The Meanings of a Word explores an experience of young Gloria Naylor. Growing up in a predominantly black close knit community the arbitrary use of the word “nigger” resulted in the diminishing of its original sense of oppression and degradation, in some eyes transforming it from a demeaning word into a term of endearment and acceptance. Therefore, the word was easily overlooked and given no importance thus far in Naylor's life. However, in Gloria’s third grade class a resentful attempt at humiliating Naylor was made by another student who received a lower mark on an assignment. Naylor’s encounter with the pejorative use of a word she had heard dozens of times before took her by surprise.
At the time in which The Meanings of a Word was written segregation and discrimination were profound issues that affected everybody. Majority of minorities were given names used to demean, humiliate, or discredit them giving the discriminator a false sense of power or superiority. Gloria Naylor in The Meanings of a Word and Christine Leong in Being a Chink taught us that the impact of a word isn’t defined by its literal meaning but by the emotion it carries from the speaker. Stereotypes and discriminatory associations linked with words or phrases only hold any relevance when we perpetuate their existence with negative
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Whether being born into wealth or poverty no individual is born better than any other. The value of a life cannot be measured by the color of an individual's skin or social status but how they give back, not only to their job or family but what they contribute to their community and their impact on the human effect. Social constructs such as race and religion significantly impede on the growth of our species. Unity is most crucial to the longevity of human existence, fighting for our place among this complex
While many blacks and whites agree that the word should not be censored from the English language, it certainly should not be used by all people because of its historical significance. For example, black militants believe whites should never use the word nigger. On the other hand, the word nigger has been “reclaimed” by black youths particularly in the hip-hop culture. These modern day teens claim that it is just a word and that people give words meaning rathe...
Hundreds of innocent people die each year due to a title that was created for them. Because of a stereotype that some other individual somewhere in our society created, and decided certain individuals belong, and should be hated for, innocent people in our society end up being killed. It is not fair for innocent people to die. Nor is it even fair for any individual to have to walk down the street, knowing that they are hated because of something that is beyond their control. Whether it be their skin color, hair color, appearance, or the way they walk, it can be a stereotypical characteristic that creates the risk of being judged by another individual, or perhaps even killed.
The movie 'Ethnic Notions' describes different ways in which African-Americans were presented during the 19th and 20th centuries. It traces and presents the evolution of the rooted stereotypes which have created prejudice towards African-Americans. This documentary movie is narrated to take the spectator back to the antebellum roots of African-American stereotypical names such as boy, girl, auntie, uncle, Sprinkling Sambo, Mammy Yams, the Salt and Pepper Shakers, etc. It does so by presenting us with multiple dehumanized characters and cartons portraying African-Americans as carefree Sambos, faithful Mammies, savage Brutes, and wide-eyed Pickaninnies. These representations of African-Americans roll across the screen in popular songs, children's rhymes, household artifacts and advertisements. These various ways to depict the African ?American society through countless decades rooted stereotypes in the American society. I think that many of these still prevail in the contemporary society, decades after the civil rights movement occurred.
Both memoirs—John Griffin’s Black Like Me and Dick Gregory’s Nigger—examine race marginalization as it existed in mid-twentieth century America. Griffin’s Black Like Me intimately explores the discrimination against the black community by whites to expose the “truth” of racial relations and to “bridge the gap” of communication and understanding between the two races through a “social experiment”—an assumption of alterity (Griffin 1). In Nigger, Gregory also recounts personal racial discrimination as a black man trying to survive and succeed in a discriminatory society. But unlike Griffin’s experience, Gregory’s memoir progresses from a position of repressed “Other” to a more realized, dominant identity. However, the existence of a dual persona
Moreover, the racial terms can be a projection of more positive definitions and interpretations that can establish individuality. In “Meaning of a Word” by Gloria Naylor, she talks about instances where adults of her community/race have references of the ‘n-word’ that differs from how society or individuals who may use it.
Words are commonly used to separate people by the color of their skin, but they can also be used to bring people together, no matter what their skin color was. Using words improperly was a common problem in America when our parents were our age, and even way long before that. People have written countless stories about racism, it’s affect of the world, or it’s effect on the person themselves. One of the more well known poems about racism is “‘Race’ Politics”, by Luis J. Rodriguez. The story the poem is based off of took place sometime in the mid 1960’s, so this gives us an insight of what the world was like back then.
From beginning to end the reader is bombarded with all kinds of racism and discrimination described in horrific detail by the author. His move from Virginia to Indiana opened a door to endless threats of violence and ridicule directed towards him because of his racial background. For example, Williams encountered a form of racism known as modern racism as a student at Garfield Elementary School. He was up to win an academic achievement prize, yet had no way of actually winning the award because ?The prize did not go to Negroes. Just like in Louisville, there were things and places for whites only? (Williams, 126). This form of prejudice is known as modern racism because the prejudice surfaces in a subtle, safe and socially acceptable way that is easy to rationalize.
