The Rave: Pharaoh Has Spoken

            I went recently to a Jay Pharaoh show, a brilliant impersonator from SNL. Much of his material was standard dick jokes and occasional political humor. What I found interesting and a bit disturbing was his prolific use of "nigger ". The largely white  audience laughed perhaps a bit from nervousness, because–rightfully­– this is still a forbidden word.

            This isn't a PC complaint. I see what young guys like Pharaoh and Chris Rock are trying to do by appropriating the word as a form of empowerment but there's too much historical weight against it.

            I'm old enough to remember an ignorant five year old calling someone that and my mother harshly rebuking me to never use that word again. To this day it makes me cringe.

            Imagine my shock hearing comedians use it for a easy laugh. Pharaoh is only 30 years old and has the kind of freedom his parents and grandparents never had. He doesn't have to endure the "hate stare" on a daily basis or use a segregated restroom. But the word and its connotations is still a weapon for racists.  Samuel Jackson reminded a hesitant Leonardo DiCaprio while filming "Django Unchained" that hearing the word was "just another Tuesday" for him and other blacks.  Richard Pryor famously used the word in his routines until he went to Africa and understood its poisonous effect on African Americans. Fellow comedian and friend Paul Monney tried to dull its edge with the frequent use but when Michael Richards melted down at a show and hurled the word at some hecklers- Mooney changed his mind.

            Like gays calling each other fag, or the disabled referring to themselves as the real "crips" the word is acceptable within the tribe but not to outsiders.

             We may have to wait another generation before the shock value fades from the consciousness of blacks and whites then no one will care to use the word because it won't matter any more.