| It's been said that a people can be beaten down so long and so severely, that they begin to take on the perspective of the abuser, adopting the words and terminology for themselves that the abuser once used to keep them in their place and retain it long after the lash has been laid aside. The 'N' word, brought into the public's eye by Michael Richard's very public use of it last fall, is one of those abusive terms that were used in the pre and post-slavery South -- and the North -- to keep African Americans in their place that has continued to be used by some African Americans even though it is no longer used in polite Euro-American society. And its continued use continues the oppression forward. "The 'N' word reinforces the perceptions that drive institutional racism," Reverend Dwight Perry said at Edgewood College February 17. "Institutional racism is either covert or overt. It is primarily covert in terms of how it allocates resources based on a perception that isn't true about a person. It is based on a person's ethnicity or background or color or race. And those perceptions are reinforced by the words that we use and the images that we use to continually reinforce the very values that drive institutional racism." Perry, district executive minister for the Great Lakes Baptist Conference, was the keynote speaker at the "The Burial of the 'N' Word" that was sponsored at Edgewood College by its Black Student Union. Camry Johnson, the president of BSU, attended a similar event in Beloit last fall and jumped at the chance to do it again in Madison. "We thought about what we could do for Black History Month and this was the perfect thing," Johnson exclaimed. Johnson feels that efforts to get rid of the 'N' word are picking up steam. "It's a national movement," Johnson said. "We have so many young people who are using this word like it's a term of love, but it isn't. They don't realize this word is so derogatory. It's been used to oppress so many people. It needs to be brought out into the light." Perry observed that efforts to get rid of the 'N' word and to improve conditions in the African American community can't be legislated and that it needs to be a spiritual force that springs from the depths of the community. "Dr. King was a wonderful example," Perry observed. "He understood the power of the supernatural in terms of galvanizing a people. His calling was one that was a ministry, not just something that was focused on activism. It was activism driven by moral conviction. That has been my calling and my perspective as well over the past 30 something years. To see inequities change, in the Bible, we call that justice. And so, biblical justice is the application of God's Truth to our circumstances." Perhaps that spiritual activism is being awakened in the present college generation. "I'm hoping we can keep going and be a part of the movement," Johnson emphasized. "I'm hoping that other Black Student Unions will realize this at other colleges and do this also." Just maybe, the 'N' word will be buried for good this time and the effects of oppression will be laid to rest. |
| Edgewood College's Black Student Union buries the 'N' Word Bury the past; face the future By Jonathan Gramling |
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| (Left) Pallbearers accompany the 'N' word casket; (r) Loyd Majeed, Black Star Project |
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