You know what? I’m glad she did that. Really.
All these wingnuts doing right-wing hate radio have been so very, very careful to NOT say the n-word because their defense against charges of racism boils down to the non-use of this word. You can make birther jokes (Rush), say the president wants reparations and hates white people (Beck), but remain not-racist just by not using the n-word.
See how that works?
More, I say. Beck and Limbaugh and the rest should just say the word and get it over with:
Black guys use it all the time. Turn on HBO and listen to a black comic, and all you hear is n****, n*****, n*****. I don’t get it. If anybody without enough melanin says it, it’s a horrible thing. But when black people say it, it’s affectionate. It’s very confusing.
That’s because the object of that word has owned the word. If you use it in front of African Americans, they will claim it instantly. It is their word, coined by masters but earned through centuries of systematic oppression. I don’t get to use it around them; neither should anyone else with white skin. It’s a presumption to do so.
Why don’t you let me finish a sentence? Don’t take things out of context. Don’t NAACP me, leave them in context.
So now NAACP is a verb, invoking the racist narrative of angry blacks. Good job, Dr. Laura. How about “welfare queen” and “anchor baby” in your next sentence? Context:
CALLER: Is it OK to say that word? Is it ever OK to say that word?
DR. LAURA: It depends how it’s said. Black guys talking to each other seem to think it’s ok.
CALLER: But you’re not black, they’re not black, my husband is white.
DR. LAURA: Oh, I see, so a word is restricted to race. Got it. Can’t do much about that.
Context doesn’t “depend on how it’s said” but on who says it. No word is restricted by race, but it is impossible to separate race from context. Worse, her caller’s context is a husband who doesn’t protect her feelings around his family, and that’s a crisis she is only too eager to ignore for a “doctor” of anything.
Of course, she did apologize:
“Yesterday, I did the wrong thing,” she said. “I didn’t intend to hurt people, but I did. And that makes it the wrong thing to have done. I was attempting to make a philosophical point, and I articulated the “n” word all the way out – more than one time. And that was wrong. I’ll say it again – that was wrong.”
But she wasn’t making a philosophical point, was she? Dr. Laura was just reflexively swinging a right-wing narrative to make a political point on what’s ostensibly supposed to be a therapy show.
