new york city has voted to “symbolically” ban the use of the n-word.

i’m not black. i don’t pretend to understand for even one moment what it is like to live with black skin in america, and it would be sheer arrogance to imagine that i have any say-so in this. but something about this gesture deeply disturbs me, however well-intentioned it might be.

as i said, i’m not black. but i was married to a black man and we were together for nine years and we lived in new york city. so i’ve had some second-hand exposure to contemporary racism and the multitude of forms it can take in a city where minorities are the majority, yet viciously offensive speech is protected by the first amendment. and i currently live in a country where using the n-word (or any other racial slur) is considered a prosecutable hate crime – where lawmakers try to legislate civility, yet recent history demonstrates that bigotry still runs just below the surface.

and in my experience of both environments, i’ve found i’d rather let the bigots self-identify through their own ignorant admission, than have to try to guess at who harbours prejudice behind their public facade.

by all accounts, this act by the city council is simply a feel-good motion, with no legal teeth. it’s a chiding call to everyone to be on their best verbal behaviour, even those african-americans who legitimately argue they’re entitled to reclaim the n-word and it’s sole usage as an empowering act. once again, elected officials think they know what’s best.

but as the u.k. has proven, outlawing the words doesn’t work. you can make certain speech punishable by law, but that doesn’t force people more sensitive or tolerant. you can make calling someone a “paki” illegal, but that doesn’t cure the antipathy which exists towards the large southeast asian community. you can make “hate speech” illegal, but that doesn’t keep people from committing racially motivated murders. you can make it illegal to spout religious hatred, but you can’t ignore the strong anti-muslim sentiment which has penetrated much of the country since the tube bombings. in spite of all the strictest rules and regulations, hate crime, race riots and racially motivated killings continue to occur. the hot ember of latent hostility remains burning in the ashes, just waiting for oxygen to burst into violent flame.

new york officials should learn by british example. banning painful words doesn’t eliminate the painful reality of racism – it merely sends it underground. and to my mind, that’s much more dangerous.

song of the day: the delgados – all you need is hate

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new york city, hate speech