In both their essays, Naylor and Leong introduce a word that is meant to humiliate, hurt and ridicule. Naylor, being of African decent, was introduced to the word nigger at a very early age. Naylor asked her mother what the word meant, but she knew it meant something terrible. Black people raising their children in America would have to explain what nigger meant sometime in their childhood. Naylor's mom explains that the word
and it manifests itself in a multitude of cultural and social ways.” The author discussed the problems that occur from economic and social classes. The purpose of this argument is to debate on what kind of people will be successful in life. Everyone has a shot at being successful, and that they do with it is
As much as society tries to deny the fact that the family that one comes from determines their fate, in almost every case this very fact is true. Today, we see how infants who are born into wealthy families are treated differently than children who are born into drug and disease-stricken poverty. Higher classed people stand out in society on both a local and national level much more than the average middle class working family.
The words Negro, nigger, and nigga have always been a sensitive topic, yet it is a topic that needs to be addressed in light of the more common use of its vernacular. One word is used to describe a color, while the others are used to define a people. It’s very clear to many the negative connotation these words carry, but where did these words come from? Furthermore, is there a difference between the word nigger and nigga; and why is it that African-Americans now use the word nigga to degrade each other in today’s society? These words, in spite of their spelling, still holds the same degrading power as it did during the time of slavery, and they are still spoken out of cruelty and ignorance, but who is to blame? Can one still blame the Spaniards for considering people of a darker skin tone –Black? Can we blame the Europeans for perpetuating their hatred and ignorance of superiority over a race of people to the point they felt it lawful to define and dehumanize them? Or does the blame lie with the African-American race as we use this degrading labeling on our own kind, thus becoming the victimizer. Either way nigger or nigga are words that should be eliminated from the vocabulary of every human being.
Within the Black Community there are a myriad of stigmas. In Mary Mebane’s essay, “Shades of Black”, she explores her experiences with and opinions of intraracial discrimination, namely the stigmas attached to women, darker skinned women, and blacks of the working class. From her experiences Mebane asserts that the younger generation, those that flourished under and after the Civil Rights Movement, would be free from discriminating attitudes that ruled the earlier generations. Mebane’s opinion of a younger generation was based on the attitudes of many college students during the 1960’s (pars.22), a time where embracing the African culture and promoting the equality of all people were popular ideals among many young people. However, intraracial discrimination has not completely vanished. Many Blacks do not identify the subtle discriminatory undertones attached to the stigmas associated with certain types of Black people, such as poor black people, lighter/darker complexion black people, and the “stereotypical” black man/woman. For many black Americans aged eighteen to twenty-five, discrimination based on skin color, social class, and gender can be blatant.
In “Citizens: An American Lyric” by Claudia Rankine the audience is placed in a world where racism strongly affects the daily American cultural and social life. In this world we are put as the eyewitnesses and victims, the bystanders and the participants of racial encounters that happen in our daily lives and in the media, yet we have managed to ignore them for the mere fact that we are accustomed to them. Some of these encounters may be accidental slips, things that we didn’t intend to say and that we didn’t mean yet they’ve managed to make it to the surface. On the other hand we have the encounters that are intentionally offensive, things said that are
For instance, in the show Freaks and Geeks, we find individuals, calling themselves freaks, because they do not belong in the ‘status quo,’ and live or desire to live alternative lifestyles. Would this be disrespectful to individuals who according to 19th and 20th century lingo, were called freaks? I think it is highly disrespectful indeed, because in the show, we find these kids who are not disabled, and are all white using a term which has caused so much pain to others,used it in such a free way, to be different and alternate. It goes back to what he was saying about how individuals who identify with the pink triangle and the term freak, need to also be a witness to the pain that other individuals suffered, like the gay POC and non-disabled POC. And it is worse because these kids in no way bear any semblance with either of the categories mentioned. It’s becoming some sort of norm, in which white people of years passed create words which are meant to relegate different individuals to the outside, and then after this relegation is done, choose to use it as freely as they want. For instance the use of the word ‘nigger’, white people want to include this word in their vocabulary so bad, because slavery happened more than 300 years ago. But they forget the pain that comes with this word, but you cannot truly forget what
The word “Nigger” was a term used in reference to a slave. A slave meaning, you were the lowest scum of the earth, Illiterate and uneducated in every sense. Today, the usage of the word is spilt in to different context, it is used to refer to one another. A lot of children today use the word freely, not because they are ignorant to the history and putridness of the word, but solely because they are not really offended by it and the only time they hear it, it's being said by someone else who is of color. As I looks back over the years, I can’t really remember anyone distinctively ever calling me the N-word, or better yet, not in a derogative fashion. I don’t think that anyone has ever called me the word to my face or in hearing distance. Growing up in New York City, the only time I ever heard the word “Nigger” was from people who called themselves “Nigger”. I remember sitting in class daydreaming on the word, thinking to myself, “How could anyone call themselves a Nigger and be proud of it?” Yet It’s Hard to hurt me with words, but I had never heard that word used with such vengeances. What does this word mean in my everyday life?