that treats the disabled as broken and helpless. Though dominant culture continues to use the word in such a way, the disabled minority chooses to reinterpret "cripple" for its own purposes. Similar to the arguments that endorse the use of "niggA" versus "niggER" as a term of endearment, the disabled who use "cripple," "crip" and "gimp" among themselves posit that their use of the terms is different than dominant culture's use. However, the argument for a disabled person's use of "crippled" holds more merit than a Black person's use of "nigga." The former has been co-opted not just for use within a specific linguistic community, but for political currency. In that regard, it bears more resemblance to the way "Black," "queer," and "Chicano" shifted meaning for the purpose of defining a social and political movement. In this case, I would argue for a different treatment of the word and words like it – words that hold a burgeoning political significance. It would become necessary to eliminate the words' pejorative metaphorical currency. With the word "crippled," we'd have stop news media from using phrases that are both inaccurate and trivialize the experience of the disabled (or other people group): Economy Crippled by Earthquake. Rather than use "crippled" (or, in some cases, "paralyzed") as short-hand for broken and to imply devastating damage, irreparable harm and the like, they would have to choose another word that conveys what they actually intend: Economy Devastated by Earthquake or Money Shaken by Earthquake. In the latter examples, there is room for the word in question to maneuver with a new meaning and not carry the linguistic baggage of the old meaning. Advertisements In short, I draw the line at burying words without social and political possibility. Incidentally, the possibility of these words has to be designated by the group for whom the word is relevant. In other words, you'll never see a "Bitch Studies" instead of "Women's Studies" the way you might see "Crip Studies" on the cover of a book. Though it can't happen with "nigger," it seems to be that reclamation of some words would actually be useful. It keeps us from clunky neologisms like differently abled, handi-capable, neo-nubians or sun-kissed citizens of the diaspora….. Comments (2) ... written by hiphop102 , September 18, 2007 "you'll never see a "Bitch Studies" instead of "Women's Studies"" I'm not so sure about that. Have you heard of this? http://www.bitchmagazine.org/ From the site: Wanna submit to Bitch? We're looking for anything that can be described as "feminist response to pop culture." Our definition of pop culture is broad, encompassing cultural attitudes and myths, phenomena of the popular imagination, and social trends as well as movies, TV, magazines, books, advertising, and the like. ... written by TPickens , September 18, 2007 interesting... does it change my point though? corroborates it, don't you think? Write comment Name Email Website Comment Copyright 2007. All Rights Reserved.
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 18 September 2007 )

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