The bit that got to me in Diane's message dated Feb 28 (slow to catch up,
aren't I?) was the "slipperyness" and potential for in-group controversy
of affectionate, ingroup usage of terms that entered the lexicon as terms of
abuse for the group by outsiders. There is a splendidly tense evocation of the
territoriality that surrounds such usage in the movie Gridlocked (title?) where
Tupac Shakur and his "White" drug-abusing buddy are hustling a supplier,
and the white guy uses the word nigger to address the black guy who is not
his personal friend, and almost gets killed for it, followed by much humor.
In "Boyz in the 'hood", by now a classic movie about ghetto violence, I believe
that John Singleton is making a point about the "social pathology" of the
practice since the key eruption of violence is triggered by an unguarded slip
from use of these terms to express affectionate rivalry within a gang to use
of the very same terms to provoke anger in the other gang.
As a long-time advocate of respect for indigenous usage in the field of
education, I find this issue very challenging. Irony, as we have often noted
in this medium, is a very delicate genre. Perhaps, the best guidance we can
offer is to suppress its usage when cross-cultural communication is at stake ?
Robert
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Robert Serpell Telephone: (410)455-2417
Psychology Department (410)455-2567
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