By Syreeta L. McNeal, CPA, JD
Recently, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr., held what he believed to be a private conversation with another black analyst that was surreptitiously taped on an open microphone with Fox News when he referred to possibly castrating Senator Obama for talking down to N’s (or the N-Word) when he believed Senator Obama was grandstanding for support from white voters in supporting President Bush’s faith based initiatives in staged media events. I know most people in the black community and in mainstream America were appalled by the pervasive racial slur used by Rev. Jackson especially after he was one of the main forces leading the effort to bury the use of the N-word in public.
Well, Rev. Jackson is not alone in his use of the N-Word or being caught using the N-Word in precarious situations. Take for instance, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his reference to using the N-Word to describe efforts to remove him from office during a public speech even though he appeared previously at the NAACP Annual Convention to participate in formally burying the N-Word. Better yet and one of my favorite examples is when Rev. Jeremiah Wright used the racial slur during one of his taped sermons at Trinity United Church of Christ to infer that being called an N-Word makes Senator Obama better qualified to be president over Senator Clinton. Comedian Whoopi Goldberg on “The View” used the N-Word to make a point of its private use in the black community or by rappers. Let’s not forget rappers like NAS, Jay-Z, David Banner, 50 Cent, Ludacris, and others who use the N-Word in their rap lyrics.
Well, Jesus states “he (or she) who has no sin, let them cast the first stone.” How many of you can honestly say, that in a whisper, private or public setting, you have not used a racial epithet to describe a situation? I know if my walls could talk, I would probably have a brick house built outside on the patio from all the times I have used any of the infamous racial slurs in a sentence. Unfortunately, on “The View,” Elisabeth Hasselback had trouble understanding the distinct difference between the use of the N-Word in a public or private conversation and the audience it is used before. Either she is gullible or expects that people should live their lives in an ideal world and not have any slip ups in stating racial slurs to one another. Well, just like my momma told me, she did not raise a fool. Unlike Hasselback’s emotional plea to have the world free from using racial slurs publicly or privately, we live in the real world. Racial slurs will always exist and people will always use them.
Recently, the media is only discussing the N-Word as the most controversial racial epithet. But, fair is fair and there are many other racial epithets that exist and our spoken either privately or publicly. Kike is an offensive racial slur about Jews. Spic is an offensive racial slur for Spanish Americans. Wetback is an offensive racial slur for Mexicans who enter the United States illegally. Chink is an offensive racial slur for Chinese. Dago is an offensive racial slur for a person of Italian or Spanish birth or descent. Besides the N-Word, other offensive racial slurs for those of African descent are coon, tom, savage, pickaninny, mammy, buck, samba, jigaboo, nappy headed ho and buckwheat.
But, this article is intended to understand the law as it relates to the use of racial epithets. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”[1] In 1942, the United States Supreme Court held that there are inherent limitations to free speech that do not raise constitutional problems in Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire.[2] By incorporation of the Fourteenth Amendment, freedom of speech, press, assembly, and worship are among the fundamental personal rights and liberties protected from invasion by state action.[3]
Free speech is not an absolute right.[4] The United States Supreme Court held that there are certain well-defined and narrowly limited classes of speech the punishment of which has never raised any Constitutional problem.[5] Examples of this limitation are words that are lewd, obscene, profane, libelous, and insulting or considered "fighting" words (those words which by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace).[6] Also, the Court noted that resort to epithets or personal abuse is not in any proper sense communication of information or opinion safeguarded by the Constitution, and its punishment as a criminal act would raise no question under that instrument.[7]
Since 1942, many things have changed to impact what is accepted or allowed to be stated in public as it relates to profanity and racial epithets. Even Willie Lynch used the N-Word in his speech in 1712 on the bank of the James River in the colony of Virginia. Now, the N-Word has evolved into a term of endearment and spelled with an ‘a’ instead of ending with an ‘er’ when people of similar backgrounds say it in private or public. For example, the N-Word has evolved into an acceptable public conversation even with people of different races in the hip hop community and in black comedy. What better display of this trend than the movie, Gridiron Gang which is based on a true story of California teenagers at a juvenile detention center gaining self-esteem by playing football. In the movie, both versions of the N-Word were in full effect and at some points during the movie, I could not even tell the difference of whether the N-Word was used as a term of endearment or as an insult. Like the movies, cable television shows like I Love New York and Flavor of Love feature many people saying all types of curse words and racial epithets like the N-Word on a regular basis.
Racial Epithets is considered offensive language. So, regardless of how rappers or comedians perceive the use of the N-Word as a term of endearment, it is still an offensive racial slur like any other racial epithet. Now, can the federal and state government regulate public use of the N-Word? Yes, they can. If you use the word in private among friends or in associations with peers that allow use of the racial epithet, it will be less likely that a court of law would intervene to stop individual’s private use among friends, colleagues and associations.
