"The-Word-That-Must-Not-Be-Named”: Huck Finn, Joseph Conrad and the dreaded N-word



"The-Word-That-Must-Not-Be-Named” holds more power then even Voldemort

 It is a word that was once buried, yet rises from the grave with increasing rapidity to haunt all ears who hear the two-syllable pejorative uttered. Uttered frequently by Black people in casual conversation though scrubbed completely from white people’s vocabulary, this one word holds more power than Little Boy or Fat Man, capable of destruction beyond words.

If you have seen or read Harry Potter you are aware that Lord Voldemort is simply known as “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named” for the following reason:

He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named: Rowling got the idea for this from two 1950s London gangsters called the Kray Twins. "The story goes that people didn’t speak the name Kray. You just didn’t mention it. You didn’t talk about them, because retribution was so brutal and bloody. I think this is an impressive demonstration of strength, that you can convince someone not to use your name. Impressive in the sense that demonstrates how deep the level of fear is that you can inspire. It’s not something to be admired." (TLC). As soon as Voldemort took control of the Ministry in 1997, he reinforced this fear by putting a taboo on speaking his name. Anyone brave enough to say 'Voldemort' would have their locations immediately revealed to "snatchers" or other enforcement squads who would come and take you into custody (DH).

The word that was ceremoniously buried and is deemed an offense worthy of prosecution in New York City if uttered elicits a greater level of fear in the real world then the fictional Voldemort’s name conjured in the world inhabited by wizards and witches.

White people cringe when they hear this word spoken aloud, frantically searching around them to ensure that no Black person was in ear shot. When they see this word in print, that same fear washes over them and a sense of trepidation follows knowing that reading “The-Word-That-Must-Not-Be-Named” is the modern-day equivalent of sneaking looks at your dads Playboy.

People have been conditioned to cower in panic at the word, even phrases that sound similar yet have no racial connotations, such as the word “niggardly” and this hysteria has now seeped into other terms such as “black hole”, “black ice” or other variations of using the “black” to denote negativity.

The taboo surrounding “The-Word-That-Must-Not-Be-Named” is firmly in place and remonstrations against the vernacular noose that goes around the neck of the white person daring to utter it are exceedingly rare.

As in Harry Potter, few brave souls have the courage to stand up to Lord Voldemort and in Black Run America (BRA) few souls can be found who understand the rhetorical battle that has been won and the significance of what the fear surrounding “The-Word-That-Must-Not-Be-Named” means.

White people have capitulated to the power of BRA, and the one word that forever coerces this surrender is the power over “The-Word-That-Must-Not-Be-Named” and efforts must be made to remove every reference to this word from the annals of history:

 A classic turn-of-the-century English novelist whose works have been read by countless millions of people is having his work sanitized for a new generation of readers.

Joseph Conrad, whose "Heart of Darkness" and "Lord Jim" have been scrutinized by English students on multiple continents for decades, wrote a lesser known novel in 1897 called "The Nigger of the Narcissus."

Now, in what critics are calling a blatant act of politically correct censorship, a Netherlands-based publisher has reprinted the novel under a new name: "The N-word of the Narcissus."

The new version is the first installment of WordBridge Publishing's classic texts series, featuring "texts with a message for moderns, made accessible to moderns."

But some critics say updating a Conrad novel by replacing all mentions of the offensive term "nigger" with "n-word" is just as offensive as the word itself.

"It's outrageous," said Niger Innis, spokesman for the Congress of Racial Equality, a New York-based civil rights organization. "Are they going to go to Mark Twain as well and take out all of those references?

"It's censorship, and to blacken over a word does not mean that you can blacken over the history.”

One should never underestimate the enabling powers of Disingenuous White Liberals (DWLs) and yes, they did in fact go after Mark Twain:

What is a word worth? According to Publishers Weekly, NewSouth Books' upcoming edition of Mark Twain's seminal novel "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" will remove all instances of the N-word -- I'll give you a hint, it's not nonesuch -- present in the text and replace it with slave.


Race matters in these books," Gribben told PW. "It's a matter of how you express that in the 21st century."


