Nathan's Blog Post 8: Oops was that racist?

I have a Nepali friend named Arati. I met her a few years ago in college, at William and Mary. We grew to be great friends, but in the first few months of us knowing each other she told me that I was her first Black friend. She moved from Nepal while just before 9th grade and lives in Northern Virginia. One night, while she and a few other (white) good friends of mine were hanging out, she blurts out "what up, mah nigga". Right after that one of the white people we were hanging out with replied "you can't say that". Me the only other minority in the group sat there quiet and not displeased but actually apathetic. It wasn't until that moment where I found the distinction between ignorance and racism.

I had forgotten all about this moment until Thursday's class when Jono explained how he something racist out of a lack of cultural information. That comment by Jono lead the class further into a discussion about the classification of Oriental and someone replied that it wasn't racist because they came from a ethnically un-diverse community that did not discuss these types of things. I feel that people lump ignorant and racist actions together. It is imperative for people to distinguish the two, I believe the major difference between the two is the emotion behind the actions. The words that are actually spoken are not the crucial part of a racist statement, the important thing being conveyed is the emotion. Arati did not have an elitist attitude about the term "nigga" she thought it was a term of endearment, and when confronted with new knowledge she stopped using it.

Words are powerful but they only get their power from the emotion behind them. Beaner, Chink, Coon, Cracker all are meaningless without hegemony. Essentially the racist attitudes come from the hegemony not the words itself. So yes a person can say a slur without it being racist/sexist they are just lacking knowledge. As long as the person is willing to gain knowledge it is not a problem.