Public use of racial epithets is a whole different story. Federally, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) regulates public use of profanity and racial epithets. State governments regulate commercial businesses through their various agencies as well. Many of you are familiar with the Parental Advisory sticker on commercial products that use profanity or racial epithets. Also, movie ratings such as Rated R or PG-13 are used for movies that use profanity and racial epithets. The FCC and state government agencies try to incorporate a delicate balance in its regulation of content for mature or adult audiences and content suitable for children. Adult pornography is a protected constitutional privilege for adults. Within adult pornography, sexual imagery, profanity and sometimes racial epithets can be used because adults are able to discern better what these actions mean than children can.
When profanity or racial epithets have the potential to be heard by children, then the federal and state governments have a right to intervene to protect the health, safety and welfare of children. This is the main reason for the hoopla over the N-Word. Adults are worried about the potential impact that these negative images can have on children who are not fully developed or exposed to what these racial epithets mean in our society. I understand members of the hip hop community who embrace using the N-Word as a right to free speech and think it is a term of endearment. However, adults are concerned about the dark ugly side of the N-Word and the consequences that can come of it if it is allowed to run rampant as previously done in our history.
Do you think children know the ugly side of racial epithets like the N-Word as was used when Emmitt Till was brutally murdered by white racist southern men and called the N-Word in Money, Mississippi on August 28, 1955 all because they alleged that Emmitt Till whistled at a white woman? When white mobs held lynching parties throughout the United States using blacks and calling them the N-Word in the presence of family members and children, is this a term of endearment? The answer is no to both of these questions.
This is the truth about the dark ugly side of the N-Word that adults in civil rights organizations like the NAACP and The National Action Network are concerned about. They were awakened about the horrors of the word and impact to young black girls as Don Imus called the Rutgers’ women basketball team ‘nappy headed hoes.’ Michael Richards’ rant calling audience members the N-Word at the Los Angeles’ Laugh Factory awakened those fears. As the federal and state governments seek to protect the health, safety and welfare of children (and even adults) from profanity and racial epithets, let us continue to work to dialogue in a civil manner about issues on both sides so that we can come to a compromise that protects both adults and children.
As we seek to inform our children about the many facets of the N-Word, habits are hard to break. Many people, like Rev. Jackson, Sr., have used racial epithets, like the N-Word, in private dialogue. I know I have. But, let us continue to work to be mindful of how harmful racial epithets, like the N-Word, are and minimize the impact it can have on our children through creating new habits in lessening its use in public and in private and if necessary, seeking federal and state regulation as well.
Legal Disclaimer: This site provides information about the law designed to keep readers informed of pertinent legal matters affecting the African-American community. But legal information is not the same as legal advice -- the application of law to an individual's specific circumstances. Although we go to great lengths to make sure our information is accurate and useful, we recommend you consult a lawyer in your specific location if you want professional assurance that our information, and your interpretation of it, is appropriate to your particular situation.
Well, Rev. Jackson is not alone in his use of the N-Word or being caught using the N-Word in precarious situations. Take for instance, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his reference to using the N-Word to describe efforts to remove him from office during a public speech even though he appeared previously at the NAACP Annual Convention to participate in formally burying the N-Word. Better yet and one of my favorite examples is when Rev. Jeremiah Wright used the racial slur during one of his taped sermons at Trinity United Church of Christ to infer that being called an N-Word makes Senator Obama better qualified to be president over Senator Clinton. Comedian Whoopi Goldberg on “The View” used the N-Word to make a point of its private use in the black community or by rappers. Let’s not forget rappers like NAS, Jay-Z, David Banner, 50 Cent, Ludacris, and others who use the N-Word in their rap lyrics.
Well, Jesus states “he (or she) who has no sin, let them cast the first stone.” How many of you can honestly say, that in a whisper, private or public setting, you have not used a racial epithet to describe a situation? I know if my walls could talk, I would probably have a brick house built outside on the patio from all the times I have used any of the infamous racial slurs in a sentence. Unfortunately, on “The View,” Elisabeth Hasselback had trouble understanding the distinct difference between the use of the N-Word in a public or private conversation and the audience it is used before. Either she is gullible or expects that people should live their lives in an ideal world and not have any slip ups in stating racial slurs to one another. Well, just like my momma told me, she did not raise a fool. Unlike Hasselback’s emotional plea to have the world free from using racial slurs publicly or privately, we live in the real world. Racial slurs will always exist and people will always use them.
Recently, the media is only discussing the N-Word as the most controversial racial epithet. But, fair is fair and there are many other racial epithets that exist and our spoken either privately or publicly. Kike is an offensive racial slur about Jews. Spic is an offensive racial slur for Spanish Americans. Wetback is an offensive racial slur for Mexicans who enter the United States illegally. Chink is an offensive racial slur for Chinese. Dago is an offensive racial slur for a person of Italian or Spanish birth or descent. Besides the N-Word, other offensive racial slurs for those of African descent are coon, tom, savage, pickaninny, mammy, buck, samba, jigaboo, nappy headed ho and buckwheat.
But, this article is intended to understand the law as it relates to the use of racial epithets. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”[1] In 1942, the United States Supreme Court held that there are inherent limitations to free speech that do not raise constitutional problems in Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire.[2] By incorporation of the Fourteenth Amendment, freedom of speech, press, assembly, and worship are among the fundamental personal rights and liberties protected from invasion by state action.[3]
Free speech is not an absolute right.[4] The United States Supreme Court held that there are certain well-defined and narrowly limited classes of speech the punishment of which has never raised any Constitutional problem.[5] Examples of this limitation are words that are lewd, obscene, profane, libelous, and insulting or considered "fighting" words (those words which by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace).[6] Also, the Court noted that resort to epithets or personal abuse is not in any proper sense communication of information or opinion safeguarded by the Constitution, and its punishment as a criminal act would raise no question under that instrument.[7]
Since 1942, many things have changed to impact what is accepted or allowed to be stated in public as it relates to profanity and racial epithets. Even Willie Lynch used the N-Word in his speech in 1712 on the bank of the James River in the colony of Virginia. Now, the N-Word has evolved into a term of endearment and spelled with an ‘a’ instead of ending with an ‘er’ when people of similar backgrounds say it in private or public. For example, the N-Word has evolved into an acceptable public conversation even with people of different races in the hip hop community and in black comedy. What better display of this trend than the movie, Gridiron Gang which is based on a true story of California teenagers at a juvenile detention center gaining self-esteem by playing football. In the movie, both versions of the N-Word were in full effect and at some points during the movie, I could not even tell the difference of whether the N-Word was used as a term of endearment or as an insult. Like the movies, cable television shows like I Love New York and Flavor of Love feature many people saying all types of curse words and racial epithets like the N-Word on a regular basis.
Racial Epithets is considered offensive language. So, regardless of how rappers or comedians perceive the use of the N-Word as a term of endearment, it is still an offensive racial slur like any other racial epithet. Now, can the federal and state government regulate public use of the N-Word? Yes, they can. If you use the word in private among friends or in associations with peers that allow use of the racial epithet, it will be less likely that a court of law would intervene to stop individual’s private use among friends, colleagues and associations.
Public use of racial epithets is a whole different story. Federally, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) regulates public use of profanity and racial epithets. State governments regulate commercial businesses through their various agencies as well. Many of you are familiar with the Parental Advisory sticker on commercial products that use profanity or racial epithets. Also, movie ratings such as Rated R or PG-13 are used for movies that use profanity and racial epithets. The FCC and state government agencies try to incorporate a delicate balance in its regulation of content for mature or adult audiences and content suitable for children. Adult pornography is a protected constitutional privilege for adults. Within adult pornography, sexual imagery, profanity and sometimes racial epithets can be used because adults are able to discern better what these actions mean than children can.
When profanity or racial epithets have the potential to be heard by children, then the federal and state governments have a right to intervene to protect the health, safety and welfare of children. This is the main reason for the hoopla over the N-Word. Adults are worried about the potential impact that these negative images can have on children who are not fully developed or exposed to what these racial epithets mean in our society. I understand members of the hip hop community who embrace using the N-Word as a right to free speech and think it is a term of endearment. However, adults are concerned about the dark ugly side of the N-Word and the consequences that can come of it if it is allowed to run rampant as previously done in our history.
Do you think children know the ugly side of racial epithets like the N-Word as was used when Emmitt Till was brutally murdered by white racist southern men and called the N-Word in Money, Mississippi on August 28, 1955 all because they alleged that Emmitt Till whistled at a white woman? When white mobs held lynching parties throughout the United States using blacks and calling them the N-Word in the presence of family members and children, is this a term of endearment? The answer is no to both of these questions.
This is the truth about the dark ugly side of the N-Word that adults in civil rights organizations like the NAACP and The National Action Network are concerned about. They were awakened about the horrors of the word and impact to young black girls as Don Imus called the Rutgers’ women basketball team ‘nappy headed hoes.’ Michael Richards’ rant calling audience members the N-Word at the Los Angeles’ Laugh Factory awakened those fears. As the federal and state governments seek to protect the health, safety and welfare of children (and even adults) from profanity and racial epithets, let us continue to work to dialogue in a civil manner about issues on both sides so that we can come to a compromise that protects both adults and children.
As we seek to inform our children about the many facets of the N-Word, habits are hard to break. Many people, like Rev. Jackson, Sr., have used racial epithets, like the N-Word, in private dialogue. I know I have. But, let us continue to work to be mindful of how harmful racial epithets, like the N-Word, are and minimize the impact it can have on our children through creating new habits in lessening its use in public and in private and if necessary, seeking federal and state regulation as well.
Legal Disclaimer: This site provides information about the law designed to keep readers informed of pertinent legal matters affecting the African-American community. But legal information is not the same as legal advice -- the application of law to an individual's specific circumstances. Although we go to great lengths to make sure our information is accurate and useful, we recommend you consult a lawyer in your specific location if you want professional assurance that our information, and your interpretation of it, is appropriate to your particular situation.
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