What Papa Irvin Says…

Worth Quoting from the above article:

“I never understood why so many folks within the black community were willing to drink the poison of labeling one’s self as a nigger, degrading one’s self and one’s community, not just in America, but throughout the world – through videos and hip-hop and rap music, et al., all the while dancing to the pseudo-African rhythms in which some singer calls a mother a “bitch” or sister a “ho.”

I saw it as a pact made with the entertainment devil, recalling that the devil always demands his due – a note that Michael Richards paid when he shouted “niggers” right back at the audience.

Some blacks justified their use of the term as an expression of love and endearment, a homeboy kind of thing, noting the distinction between the “-igga” version and the “-er” version – and figuring that whites and everyone else would somehow know the difference between the two. This was supposedly their way of removing power from the word itself.

It may have felt good for a while, but a black person calling himself a nigger is like terrorists using suicide bombers to destroy their enemies – only to find out that once they internalize a willingness to kill their own children, they have unleashed a cultural virus.”

I guess people were surprised about Michael Richards. I don’t know why. I feel like I’m walking around people everyday who, under the right (or wrong circumstances), would call me a nigger. Shoot, they may have already done so, but I just haven’t heard them. I don’t believe that all people are like that, but I’m not surprised when they are. Racism and racist ideologies permeate our country. Oppression exists. We’ve just cloaked ourselves under political correctness so that these things aren’t as open as they used to be.

Michael Richards has apologized for his comments. And while I’m sure that he wishes he could change his words; I’d rather he change his heart.