As a White person, it is difficult to empathize with the experience of African Americans as they have been treated in this country. Through story-telling, deep listening, and caring, we can begin to broach the great divide in understanding between the races. The "N Word" is a point of deep pain for African Americans and great controversy for all Americans living in the United States, underscoring a legacy of slavery and institutionalized racism. Documented accounts of the use of words and language to justify oppression directed toward people of African heritage abound in our nation's historical records. Examples range from the United States Constitution referring to a person of African heritage as "3/5 of a person", to the outnumbering crowds of Whites viciously shouting the "N Word" as the first Black teenagers integrated a public school in the South. This word was heard as White police released ferocious dogs to chase after African Americans during the 1950's, at the height of the country's civil rights era. Hard and painful streams of water were shot at African Americans and other civil rights leaders, as those courageous change agents of our history attempted to transform the way African Americans would be viewed and treated. This tragedy ocurred in the Land of Liberty we call the United States of America. Why is the "N Word" still in operation today by Whites who refuse to acknowledge the equality and goodness of Blacks, and what is its appeal to some young African Americans who use it in reference to their best friends? Why upon hearing it, does the pain still "smart" like a deep sore or blade of the knife to so many African Americans? Let us understand our past in order to heal our future. Amen.
This writing
by St. Anger © 2003, is available on her greeting card in addition
to the above design.
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