I was catching up on my reading and Sista Martian ( I call her that) over at Black Girl On Mars ( Really cool blog) wrote this great post about the power of words called "Pearls before Swine." http://blackgirlonmars.blogspot.com/2009/02/pearls-to-swine.html
In it she wrote about a recent incident involving the police in Copenhagen, Demark where a police officer was filmed calling a demonstrator a "Perker!"
What's a Perker?
According to Sista Martian (Only I call her that cause I dig Marvin the Martian and I dig her blog) It's a slang word for a Pakistani. It's used in the same context as the much loved N-I-G-G-E-R is used here in AMERIKKKA! And much like here the officer denied using the word and says he actually called the demonstrator a PERLE. That means beautiful y'all.
Sista Martian goes on to explain how some are taking back the word. Using PERKER the same way Black folks have flipped NIGGER into NIGGA dig? Of course, they don't get the significance of a Black person being referred to as a Nigga or Nigger by anyone other than a Black Person and since American Culture has transported the word Nigga all across the world via Black Music and Imagery other cultures have a twisted view of the word.
It tripped me out seeing folks like the Late Tupac Shakur ( A Black Panther Baby) trying to flip the word and explaining why, stand up comedians like Eddie Griffin continue to use the word even the Patron Saint of Stand Up The Honorable Richard Pryor denounced and renounced the word and provided a counter argument over 20 years ago.
Most recently we saw NAS attempt to name his latest musical offering NIGGER just like the Autobiography of Dick Gregory copying the same photo that went on Dicks book cover only to be told by the powers of Wal Mart and it's minions it would not be stocked with such a title and of course Politically correct not righteous minded Black folks protesting the use of it while not sponsoring higher Black Art.
Words like Nigger and Perker and the use is the same all over and we are not alone in our frustration and the battle over it!
Fight on!
BE Careful! BE Mindful! BE Prayerful!
Jaycee
8 comments:
I hate that word....
good post. smh@the world today...and I don't think it's changing any time soon.
Great post! Thanks for the nod!
hugs,
sista martian!
Words have no more power than the people that use them. Thats kinda how I look at it.
Mr. Jaycee great post.
It's hard to teach my son the negative meaning of 'niggger' when he can easily hear 'nigga' all the time.
Confusing...
Words are very powerful. They can make you mad, happy, sad, shy, hld grudges, make you fall in love...ect. Words can make or break relationships whether personal or professional.
As for the way which american blacks use the word ni99a... "We" have decide (I think unconsciously) how "we" will be percieved by the world at large. Generation after generation's have perpetuate our character in the media. Then there are those that depend on the whole civil rights movement to speak for us...when we need to be active in the present rather than resting on the past.
Some of us shake our heads but many of us are to lax in helping to bring about change and show that a word does not define a whole ethnic race of ppl.
I don't think Obama is the "answer" for the black community...but I do know that he has brought a sense of pride to it...and hopefully those that didn't before, will care that the way we treat and view ourselves is the way everyone else will treat us and view us.
With that said...please don't go over and read my ignorance on my page...lol 'Cause I set us, and womens lib back all the time...lol
Wow you would think that people who were bold enough to make derrogatory statements were bold enough to back it up. What cowards!!
Go.
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