Family, this Riley Cooper story is typical and unsurprising in so many ways. Let’s review: a white athlete says a racially charged comment while drunk at a country music concert, all of Black America responds by condemning the man, the media run away with the racial elements of the story, and said white athlete makes a public apology.
For those who don’t know who Riley Cooper is a wide-receiver for the National Football League’s Philadelphia Eagles. During the summer, at a Kenny Chesney concert, someone recorded a confrontation a drunken Cooper had with a security guard. During the confrontation, Cooper said that he would “jump that fence and fight every nigger here.” You can see the twenty-second video yourself here.
In the latest development of this non-story, Cooper and the team have agreed to let him take some time away from football to seek counseling (i.e. come back when the heat and media pressure have died down a bit).
So you may be asking, what’s wrong with this picture? I certainly don’t agree with Cooper’s word choice, but what’s most infuriating is the righteous indignation with which members of the black community have responded. The Black Pimps (Sharpton, Jackson, et. al.) and Sharks are circling, looking for any way they can inject themselves into yet another race controversy. (Let’s be clear, Sharpton, Jackson, and crew ARE race-baiters, there’s no way around it, but that’s a story for another post). The bigger question is why do we have this double-standard when it comes to the N-word? Pookie, Uncle Ron, and I can use it, but we get upset when Peter says it? I don’t understand? We have members of our community who profit off of the use of the word, I couldn’t turn on the radio last year without hearing Kanye and Jay-Z talk about niggas in Paris. Where is the outrage when Kanye and Jay-Z say it? Why aren’t we responding with the same righteous indignation? The next time a member of the Black community who uses the N-word gets upset when a white person uses it in the same or similar context, ask them, why is it ok for you to use it and not me? This idea that Black folks have exclusive use over a word that is used to perpetuate hate is preposterous, and frankly the word should be removed from our lexicon. Since that isn’t likely to happen, let me redefine what a nigger is: a nigger is a lazy, low-life, good for nothing, good to no one, useless individual of ANY race. So under this definition how many niggers/as do you actually know?
The point of this blog is to stimulate discussion amongst my Black brothers and sisters about how we cling to a word that has a negative connotation attached to it. I have friends of different ethnic backgrounds that think its OK to use this word because they hear us saying it, they hear musicians profiting from it, and that leads many of them to believe that the word has become mainstream enough that its OK for everyone to use it. That’s wrong. Before we can criticize others for their word choice, we must clean ours first. I hope that one day we’ll see the end of the silly ass cycle of Riley Coopers and the resulting Black/Media outrage that accompanies it. Until then, pay close attention and observe the erosion of common sense, and the hypocrisy of it all.
I love you all, & there’s nothing you can do about it.
~JW
Thoughts From a Young Legal Mind... 
I can’t understand for the life of me why black Americans continue to use such a disgusting word to speak to themselves, always finding an excuse(term of endearment!!B.S); how stupid can people be! We have intellectuals(Spike Lee, Travis, Cornel, and 2my great disappointment, NBC’s M.H.P.Lacewell). It will never die unless Americans with dark skin finally begin to have some self respect. Btw: Black Americans are the only dark-skinned people in the world inflicting this self injury, in the belief that they’re doing something good – it’s effects all black people, worldwide, and it sickens me.
Thank you for your comments and reading the blog!
