Sticks and stones... Racial slurs or free speech?

Today it is impossible for parents and consumers of television and music to not hear Hip Hop music whose artists’ have a propensity for the use of the n-word. Recently I inadvertently heard a young white boy say to his Aboriginal friend, “What’s up my Nigga”; my response was predictable but I was aghast that the two buddies could not fathom my disparaging remark. Am I getting too old and out of touch with the real world - is this the way young kids talk to each other today?

African American Harvard Law Professor Randall Kennedy’s publication Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word came under public attack from prominent black activists when it was released by Random House in January 2003.

One irate activist said Kennedy ticks off the litany of defences many blacks cite to justify using the word. They claim that it is a term of endearment or affection. They say to each other, “You're my nigger if you don't get no bigger”. Or “That nigger sure is something”. Others use it in anger or disdain: “Nigger, you sure got an attitude.” Still others are defiant. They say they don't care what a white person calls them, since words can't harm them.

Kennedy understands, even sympathises with, their defence; he has no truck with those who want to purge the word from public discourse, wage war against its presence in such classics as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, encode it in hate-speech laws, and impose penalties and sanctions on professors, basketball coaches and public officials who use it, no matter how instructive or benevolent their intentions.

But in his passionate plea to recast public thinking and debate over the word, Kennedy makes the same mistake as other n-word apologists. Words are not value-neutral. They express concepts and ideas. Often words reflect society's standards. If colour-phobia is a deep-rooted standard in American life, then a word as emotionally charged as “nigger” will always reinforce and perpetuate stereotypes. It can't be sanitised, cleansed, inverted or redeemed as culturally liberating.

Are Australians becoming more indulgent of racist language or is it a passing fad or a vogue thing brought about by the latest American inspired Hip Hop crowd?

Alan Matheson, ACTU International Officer, in his March 1993 report identified a study which suggests “40 per cent of Australian university students believed their fellow students were racist”. While another indicates that “the issue is not among the top five issues of concern for young people”. One survey sees a “massive 49 per cent increase” in racist incidents of violence and vandalism while another concludes that there has been “a decline in the occurrence of incidents”.

Almost all of the State Government equal opportunity commissions and anti discrimination boards report a significant increase in complaints of discrimination and racism in the workplace. Yet annual report after report of Federal Government departments, indicate only one or two formal complaints of discrimination in their departments.

On the one hand, each of the State government agencies concludes that the racism and discrimination in the workplace is endemic, yet after nearly ten years there is no national strategy in place to combat such discrimination. One meeting of the National Committee on Discrimination in Employment took place in 1993; it has little administrative support and no resources.

So who are we kidding when so many conflicting reports are doing the rounds and being well packaged by the media spin doctors to suit the political agenda of the day?

Take West Australian Senator Lightfoot, who was found by a Federal Court Judge to have made racist comments. Costs of $10,000 were awarded against him. Lightfoot did not defend the charge at the hearing. “If you want to pick out some aspects of Aboriginal culture, which are valid in the 21st century, that aren't abhorrent, that don't have some of the terrible sexual and killing practices in them, I'd be happy to listen to those” Lightfoot told the media at the time.

Perhaps the Editorial in the West Australian best depicts this elected official: