60 Minutes television program likes Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn, and the "N-word"

"Why have we never seen a book that uses the term 'cracker' (or even heard it used) anywhere in broad circulation in this country?..."


Dear friends,

Last night (Sunday, March 20, 2011), I saw a piece on 60 Minutes about Mark Twain and his use of the word nigger in the novel entitled The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The station used a young, I presume, African American male as the interviewer and a Black college professor from Oregon who, get this, claimed that he was proud of both being and being called a nigger (but couldn’t even pronounce the pejorative term comfortably), as the expert being interviewed. Wow!

Anyway, this professor reminded me of Clarence Thomas and other such noted Black intellectuals who the television stations always seem to locate. They must have a list. After all, why didn’t they call someone like my longtime friend and colleague Cornel West who would have made a better account of himself and our people? Worse yet, this Oregon guy even seemed, like Thomas, to have a wife who is a member of the Tea Party. You know the type. Still, at least to me, the real question is: Why have we never seen a book that uses the term cracker (or even heard it used), anywhere in broad circulation in this country? Duh?

Moreover, if racism is defined as simply some type of xenophobia, as opposed to its original meaning which is White Supremacy, then those who practice racism can claim the same moral status as the victims of it. Neat trick. Eh? Of course, the term racism was made popular by African and African American scholars/activists, from Kwame Nkrumah and Franz Fanon to Malcolm x and Huey P. Newton.


Therefore, the idea that Mark Twain is pointing out the inhumanity of slavery is contradicted by his insistence upon the use of the word white. For example, for almost the past three generations, the overwhelming majority of the people who call themselves white, in this country, are those of Irish descent. Yet, the Irish are only of recent whiteness.

For example, in the Boltwood Collection of Jones Library in Amherst, Massachusetts, local genealogist and historian James A. Smith makes an interesting point in his work titled Black People in Early Amherst, in relationship to the designation of "whiteness" in the historical town. You see, less than 100 years or four generations ago, Smith writes: The town vital records show an undeveloped and random method of describing racial identities...clerks sometimes listed the person as being Irish in the section used to list race other than white.

Lo and behold! Irish people, surely the single largest group of European Americans in this country, are only of recent "whiteness" - according to their own "race".

Published in nearby Greenfield, almost 200 years or eight generations ago, Howe's Almanac, the only periodical distributed in the area at the time, featured a regular "humor" section in the back of each issue. The following two passages give further evidence to the way that the ruling class' media in this country have consistently been used as instruments for shaping public opinion (in favor of ruling class ideas, of course), as opposed to being the organs of objective journalism that they profess to be.

"An Irishman looking around the horizon, observed with a grave countenance, 'It looks fair for foul weather.'

And

"An Irishman on being asked whether his Sister, (who had gotten to bed) had a son or a daughter; - Answered, 'I cannot tell yet, whether I am an Uncle or Aunt.'"

This is all very confusing, isn't it? Actually, none of the aforementioned passages should be a surprise. Historically, British rulers practiced this sort of "racism" against the Irish, long before English pirates like John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake even thought of the Americas. In an essay called "Slavery, Race, and Ideology in the U.S.A.", Barbara Jeanne Fields indicates: "...the rationale that the English developed for suppressing the 'barbarous' Irish later served nearly word for word as a rationale for suppressing Africans and indigenous American Indians."

But why isn’t any of the aforementioned material about the Irish taught in either public or private schools in North America? Why isn’t it taught that slavery was a class institution, not a race one, and that there were thousands of Black slave masters, especially, in the antebellum South whose descendants today are called Hip=hop moguls, along with the makers/actors of obnoxious Black plays and films – like those produced by Tyler Perry.

Finally, what did Twain’s contemporaries like Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tibman think of Mark Twain’s work? To be sure, that would be a better starting point than having some idiot "professor" from Oregon calling himself the unthinkable.

"Dare to struggle – dare to win", Frederick Douglass
G. Djata Bumpus
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Was Dr. Laura right about her use of the N-word? (originally posted 8/27/10)

“A handful of black activists have waged war against the N-word. Their target is those rappers and writers that have turned the N-word into a lucrative growth industry.” – Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Dear friends,

Almost 40 years ago, back in the early Seventies, a brilliant, albeit small, book was published called The Myth of Black Capitalism. Its author was a man named Earl Ofari. Only a few years later, I started seeing the same writer’s name more and more, although he had added the surname “Hutchinson” to his earlier pen name (which may have already been his surname anyway).

Nevertheless, he is nationally syndicated. Yet, I have had issues with his analyses, at times, over the years, because he seems to relate to ideas that are largely based upon disciplines like sociology and psychology that, at least to me, are two of many genres that analyze both the conditions and behaviors of people as if we are talking insects. Still, Brother Earl has been and always is on the right side of African American liberation. Moreover, Hutchinson’s piece on the link below, about the recent Dr. Laura Schlessinger debacle, in her use of the “N-word”, as it were, is right on point.

Also, while the article is fairly comprehensive, unfortunately, Hutchinson never brings up “Black self-hatred”, the other half of racism – the euphemism for White Supremacy.

To be sure, the self-hatred just mentioned is the sentiment that is both self-imposed and replenished in us through, for example, Black television, movie, and theatre productions that invite us to come laugh at ourselves, over experiences that involve everything from barber shops, to boat cruises, to weddings, to hitting the lottery. This self-hatred, of course, legitimizes the systematic exploitation and oppression that is inflicted upon us by White Supremacy.

Consequently, our self-hatred is the main culprit that keeps African Americans using the word “nigger” as some type of affectionate term, since far too many of us continue to use it amongst ourselves.

Additionally, the N-word has now, mostly due to the buffoon minstrelsy that is known as hip-hop, become part of American vernacular, as it is also a term used by, especially, young people of many other cultural groups, particularly, those of European American (so-called “white”) Latino, and Asian descent. Still, please check out this very thoughtful piece.

Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.baystatebanner.com/Opinion58-2010-08-26
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New domain name extension is .org - it is NO LONGER .com (originally posted July 2010)

"The domain name of the Website remains Djatajabs. It's just called .org at the end, instead of .com though. Additionally, all of the previously-published posts are still here and in place."

One Love,
G. Djata Bumpus
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