Sexism and racism
By Brandon Astor Jones
nigger (niger),n. 1. Disparaging and offensive. a. a [B]lack person. b. a member of any dark-skinned people. 2. to criticize in a peevish way; carp ... -niggler, n. — Webster's College Dictionary
The "n" word. I find it so offensive that I will not write or speak it beyond a really important need to quote someone else.
The regular reader of this column will know that on March 11 — in reference to the American Heritage Dictionary's four definitions for the word ladylike — I wrote that " ... the attendant evils of sexism and racism fully support and perpetuate one another. Moreover, it is my opinion that you cannot ever hope to end one without attacking both simultaneously and vigorously."
I then quoted the late Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a passage taken from her speech to the New York legislature on February 18, 1850:
"The prejudice against color, of which we hear so much, is no stronger than that against sex. It is produced by the same cause and manifested very much in the same way. The Negro's skin and the woman's sex are both prima facie evidence that they were intended to be in subjection to the [Anglo] Saxon man."
In that column, I asked to hear from women who took/take exception to that dictionary's definition of ladylike with words such as, "[u]nduly sensitive ... lacking virility and strength".
There were a lot of responses to that column and I promised to publish the one that most informed and impressed me. Alas, during my forced relocation from one part of the prison to another (and several cell searches), my files got lost or destroyed. Nevertheless, I would like to take this opportunity to thank those who responded. I learned a lot.
Sexism and racism are the principals in the ongoing union of ignorance and hate. The poverty of a compassionless-mind, body and spirit is the resulting offspring of that diabolical union throughout the world.
For too long, lexicographers and linguists have been the sole selectors of what is or is not to be put into dictionaries. While I suspect that some of them have a broad cross-cultural background, logic tells me that most are little more than sad reflections of their erudite but sexist and racist upbringings.
Those of us who strive to create a more inclusive society, i.e., a non-sexist, non-racist society, must bring those lexicographers and linguists whose printed words promote exclusion into a more inclusive social consciousness.
Some, but not nearly enough of us are doing that.
As this is first and foremost an interactive column, I urge the reader to follow the example recently set by a wonderful young woman in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
According to the Macon Telegraph's March 29 issue, Delphine Abraham started a one-woman campaign against Merriam Webster, the largest dictionary in America, demanding that its publisher(s) " ... change their definition of the word 'nigger'. Abraham wants the dictionary's definition to focus on the slur ..."
Merriam Webster has started listening. They plan to honour her request. All the support and signatures that Abraham has gathered have rocked Webster to the core. Only a few die-hard racists have opposed her efforts.
Because of her efforts, she was chosen as a guest on a talk-show. We should not be surprised that she took a call from a racist (and very likely white) southerner who said, "I don't know why you are so upset about that word ... That's what [B]lack people are".
"No, that's what you say we are", she proudly replied.
I agree. We are not the n-word. Words like it ruin people's lives.
As I have spent many hours, days and weeks in solitary confinement reading every manner of dictionary, I have come to realise that in a host of ways dictionaries wage a kind of intellectual war on women and those of us whom the status quo seems to subjugate.
For example, from Webster's, the word "nymphomania (nimfemne-mnya),n. abnormal uncontrollable sexual desire in a female ... ". Where is the male equivalent of that (and many other) gender-exclusive words? Why is it all right if a male is "uncontrollable" in his sexual desire — after all, we call such a male "virile" or "Mr President", while excusing his behaviour with catch phrases such as "boys will be boys" — but in a female that same behaviour becomes a "mania (mn-e,...),n. 1. An inordinately intense desire or enthusiasm for something; craze 2. A manifestation of manic-depressive psychosis, characterized by profuse and rapidly changing [partners]"?
Needless to say, being in prison denies me the freedom to get a dictionary publisher's attention; but you can.
Unfortunately, I do not have the American Heritage Dictionary's address (perhaps you can find it on-line) but, thanks to Abraham, I can provide you with Merriam Webster's e-mail address: <www.suggest@mw.com>. Check their dictionary yourself. Let them know how you feel about their less than subtle perpetuation of both sexism and racism.
[The writer is a prisoner on death row in the United States. He welcomes letters commenting on his columns. He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, G3-77, Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison, PO Box 3877, Jackson, GA 30233, USA.]