Unsurprisingly, there are already those who are yelling "Censorship!" as well as others with thesauruses yelling "Bowdlerization!" and"Comstockery!"

Their position is understandable: Twain's book has been one of the most often misunderstood novels of all time, continuously being accused of perpetuating the prejudiced attitudes it is criticizing, and it's a little disheartening to see a cave-in to those who would ban a book simply because it requires context.


On the other hand, if this puts the book into the hands of kids who would not otherwise be allowed to read it due to forces beyond their control (overprotective parents and the school boards they frighten), then maybe we shouldn't be so quick to judge.


It's unfortunate, but is it really any more catastrophic than a TBS-friendly re-edit of "The Godfather," you down-and-dirty melon farmer.

He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future. By scrubbing“The-Word-That-Must-Not-Be-Named” from novels, the offending word is removed forever from entering the vocabulary of impressionable young people who don’t understand yet that BRA dictates every level of their life and thereby ensuring that the aura surrounding the word will never fade.

Just like in Harry Potter, where anyone standing up to Voldemort will be instantly crushed, those who dare use “The-Word-That-Must-Not-Be-Named” will find a fate just as severe as what awaits a Muggle, witch or wizard in the world of J.K Rowling:

A federal jury will be asked to decide whether it is acceptable for an African American person, but not a white person, to use the "n" word in a workplace.

U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick has ruled that former Fox29 reporter-anchor Tom Burlington's lawsuit against the station, claiming a double standard and alleging that he was the victim of racial discrimination, may go to trial. However, Surrick denied Burlington's claim of a hostile work environment.


Burlington, who is white, was fired after using the "n" word during a June 2007 staff meeting at which reporters and producers were discussing reporter Robin Taylor's story about the symbolic burial of the word by the Philadelphia Youth Council of the NAACP.


Burlington, who began work at the station in 2004 and is now working as a real estate agent, was suspended within days and fired after an account of the incident was published in the Philadelphia Daily News. He alleges that he "was discriminated against because of his race," according to court documents. He claims in his lawsuit that at least two African American employees at Fox29 had used the word in the workplace and were not disciplined.


The dispute began after Taylor, who is white, used the phrase the "n" word during the 2007 staff meeting. She said participants at the burial had said the full word "at least a hundred times or more," according to court records.


"Does this mean we can finally say the word n-?" Burlington asked colleagues, according to depositions.


Nicole Wolfe, a producer and one of the three African American employees among the nine people at the meeting, exclaimed: "I can't believe you just said that!"

We at SBPDL have long looked at “The-Word-That-Must-Not-Be-Named” with curiosity, knowing full well the power the word has, yet feeling uncomfortable letting it escape our lips.

No more. Defiance to BRA means “The-Word-That-Must-Not-Be-Named” must be shouted aloud and one day, people will be mandated to say it 100 times over or for as long as it takes to forever remove the sting that the word holds.

A toleration of the continued censorship of “The-Word-That-Must-Not-Be-Named” means the continued existence of a world where men and women possessing the grace and stature of those who frequent The Nightly News or Thug Report will be continually celebrated.

You can’t bury the past, just as you can’t bury a word. Attempts make the past more palatable to the current zeitgeist only show the fear in the hearts and minds of those who pull BRA’s levers. Those who can see grow in number, with each passing event like the Mayfair Mall incident showed.No act of defiance in BRA is greeted with such exacting repercussions as what awaits the person who dares utter “The-Word-That-Must-Not-Be-Named” and expunging historical documents, fictional works and movies of such references to it forever ensures BRA’s hegemony over white people.

Dr. Laura Schlessinger's Waterloo: Nigga Please

It is a well-known fact that white people cannot say nigga, nigger (the-word-that-must-not-be-named) or any variation of this racial pejorative. Even using the word "niggardly" is a daring attempt at circumnavigating the nefarious undertones that haunt the term for its similarity to the word that-must-not-be-named.

No, it is advised that white people never, ever utter the term nigger, nigga, nig, ni-gah or whatever slang adaptation of the phrase is uttered by Black people when they self-identify.

