Minority groups often try to neutralize the insults directed toward them
Ian Hathaway | Web Editor
Issue date: 5/22/09 Section: Features
Throughout history, language has been used to demean minority groups. But now some of those minority groups have begun to fight back.
The concept is fairly straightforward. If a word is specifically engineered to put down a single minority group, and its meaning and shock value are derived from the word being considered an insult, then using the word in a more positive context, or in its original, non-derogatory sense, then perhaps the positive usage entering mainstream culture will dilute the effect of its negative usage.
This movement is nothing new, and it hasn't gone untested. For the majority of the past century, "queer" was considered a derogatory term for anyone under the "sexual deviant" umbrella. As part of the gay rights movement, the LGBT community attempted to "re-claim" the term by using it in a positive light, both as a synonym for the LGBT community and as a descriptor for sexual preference outside of normally accepted bounds. Arguably, they succeeded. The word is now proudly displayed in titles of books and television shows in a positive context, and is used often and publicly as a purely descriptive term.
Other words are attempting to undergo the same transformation. Dan Savage, editor for Seattle's alternative newspaper "The Stranger" asks that people who write him letters open with the salutation "Hey Faggot." Comedian Richard Pryor also commonly used the n-word in his comedy routines, although later renounced ever using the word again after a trip to Africa.
"That's a word that's used to describe our own wretchedness," said Pryor, citing his reasons for giving up his use of the word. "And we perpetuate it now, because it's dead. That word is dead. We're men and women."
In 2007, the NAACP held a mock "funeral" for the word, making an official renouncement of its return to youth slang and culture.
"Today we're not just burying the n-word, we're taking it out of our spirit. We gather burying all the things that go with the n-word. We have to bury the 'pimps' and the 'hos' that go with it," said Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick during the event.
The concept is fairly straightforward. If a word is specifically engineered to put down a single minority group, and its meaning and shock value are derived from the word being considered an insult, then using the word in a more positive context, or in its original, non-derogatory sense, then perhaps the positive usage entering mainstream culture will dilute the effect of its negative usage.
This movement is nothing new, and it hasn't gone untested. For the majority of the past century, "queer" was considered a derogatory term for anyone under the "sexual deviant" umbrella. As part of the gay rights movement, the LGBT community attempted to "re-claim" the term by using it in a positive light, both as a synonym for the LGBT community and as a descriptor for sexual preference outside of normally accepted bounds. Arguably, they succeeded. The word is now proudly displayed in titles of books and television shows in a positive context, and is used often and publicly as a purely descriptive term.
Other words are attempting to undergo the same transformation. Dan Savage, editor for Seattle's alternative newspaper "The Stranger" asks that people who write him letters open with the salutation "Hey Faggot." Comedian Richard Pryor also commonly used the n-word in his comedy routines, although later renounced ever using the word again after a trip to Africa.
"That's a word that's used to describe our own wretchedness," said Pryor, citing his reasons for giving up his use of the word. "And we perpetuate it now, because it's dead. That word is dead. We're men and women."
In 2007, the NAACP held a mock "funeral" for the word, making an official renouncement of its return to youth slang and culture.
"Today we're not just burying the n-word, we're taking it out of our spirit. We gather burying all the things that go with the n-word. We have to bury the 'pimps' and the 'hos' that go with it," said Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick during the event.
Be the first to comment on this story