by Benjamin T. Moore, Jr.

This latest kerfuffle involving Paul Deen and the ubiquitous “N-Word” is a study in hypocrisy. Our feigned outrage over an old white lady from the deep South admitting during a deposition that at some point in her life, she’d referred to a Black person as a nigger, pushes the bounds of my patience to its point of breaking! Really??? The attorney might as well have asked her if she’d ever farted?

Lets be real for a moment. Is there any white person born and raised in the United States of America who can truthfully say, they’ve never in their entire life uttered the word “nigger?” If a white person reading this can truthfully make this claim, please send me an e-mail. I would dearly like to talk to you and learn the details of your upbringing.

Don’t get me wrong. In my youth, I integrated sever all white schools out on the west coast. It was my policy to beat the ass of any white person who called me a nigger. I once chased one little white boy six blocks, dragged him back out of his house and whipped his ass right in front of his mother and screaming sister. It is a word that should not be used.

Since then, I’ve had several white people who felt comfortable enough with me to ask the question so near and dear to most of their hearts. To wit: “We hear Black people using that word… why can’t we?”  My response? “You can… However, if I have one of my blackouts and come to stomping on your neck… you will forgive me won’t you?” That usually settles the matter.

All of this having been said, the facts of the matter are these. Mrs. Deen comes from an era and a geographic location where she was raised around people, and by people for whom that type of terminology was the norm. Who was going to sit her down in her youth and teach her that referring to Black people in that manner was wrong? Is how a child is raised the child’s fault or the parents fault? I do give Mrs. Deen credit for becoming more aware of right, wrong and what is acceptable in a civilized, multicultural society.

Eclipsing The Real Issue

The reason Paula Deen was being deposed had to do with a discrimination law suit involving an employee of color who has alleged racist behavior and abuse. Did it happen? I have no idea. However, I’ve been around the block enough times to know that just because someone alleges something in a law suit, doesn’t make it so. That is why we have trials and the presentation of evidence. Conversely, merely because someone uses the word “Y’all,” speaks with a southern drawl and admits to having used the word “nigger” in the past, doesn’t mean that they’ve treated an employee in a discriminatory manner. Let’s wait for the trial.

A Study In Hypocrisy

As of today, the Food Network has fired Paula Deen because she told the truth under oath and answered a question which might not have been allowed in open court for being overly broad and irrelevant. The rules for depositions are a lot more flexible. In court the only way an attorney could ask such a question would be if Paula Deen stated that she didn’t use that word. Then the question of whether or not she had ever used that word would become relevant.

Suppose the same question were posed to the attorney who asked it? What would he or she have said? Suppose that question were posed to the judge? What would she or he say? If every white person who has ever used the word nigger – in life – were taken off the air tomorrow, we’d be watching a blank screen and listening to a test tone.

Addendum

When use of the “N-Word,” becomes the litmus test for racism, then ardent racist like Rush Limbaugh can claim to be non-racist because no one has yet to come forward to out him for having said it. White people who are comfortable with their separatist attitudes – many don’t realize they have them – are quick to seize on use of the “N-Word” as being the litmus test. “So long as I don’t say that word, I’m not a racist!” Thus they can support all manner of racist positions. The President is Kenyan. He wasn’t born here. He’s un-American, our economic woes are due to minorities on welfare… on and on.

Paula Deen – bless her soul – simply doesn’t get it. In truth, because of her history and upbringing, she may well be incapable of ever getting it. She’s not the problem. You can see her coming from a “Y’all” away. The problem is the corporate bigwigs that run corporations like the Food Network. They’re racist to their core. When Paula Deen started talking about the beauty of an “Old Southern Wedding” served by Black people dressed as Slaves, they should have cut ties with her back then. They might have said that her views were inconsistent with the audience they were trying to build and attract. They did not. They were comfortable chalking it up to her eccentricities. Why? Because for them, the litmus test for racism is use of the “N-Word.”

A white banker doesn’t have to call a black person applying for a loan a “nigger.” All he has to do is make sure he gets his loan at a higher interest rate. An insurance company doesn’t have to call a Black person a “nigger,” all they have to do is determine where minority communities are located and designate those areas for higher insurance rates. The company a Black person works for doesn’t have to call them a “nigger.” All they have to do is pay them less than the white person working beside them doing the exact same job. When we allow use of the “N-Word” to become the litmus test for racism, we are deluding ourselves about reality and the way the world works.