Murder, rape or any deviant/abhorrent act that can be imagined pales in comparison to the white person caught dropping a nigger bomb from their mouth. The fallout from this bomb is more radioactive and potent than the nuclear fallout from a hydrogen bomb and the shelf-life of this action lasts eternally. Just ask Michael Richards.

Now another individual dares utter the dreaded word in the company of Black people and for this action a veritable public execution is necessary to demonstrate that no one - not even Mel Gibson - is allowed to say "nigger" except Black people when addressing each other in a playful, mocking or denigrating tone:

Dr. Laura Schlessinger announced Tuesday night that she would end her radio show following her N-word rant last week.

"My contract is up for my radio show at the end of the year and I've made the decision not to do radio anymore," she told Larry King. "The reason is I want to regain my First Amendment rights. I want to be able to say what's on my mind and in my heart and what I think is helpful and useful without somebody getting angry, some special interest group deciding this is the time to silence a voice of dissent and attack affiliates, attack sponsors. I'm sort of done with that."

Dr. Laura emphasized that she is "not retiring" but rather just ending her radio show.

"I'm not retiring, I'm not quitting, I feel energized actually," she said. "Stronger and freer to say the things that I believe need to be said for people in this country.

Here is the transcript of the call:

Newscast Media — Media Matters obtained the audio where Dr. Laura Schlessinger says the word “nigger” 11 times to a caller. Schlessinger wrapped up by telling the caller she had a “chip on her shoulder.” Below is the entire transcrpit:

SCHLESSINGER: Jade, welcome to the program.

CALLER: Hi, Dr. Laura.

SCHLESSINGER: Hi.

CALLER: I’m having an issue with my husband where I’m starting to
grow very resentful of him. I’m black, and he’s white. We’ve been
around some of his friends and family members who start making
racist comments as if I’m not there or if I’m not black. And my
husband ignores those comments, and it hurts my feelings. And he
acts like –

SCHLESSINGER: Well, can you give me an example of a racist
comment? ‘Cause sometimes people are hypersensitive. So tell me
what’s — give me two good examples of racist comments.

CALLER: OK. Last night — good example — we had a neighbor come
over, and this neighbor — when every time he comes over, it’s
always a black comment. It’s, “Oh, well, how do you black people like
doing this?” And, “Do black people really like doing that?” And for a
long time, I would ignore it. But last night, I got to the point where it
–
SCHLESSINGER: I don’t think that’s racist.

CALLER: Well, the stereotype –

SCHLESSINGER: I don’t think that’s racist. No, I think that —

CALLER: [unintelligible]

SCHLESSINGER: No, no, no. I think that’s — well, listen, without
giving much thought, a lot of blacks voted for Obama simply ’cause
he was half-black. Didn’t matter what he was gonna do in office, it
was a black thing. You gotta know that. That’s not a surprise. Not
everything that somebody says — we had friends over the other
day; we got about 35 people here — the guys who were gonna start
playing basketball. I was going to go out and play basketball. My
bodyguard and my dear friend is a black man. And I said, “White men
can’t jump; I want you on my team.” That was racist? That was
funny.

CALLER: How about the N-word? So, the N-word’s been thrown
around –

SCHLESSINGER: Black guys use it all the time. Turn on HBO, listen to
a black comic, and all you hear is nigger, nigger, nigger.

CALLER: That isn’t –

SCHLESSINGER: I don’t get it. If anybody without enough melanin
says it, it’s a horrible thing; but when black people say it, it’s
affectionate. It’s very confusing. Don’t hang up, I want to talk to you
some more. Don’t go away.
I’m Dr. Laura Schlessinger. I’ll be right back.

SCHLESSINGER: I’m Dr. Laura Schlessinger, talking to Jade. What did
you think about during the break, by the way?

CALLER: I was a little caught back by the N-word that you spewed
out, I have to be honest with you. But my point is, race relations —

SCHLESSINGER: Oh, then I guess you don’t watch HBO or listen to
any black comedians.

CALLER: But that doesn’t make it right. I mean, race is a
[unintelligible] –

SCHLESSINGER: My dear, my dear –

CALLER: — since Obama’s been in office –

SCHLESSINGER: — the point I’m trying to make –

CALLER: — racism has come to another level that’s unacceptable.

