Nigger.

There. I typed it. I’ve never said it out loud and I don’t believe I’ve ever typed the word before. Then, when I did type it, I felt compelled to give it it’s own paragraph because I didn’t want other words touching it because I so detest the word–it has nothing but negative connotations to me.

Well, New York City has banned the use of the word in an effort to get people to stop using it–simply to think about what they’re going to say prior to saying it. [You’ll pardon me if I put aside for a moment the fact that Noo fuckin’ Yawk is trying to get people to talk nicer and focus on my main point.]

Making the word more taboo, I think, is a horrible idea. As much as I despise the word, I feel that never allowing ‘nice’ people to say it gives all the power to the not nice people. Only ever hearing complete jackholes say the word is going to make me want to hit them that much harder when it comes flying out of their mostly toothless mouths.

Queer, dyke, fag and bitch have all been reclaimed, to some degree, by the people they describe. They can still be used as insults, but they don’t sting nearly as much because they’ve been empowered. If someone calls me a bitch (which of course never happens) I say, “No kidding.” There isn’t the same amount of pride with ‘nigger’. [While I’m messing up my clean language rating I may as well go all out.] I can’t imagine a person laughing and saying, “That’s me!” upon being called that.

The word is used jocularly in other countries–in the popular (and quite hysterical) British film Shaun of the Dead Nick Frost (who is of the white persuasion) squeals up in a car and jumps out shouting, “What up, my niggas?!” I’ve seen the film several times and I always think, “They’d never allow that in an American film.” But in that British comedy it’s no big deal. It’s not used to show the stupidity of a cracker-ass sheriff in the backwoods of the US of Racism–it’s not even directed at a black person. Hell, there aren’t any non-white people with speaking roles in the film (but the flamingly inadequate representation of minorities in British film is another rant for another day.)

The point is, the word *can* be de-powered or re-powered. No one gets bent out of shape when someone says, “The rule of thumb is…” because the original connotation was that it used to be legal for a man to beat his wife as long as he used a rod thinner than his thumb. Give words enough time–and stop making a big deal out of them–and they lose their power.

That said, if this ‘ban’–not really a law because breaking it carries no penalties–is truly about getting people to think before they speak I’m all for it. I’d be happier if most people thought at all.