Thank you Susan. My thoughts exactly. I think the folks who are all over this as outrage are the same folks who will not look into the dark corners of their own hearts and minds because then they might see, and having seen, they might have some work to do.
I grew up using the n-word rather freely until someone explained what it meant, for real. I never saw the word as part of my heritage or birthright. It was a word. It was a hurtful word. We can all grow if we pay attention.
I used it once. I had heard some other children singing it in the "Eenie, meenie, miney, moe" song. I had no idea what it meant or referred to. My father was driving and we kids were playing a game in the back seat and I sang the song to determine who would go next in the game. My father pulled onto the side of the road (the only time he ever did that in my memory.) He asked me where I had heard that word and I told him. My parents explained what it meant and told me it was not a word to ever use again and I never did. I was six years old.
Something similar happened to me. We kids used it among ourselves but when a grownup heard us using it, we got a talking-to, and an explanation as to what the word meant to Black people. It wasn't hard to drop. It wasn't hard, later, to drop the r-word. Life's about learning and there are so many other words that work so well.
What I find crazyabout this and the Mr./Mrs. Potato Head dust up, are the memes posted that say it's President Biden and Democrats making these changes... and it's SO easy to find out it's not! Even if people didn't try to find out the truth, wouldn't you stop for a second and think the President might have more important things to do?? I feel like we're still living in 'bizarro-world."
Thank you Susan. My thoughts exactly. I think the folks who are all over this as outrage are the same folks who will not look into the dark corners of their own hearts and minds because then they might see, and having seen, they might have some work to do.
I grew up using the n-word rather freely until someone explained what it meant, for real. I never saw the word as part of my heritage or birthright. It was a word. It was a hurtful word. We can all grow if we pay attention.
I used it once. I had heard some other children singing it in the "Eenie, meenie, miney, moe" song. I had no idea what it meant or referred to. My father was driving and we kids were playing a game in the back seat and I sang the song to determine who would go next in the game. My father pulled onto the side of the road (the only time he ever did that in my memory.) He asked me where I had heard that word and I told him. My parents explained what it meant and told me it was not a word to ever use again and I never did. I was six years old.
Something similar happened to me. We kids used it among ourselves but when a grownup heard us using it, we got a talking-to, and an explanation as to what the word meant to Black people. It wasn't hard to drop. It wasn't hard, later, to drop the r-word. Life's about learning and there are so many other words that work so well.
What I find crazyabout this and the Mr./Mrs. Potato Head dust up, are the memes posted that say it's President Biden and Democrats making these changes... and it's SO easy to find out it's not! Even if people didn't try to find out the truth, wouldn't you stop for a second and think the President might have more important things to do?? I feel like we're still living in 'bizarro-world."
In so many ways, I think we are. It isn’t as fun as it should be, either.