SCHLESSINGER: Yeah. We’ve got a black man as president, and we
have more complaining about racism than ever. I mean, I think that’s
hilarious.

CALLER: But I think, honestly, because there’s more white people
afraid of a black man taking over the nation.

SCHLESSINGER: They’re afraid.

CALLER: If you want to be honest about it [unintelligible]

SCHLESSINGER: Dear, they voted him in. Only 12 percent of the
population’s black. Whites voted him in.

CALLER: It was the younger generation that did it. It wasn’t the older
white people who did it.

SCHLESSINGER: Oh, OK.

CALLER: It was the younger generation –

SCHLESSINGER: All right. All right.

CALLER: — that did it.

SCHLESSINGER: Chip on your shoulder. I can’t do much about that.

CALLER: It’s not like that.

SCHLESSINGER: Yeah. I think you have too much sensitivity –

CALLER: So it’s OK to say “nigger”?

SCHLESSINGER: — and not enough sense of humor.

CALLER: It’s OK to say that word?

SCHLESSINGER: It depends how it’s said.

CALLER: Is it OK to say that word? Is it ever OK to say that word?

SCHLESSINGER: It’s — it depends how it’s said. Black guys talking to
each other seem to think it’s OK.

CALLER: But you’re not black. They’re not black. My husband is
white.

SCHLESSINGER: Oh, I see. So, a word is restricted to race. Got it.
Can’t do much about that.

CALLER: I can’t believe someone like you is on the radio spewing out
the “nigger” word, and I hope everybody heard it.

SCHLESSINGER: I didn’t spew out the “nigger” word.

CALLER: You said, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.”

SCHLESSINGER: Right, I said that’s what you hear.

CALLER: Everybody heard it.

SCHLESSINGER: Yes, they did.

CALLER: I hope everybody heard it.

SCHLESSINGER: They did, and I’ll say it again –

CALLER: So what makes it OK for you to say the word?

SCHLESSINGER: — nigger, nigger, nigger is what you hear on HB –

CALLER: So what makes it –

SCHLESSINGER: Why don’t you let me finish a sentence?

CALLER: OK.

SCHLESSINGER: Don’t take things out of context. Don’t double N —
NAACP me. Tape the —

CALLER: I know what the NAACP –

SCHLESSINGER: Leave them in context.

CALLER: I know what the N-word means and I know it came from a
white person. And I know the white person made it bad.

SCHLESSINGER: All right. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Can’t have this argument. You know what? If you’re that hypersensitive about color and don’t have a sense of humor, don’t marry out of your race. If you’re going to marry out of your race, people are going to say, “OK, what do blacks think? What do whites think? What do Jews think? What do Catholics think?”

Of course there isn’t a one-think per se. But in general there’s “think.” And what I just heard from Jade is a lot of what I hear from black-think — and it’s really distressting [sic] and disturbing. And to put it in its context, she said the N-word, and I said, on HBO, listening to black comics, you hear “nigger, nigger, nigger.” I didn’t call anybody a nigger. Nice try, Jade. Actually, sucky try.

Need a sense of humor, sense of humor — and answer the question. When somebody says, “What do blacks think?” say, “This is what I think. This is what I read that if you take a poll the majority of blacks think this.” Answer the question and discuss the issue. It’s like we can’t discuss anything without saying there’s -isms?
We have to be able to discuss these things. We’re people — goodness gracious me. Ah — hypersensitivity, OK, which is being bred by black activists. I really thought that once we had a black president, the attempt to demonize whites hating blacks would stop, but it seems to have grown, and I don’t get it. Yes, I do. It’s all about power. I do get it. It’s all about power and that’s sad because what should be in power is not power or righteousness to do good –that should be the greatest power.

Reading the transcripts shows how hypersensitive Black people are when it comes to what qualifies as racist or not.

Nevertheless, when a word is off-limits to one segment of the population, but used freely by another segment of the population, you know you live under tyranny. The price of using the term "nigger", if you are white, is great; your reputation is ruined, your past comes under scrutiny; and all of your associates are also tarnished because you dared use a forbidden word and by the process of guilt-by-association, bath them in the damning fires of racism.

