From Award Shows to Basketball Games, Caucasians Keep Shouting the N-Word
The obsession with uttering the one word that should never be said is peak white rage.
By Carron J. Phillips
Another Black person had the N-word shouted at him. Happy Black History Month. (Insert sarcasm.)
No, I’m not referring to what happened to Hollywood stars Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards — although I will discuss that later. I want to direct your attention to what happened to a Black high school basketball player in Michigan who had it shouted at him from an opposing student section while he was at the free-throw line.
School officials paused the game as administrative staff confronted the students to identify the guilty party, then removed the entire section from the gym. Goodrich (Mich.) Area Schools Superintendent Mike Baszler stated that the student faced discipline “in accordance with our student code of conduct,” while not disclosing what that actually means, which is often the case in these instances, given America’s history and present, when it comes to protecting the culprits who say it.
“We will continue to educate our students about the importance of sportsmanship, respect for others and representing our school community with pride and integrity at all times,” wrote the superintendent in a statement that stated nothing of substance.
The closest thing to being called the N-word is being intentionally spat on. But even that is an unequal comparison, given that spitting doesn’t include the weight of historical trauma. Besides, society will understand if your response to saliva is violence. That isn’t the case with the N-word. We’re expected to tolerate the intolerable and be considerate of others.
There’s rarely any accountability; it’s usually viewed as a learning experience.
“I have spent my life trying to support and empower the Tourette’s community and to teach empathy, kindness, and understanding from others and I will continue to do so,” Tourette’s advocate John Davidson said in his apology for involuntarily shouting the N-word at Jordan and Lindo at the BAFTA awards ceremony in London. The controversy has made the “Why does everything have to be about race?” crowd look dumber than usual, especially as it confirmed that even artificial intelligence is racist. Google had to apologize after its news alert about the incident invited readers to “See more on ni**ers.”
Journalist and author Dr. Stacey Patton recently explained that Black people don’t have to accept Davidson’s or any white person’s apology for the use of the word or the gaslighting that tends to accompany it. “The kind of apology that quietly shifts the burden back onto us, as if the real question is whether we felt something, not whether he said something ugly and harmful? We’re supposed to accept an apology that confirms our initial suspicions about how deeply that word sits, how easily it surfaces from white mouths, and how quickly the instinct is to minimize rather than own it? Nah.”
“Our ancestors didn’t survive the ships, the plantation, lynch mobs, redlining, segregation, and polite white apologies so that we could be confused by a manipulative conditional clause,” she explained. “They survived by paying attention and by believing what they saw the first time.”
In his State of the Union address, President Trump boastfully claimed that “We ended DEI in America.” It spoke to where this country is and why white people around the globe and in high school gyms feel so emboldened to say whatever they feel like — both deliberately and inadvertently.
And you wonder why they want a monument built for Charlie Kirk but wouldn’t allow Jesse Jackson’s coffin be honored at the Capitol.
Trump didn’t create racism and can’t make people yell the N-word, but his presence fosters an environment in which racists can be unapologetic. Normalizing racism has always been at the core of his legacy. The exonerated Central Park Five gave him national notoriety. His treatment of Black contestants on The Apprentice made him a reality TV star. And his disdain for President Barack Obama and Colin Kaepernick started and fueled his political career.
Donald Trump is proof of how far you can go by hating Black people.
Ironically, if anyone believes this is all coincidental, we are still in the month designated for the recognition of Black history. In the past, coded language disguised racism. Words like “thug,” “woke,” and “urban” were politically correct substitutes for the N-word. But that was before the occupant of the Oval Office became unrepentant about reposting videos on social media that depicted a former Black president and first lady as apes. It makes you long for the “good old days,” even though they, too, were problematic.
Carron J. Phillips is an award-winning journalist who writes on race, culture, social issues, politics, and sports. He hails from Saginaw, Michigan, and is a graduate of Morehouse College and Syracuse University. Follow his personal Substack to keep up with more of his work.
Isn't it fairly clear that Trump support is aimed at normalizing racist attitudes?
Please understand that Tourette's syndrome is a disease characterized by involuntary expostulation of forbidden words. Keyword is "involuntary." It must be differentiated from wilful cruelty and insult.