Speaking of “race-baiters” you show yourself to be a “self-loathing KNEE-gro” black race-hata your own self bro. A civil rights leader who courageously has been on the front line of battle throughout history should not be called a “race-baiter” rather battle scarred courageous GENERALS who know whereof they speak. Unlike you who cowardly hide behind a computer screen stupidly, sanctimoniously excusing white madness er, I mean “leper” pale people’s racist slip ups. I KNOW you won’t judge my term “leper pale people” just like you didn’t judge white Riley & are probably just livid at Miami Dolphin’s Jonathan Martin for denouncing the racism of Incognito. You know, the racism that had him not denigrating Martin’s “white-bi-racial” ethnicity just his & by extension YOUR as Incognito saw it, “nigger” ethnicity. Get it now, nigger? But I digress. For the record, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson & others are CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERS as so dimwitted one (I’m SURE your white friends use that term about YOU both to your face & definitely behind your back so I know you won’t see anything wrong with me using it as well.). Annnyhoo, as so, the job of a civil right leader is to be on the frontline denouncing racism wherever it rears its demonic head. The media calls on them to speak up & we AA’s who have no voice pray & depend on them to speak out against it wherever it rears its demonic head on any level. That’s their job before a Just GOD whose word says “the little foxes ruin the vine.” In other words, nip each incident lest it grow & once again become mainstay in society just as YOU proclaim its STILL mainstay in your dear, wonnerful white leader er pals, thought pattern & that, you allege, “cuz bad old black rapers use it so there! yo white friends who you adore so much are justified!” Well, the problem that’s oh so wrong with that which well typifies YOUR disturbed mindset whether you acknowledge it or not, or rather, I should say, whether your white fiends tell you to acknowledge it or not is this, it excuses & blesses evil so justifying evil thriving. Why next thing you know, you’ll be telling your white fiends it’s okay to commit a “hate-crime” against blacks cause their are black criminals in the AA community. It’s okay to rape, curse, violate a black because blacks do it to blacks. Yes, that’s how insane & wretched you present your state of mind before GOD & decent self-respecting black people who are not like you. As for rappers or blacks using the “N” word, it’s obvious you were not on the “KILL THE “N” WORD” bandwagon where blacks had a symbolic ceremony burying the word? I gather you weren’t at the marching protests against SONY & other big corporate white devils paying rappers to use the “N” word & other vileness in their lyrics. Blacks protested….well, obviously not you but many of us self-respecting blacks protested, EMAIL, fax, you name it. Many black preachers denounced it as well, including those how did you put it? “Race-baiters” A.l Sharpton & Jesse Jackson. By the way, what did you do to alleviate the word in the black community? Oh yeah, you said, giggle, giffaw, shuck & jive & blessed your white “massa er, pals” who mock & use that term. By the way, I have white acquaintances as well who do NOT use the “N” word because I as a African/American don’t use it! Nor do I carry myself in some self-loathing “yes massa you can use dat word cuz dose bad ole blacks are using it” slaveshackled way that the caucasians I associate with would disrespect me & commit such deplorable acts in my presencce. Why, only a fool would do that…thou FOOL!
alexborgia “all” black Americans do not use that term. How stupid can you be to assume that! When I say “all” I mean countless “millions” deplore the term, teach our children not to use it so you can imagine how offensive it is to self-respecting African/Americans or as you phrased it “black” Americans to read your “generalized” assumptions to the contrary. It’s doubly offensive if you would dare reply that “you yourself” are black & yet foolish enough to proclaim you hate the use of the word but must yourself use it in that you made that generalized “black americans” statement. Do tell your ethnic origin. As for the deplorable term, yes it is sickening that the word still exists via segments of blacks existing amidst the African/Americans using it to describe themselves & others. To alleviate it there are black ministers who call for what is called “Willie Lynch” exorcisms. Willie Lynch was a letter proported to have been written in 1712 by a white or pale demonic-possessed racist who taught white slaveholders how to systematically strip enslave black humanity of all worth in order to brainwash him into seeing himself as a slave. Such practices worked & this devestating mindset was perpetuated & passed down for generations. Thus sadly, deplorably the “N” word lives & thrives in such mindsets. Even the finest of us can as you pointed out use it to reflect life as it colloquial is, amidst millions in “da hood.” We who are believers in God pray for deliverance in GOD .as He’s the only one who can bring about the necessaryt rinsing away of that word. Thank you for your concern IF that’s what it is. You say “it affects all black people?” Well to me, all black people the world over are affected by & enslaved by the demonic spirit of white racism. Yes blacKs the world over are to this day still affected by white racism that has them showing contempt for willie lynched black factions in the U.S. while stupidly blinding themselves to the “willie lynch” slaveshackled, self-loathing about themselves & the environment they slithered out of in order to come to the U.S. “liberated” region to enjoy the prosperity that African/American fightback made possible for blacks the world over. So I do hope “blacks the world over” acknowledge that this liberty as well affects & blesses blacks the world over. No segregation exists any longer thanks to African/Americans. Civil Rights, Women’s rights & Equal Opportunity exists thanks to AA’s. Again, I hope as you stated “blacks worldwide” recognizes how these triumphs affects them & out ofg gratitude, pay homage to AA’s as lets face it, it is downright embarrassing that black nations who unlike AA’s, have their own lands but do not have basic civil rights for women. Unfortunately, it’s the 21st century & amidst “blacks worldwide” still exists brute savagery. There are no civil rights for women. Rape, government corruption, ignorance, poverty, polygamy remain as rampant as it did 400 yrs. Ago. It’s disgusting, truly it is!