Black people have no problem using the term nigger as a joyous salutation or a derogatory put-down, constantly showcasing the awesome diversity of the word and its nebulous meaning when a Black person utilizes it in speech.

But a white person even considering to use the phrase? Recall this is a nation where commandeering a Wal-Mart PA system and jokingly stating that "All Black people must leave the store" is grounds for national media attention and an ABP from the police to locate the insidious individual spewing hateful invective.

In the history of rhetoric and speech has one word existed that has caused more heart-ache, grief and pain - heck, it even had a funeral! - than the word-that-must-not-be-named?

White people have been conditioned to recoil in shock and sheer terror at the white person who dares utter the-word-that-must-not-be-named.

White people cower in fear from this word, knowing that to wield this phrase is to invite doom and ruin into ones quarters.

Since it is common knowledge that those who harbor racist views also suffer from a mental illness, it is generally accepted that only those white people who belong in padded rooms would dare use the word-that-must-not-be-named.

Submitting to the power of Black Run America (BRA) means capitulating and acquiescing to this dictum, that the word-that-must-not-be-named can never part from ones thoughts into vocalized form. White people are forbidden from using this confusingly affectionate, yet demeaning term that Black people use liberally in their speech.

The Office satirizes how fearful white people are of the-word-that-must-not-be-named, showing how they have surrendered to BRA's dominance.

However, the day Black Run America ends, one can only imagine the spectacle of millions upon millions of people celebrating in the streets as the former inhabitants of the Galactic Empire did in Return of the Jedi. The power and fear of the word will be gone, the once lethal Damocles Sword it represents finally made dull and innocent.

Free from the bonds of tyranny and the fear of persecution, millions of people will pull a William Wallace and definitely yell one word. It won't be 'freedom', though, that these people shout, for the word that comes out of the mouths of millions will signify that freedom is once again in fashion.

The-word-that-must-not-be-named, The-N word, that phrase which haunts those living in 2010 America like a ghost, creating frightful situations whenever white people dare use it, will be yelled in unison signifying the ultimate catharsis.

The potency, the venom of the word only exists because people lack the vision to understand the only antidote to vernacular tyranny is courage.

#71. The Term Hoodlum

Jesse Jackson famously stated that when he walks down a darkened alley at night, upon hearing foot steps behind him, he takes solace in the knowledge that those sounds are made by white feet and not by Black feet.

Why would a man who has dedicated his life to perpetuating the already victorious struggle for Black equality be fearful of Black people walking behind him in a dark alley? For one reason: Black people know that petty Black criminality is a plague that terrorizes their communities as the Black Plague did in Europe so many centuries ago.

Each year, Black-on-Black crime seemingly gets worse, destroying communities and creating a constant state of upheaval that erodes trust and impoverishes an already disadvantaged class of people.

Jesse, in his now iconic statement, was talking about life in the hood, the type of place Disingenuous White Liberals can only fantasize about in movies and would immediately lock their car doors and drive away from quickly if encountered in real life.

Black people can be found living in socio-economic conditions that would leave the most hardened stomach deprived of its lunch. Black people affectionately call non-gentrified areas of major cities they occupy “the hood” and every city that has a Black population –regardless of the size of that population - automatically qualifies for membership in “the hood” club.

White people have whitopia’s, and a hell of a book could be written about hood-topia’s, primarily dealing with geographic areas that have a Martin Luther King street address.

Some mistake the term “hoodlum” to be synonymous with Black people and believe the term as having etymological roots in being a pejorative used to describe hood-dwelling Black people. This couldn’t be further from the truth:

Hoodlum

1871, Amer.Eng. (first in ref. to San Francisco) "young street rowdy, loafer," later (1877) "young criminal, gangster," of unknown origin, though newspapers have printed myriad stories concocted to account for it. A guess perhaps better than average is that it is from Ger. dial. (Bavarian) Huddellump "ragamuffin."

Over time, the word has evolved into a moniker for Black people in geographically diverse locations as Los Angeles to Miami. Hoodlum has become an adopted noun (replacing Black people) and one that is universally accepted as being a descriptive word for Black behavior and in turn, is virtually recognized as describing exclusively Black characteristics and encompassing Black nuisances.

Hood behavior can be seen on basketball courts, football fields and Chicago playgrounds.

The pervasive use of this word has entered the sacred realm of words (or combinations of words) deemed insulting and offensive to Black people and thus, an attempt at discrediting the jingoistic elements the word currently entails are underway.

Like the term niggardly or the mystery surrounding the scientific term “black hole”, hoodlum is now decreed a forbidden utterance, part of the lexicon that only people with nefarious intentions will utilize in a descriptive tone:

Pinellas School Board chairwoman Janet Clark is coming under fire for using the term "hoodlums" to describe a small group of chronically disruptive students in county schools.

Board members Mary Brown and Linda Lerner criticized Clark at Tuesday night's board meeting. And now Ray Tampa, president of the St. Petersburg branch of the NAACP, said Clark's refusal to apologize has made things worse.

"I was disgusted with her response," Tampa said Wednesday.

The International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement — better known as the Uhurus — called for Clark to resign for the statement, which it viewed as racist. Clark is white. Tampa said he thought the comment was inappropriate, but not racist.

Tampa said he was considering filing a complaint against Clark, who has a teaching certificate, with the Florida Department of Education's Office of Professional Practices, which handles complaints against teachers.

"The (teacher) code of ethics says you can't embarrass kids or make disparaging remarks about kids," he said.

Clark made the comment at a board workshop last week in a wide-ranging discussion about chronically disruptive students at John Hopkins Middle School and other Pinellas schools.

"So much time is taken up with addressing hoodlums, with kids who don't want to be in school," she said. She also said, "We are talking about a small number of children."

Brown and Lerner weighed in Tuesday night.

"They might be disruptive. They might be in gangs. They might be many things, but they are not hoodlums," Brown said. "I feel that that statement showed insensitivity to our children, and it certainly did not offer good guidance to our staff."

"There are people upset out there about the comment, different kinds of people, including employees," Lerner said. "We have to be careful as board members when we speak."

Before the meeting, Clark said the statement had nothing to do with race. "I made no mention of race," she said. "There are hoodlums of all races and colors and ethnic backgrounds."

No, hoodlum is a term of derision that applies exclusively to Black people now, despite its early origins as a term descriptive of mere adolescent transgressions. To act Black is to act as a hoodlum would and to depart from this behavior is the fatalistic decision to Act White, the ultimate form of betrayal to Black people.

In 1995, the war on the term Hoodlum began in earnest, with The New York Times printing a story attacking the fundamental of the word:

It all happened on Halloween of 1993. I was visiting my aunt. I was picking up my clothes from the laundromat when three white boys came up to me and told me to get off their block. Then they said, "This is a white block." They tried to take my money. Lucky for me my two older brothers came. The three kids ran. Reginald Thomas One day I was on the bus. The bus driver called me a black hoodlum. My mother was on the bus too. My mother said to me, "What did he call you?" I said, "He called me a black hoodlum." The bus driver said to my mother, "Yes, I called your child a hoodlum.

" I felt very sad. I said to the bus driver, "I am not a hoodlum." I am a Black (African) American." So the bus driver looked at me and said "I am sorry for calling you a hoodlum." I said "I forgive you."

Calling someone a “Black Hoodlum” seems like an oxymoron, does it not?

You are advised to remove the term hoodlum from your vernacular, for if you dare renege on this mandate from Black Run America (BRA) governing conversational etiquette, you will ostracized for your verbal faux pas and the punishment won’t be niggardly applied.

Stuff Black People Don’t Like includes the term hoodlum, for daring to utilize this unanimously agreed upon term to describe Black people and their behavior is an egregious display of cultural insensitivity no amount of shock therapy can remedy.

Those who believe “you can remove the brother from hood, but you can’t remove the hood from the brother,” are practicing a sickening and shocking insensitivity that threatens the fabric of our society.

No matter. Every night, local nightly newscasts will showcase highlights from the hoodlum community. Words may be outlawed, but the reason the word was created will only intensify.