For the Love of Manna
Just when I thought I heard it all, here comes another shock. It appears that film and television star Damon Wayans, of ABC's hit comedy "My Wife & Kids", is trying to copyright the N-Word!
In a recent column in the New York Daily News, columnist Stanley Crouch writes:
Damon Wayans has spent the past 14 months trying to copyright the N-word with "iggas" instead of "iggers." He wants to put it on apparel and whatnot. So far, he has not been successful but one can imagine young American kids wearing that word emblazoned on clothes and listening to rap "songs" in which the N-word frequently appears, in conjunction with "bitches" and "hos," among other denigrations.
No, your eyes do not deceive you. Wayans is actually trying to cash in on a word that for at least over the last 400 years has been considered one of the most offensive and inflammatory racial slurs ever uttered in the English language.
I believe this does nothing but to further discredit blacks in the eyes of other races. With the recent deaths of two great civil-rights-era figures, (Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King) it flies smack into the face of what they and our parents, aunts, uncles, et al. worked so hard and so long to accomplish.
Crouch goes on to say:
However this comes out, it is further proof of how remarkably decadent our moment is. On the one hand, opportunistic numbskulls use the rhetoric of free speech and the liberal arts to justify the thick presence of misogyny and insult in their material, meaning that constantly referring to women as bitches and hos is an expression of their artistry and their freedom of speech. So is the constant screaming of the N-word.
Now we have a comedian attempting to copyright the N-word so that everyone who uses it will have to pay him for the right. I guess that takes its place right next to John Singleton, Spike Lee and Will Smith supporting the dehumanizing "Hustle & Flow." In the world of entertainment, the siren call of the commercial, however hollow and denigrating, seems impossible for many to resist, a fact that transcends all ethnic, sexual and religious distinctions.
I agree. So, there it is folks. It's always about the money. It doesn't make any difference that numerous people have died over the use of this slur. It matters not that this pejorative word continues to be a trigger for hate. No, it's the same old " if it makes me a dollar, I'll use it like a cheap whore" mentality.
Mr. Wayans is just another pimp. What's important to him is not the history of hurt and division behind this word. No, no, no. We'll just brush that aside. It's all about the Benjamins. Where's Jesse Jackson or Farrakhan when you need them?
