"N-word" laid to rest
at "funeral"
By ERICA HARBATKIN,
thnt.com Online, August 10, 2007
EDISON -- As the New York City
Council discusses an official ban of the "b-word," and more than five months
after its ban of the "n-word," a group of New Jersey and New York residents
symbolically laid those words to rest Thursday.
The Metuchen-Edison Area NAACP held a funeral Thursday evening for the "n-word,"
"b-word," "h-word" and what organizers are calling the "v-word" — violence.
"When you have negative words, you have negative thoughts. And even though
we are for the First Amendment, we know words can hurt," said Reggie Johnson,
president of the Metuchen-Edison Area branch of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People. "We feel as if this is a way of making a
positive statement — putting positive thoughts in our young men and young
ladies' heads."
About 50 youths from New Jersey and New York attended the event at the Edison
Job Corps gym, many of them tossing into a casket scraps of paper with negative
thoughts and statements. Later, organizers would bury a shoebox filled
with those scraps, symbolically burying the derogatory words inside it.
"It's important because that word is going around," said Darrell Wilson, 19, of
The Bronx. "This is just the first stepping stone in banishing the world.
It'll take more stuff like this."
The local NAACP isn't the first to hold an event. Exactly a month before,
thousands of people gathered at Freedom Plaza in Detroit for a large-scale
"funeral" for the "n-word." A horse-drawn carriage carried a pine coffin
with black roses and a ribbon with the word "nigga" displayed.
On Thursday, organizers read the same obituary that was read at the Detroit
event.
It describes the evolution of "n-word," a derogatory term coined by racists to
describe black people, to "nigga," which it describes as a phony link to black
unity that is actually rooted in racism.
"Although now in disguise, "nigga' was recognized by those who remember his
menacing consumption of the souls of their people," the obituary reads. "
'Nigga' began to separate black youth from their proud history, and successfully
encouraged youth of other races to join his campaign for the resurgence in
demeaning the African-American race."
Organizers said the event has become even more important within the context of
the recent murders in the state — two young black men were killed within three
days of each other last month in Franklin and then three college students killed
on a school playground in Newark last week.
"We've been appalled by that and we're taking (the funeral for the n-word) to
another level," Johnson said. "We're not just talking about the n-word and
the h-word and the b-word — but we're also looking at "V' for violence."
Keenan Sanders, 20, was on his front porch in Franklin on July 12 when he was
fatally stabbed in the throat. Ammar Simmons, 18, was shot and killed
three days later while he was with friends at the Franklin Township Little
League Complex. Police are still searching for Simmons' killer.
Then there was the execution-style slaying Saturday of three youths — and the
attempted murder of a fourth — who were hanging out at an elementary school
playground in Newark. The murders came as the city had been reducing
overall crime rates, although murders have been keeping steady with last year's
rates. Saturday's events shook the Ivy Hill neighborhood, where the
victims — all bound for Delaware State in the fall — had managed to avoid the
crime and violence that lived all around them.
As two people were arrested in connection with the shootings Thursday,
organizers of the Edison event were seeking to put an end to violence in the
area — and that means putting an end to the words they were burying.
The Rev. Kevin Strong of Cathedral International in Perth Amboy, who presided
over the event, said that violence is rooted in the language they were burying
Thursday.
"I think we have to relay to our youth that climates are created by words,"
Strong said. "During the civil rights struggle, there were words that were
used to make us feel inferior, make us feel like less. ... Since the civil
rights movement, we've gotten a little complacent; we've gotten a little
comfortable. We feel like, "it's all right.' But it's not all right."
"Nigger become a nickname for your friends, your brothers, your sisters," said
Lauren Ashley, 23, of Sicklerville.
"Today we will lay the word ... to rest," the obituary reads.
"Nigger has terrorized us, but he has not beaten us," it continues. "We
have overcome him and we celebrate the end of his existence in our community."
eharbatkin@thnt.com
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