Forget the L word; let’s talk about the N word.
…did the world of gay news just have a miniature explosion while I was asleep or something? First we’ve got California approving legislation for gay marriage and Arnie being a douche about vetoing it, then Bush nominating a man with an anti-gay record for surgeon general (does this surprise anyone at all?), and not to mention Kalamazoo, MI stripping away same-sex partner benefits (I was supposed to speak at an animation convention there last month; I’m glad I didn’t, now). Is it just me, or did the gay community take a few hits below the belt in the past few days? Then again, it does seem to go that way rather often. A few steps forward, a few punches recoiling back. But this is the story that really catches my attention today:
Teacher Suspended For Comparing Gay Slur With The N Word - 365gay.com
(Nashville, Tennessee) A Nashville middle school teacher who equated calling something “gay” with the use of the N word has been suspended for three days without pay.Stephen Henry, a sixth-grade teacher at Creswell Arts Magnet School, overheard a student describe something as “gay.” Henry approached the girl who is reportedly African American and asked her how she would feel if he were to use the N word.
The girl later complained to her parents.
This is a teacher with twenty-one years of positive history; a teacher who used an apt example to make a student understand the kind of damage her words can cause. He didn’t call her the N-word. He asked her how she would feel if she was called the N-word, so she would understand how people would feel about the use of “gay” in a negative connotation. I know the N word is racially charged and sensitive. But what it comes down to is that it’s a word that’s used to label people negatively because of a trait they’re born with: skin color. “Gay” is a word that’s used to describe people because of another trait they’re born with: homosexuality. It’s not as charged as the N word. But it could be, given time and constant use in that fashion.
I don’t think the teacher deserved a suspension at all. I think he deserves a commendation for making his point so clearly, and I hope that his intention is considered and appreciated more thoroughly when his suspension is appealed.
The girl’s mother said she was too young for that kind of discussion. If she’s old enough to be calling things “gay” in a derogatory fashion then she’s old enough to understand the connotations of her words, and young enough to change her habits before they become an ingrained and rather ugly part of her personality.
And before you get started on me about how I’ve never been called the N word so I wouldn’t understand: button it. Feel like playing the Adri’s Mystery Ethnicity game today? One of the many pieces that make up this particular pile of sweet brown sugar is good old African-American, darlin’, and where I come from one drop is all that it takes for you to be considered full-blood. So yes, I’ve been called the N word. I’ve been called the N word, redskin, tomahawk, Squanto, chink, bonzai, and a half-dozen other racial slurs based on one or another aspect of my mixed ethnicity. And that’s before the barbs begin about my sexuality, my style, my hobbies and habits.
So don’t you effin’ well tell me I wouldn’t understand why it’s so serious that he used that word as an example. And don’t tell me that the N word and a phrase like “that’s so gay” cannot be compared in severity, either, because you know what? The N word started off as a common, innocuous part of everyday language, too. Negro: the Spanish word for the color black, nothing else. As harmless as the colors red, blue, and yellow. It wasn’t until it was applied in a derogatory, dehumanizing fashion to an entire ethnic group that it began to take on the connotations that its slang/slur form, the N word, has today. It wasn’t until we made it ugly that it became filth. It isn’t the word itself. It’s the decades of intention that were poured into it.
So how long, do you think, will it take for “gay” to pick up that same connotation? How many times will we say “that’s so gay” about something we find disgusting or inadequate before the meaning of the word “gay” changes and it becomes as much of a sensitive, painful issue as the N word?
Language evolves by the means and methods in which we use it. Words mean what we wish them to mean. Words reflect our intentions.
So when you call something “gay”…tell me, what are you intending to say?
gay marriage, california, arnold schwarzenegger, george bush, surgeon general, anti-gay, james holsinger, kalamazoo, michigan, same-sex partner benefits, healthcare, the n word, gay, racism, homophobia, slurs, slang
June 6th, 2007 at 8:52 am
I cannot stand when people call something “gay”; it makes me flinch, because I know they mean it in a bad way. And often, when I used to confront them on it, they’d act surprised and say “It’s just a word I use, it doesn’t mean anything.” Well, thanks, kid, it means something to *me*. I do see the word going down the same path as the N word, and I try to curtail it where I can - which isn’t much, but every little bit…
June 6th, 2007 at 9:03 am
Anyone who uses that word wrongly in my vacinity gets smacked. Ask my brothers, ask my classmates.
It took me a while to figure out what the hell the ‘N-word’ was, though… I’m glad you explained in the article.
I think that teacher did the wise thing! It’s the perfect way of making someone understand the consequences of your actions.
Suspending him for that is just plain stupid. It proves little more than that the people who suspended him, don’t want to think about the issue because it makes them uncomfortable.
These articles sure give me something to use for discussion on my oral exam for English on Friday… We have to learn a book about the USA by heart, and it’s a liiiittle bit biased. Luckily my teacher knows that.
Most of my classmates don’t…
June 6th, 2007 at 9:41 am
[...] in 451press news: A teacher gets suspended for comparing the word “gay” to the “N” word, Lindsey Lohan and Vanessa Millano doll out some lesbianish poses in these racy photos, [...]
June 6th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
But doesn’t “gay” mean happy. Or it used to. I understand what you are saying in this post, but as far as us changing words and whatnot, well “gay” hasn’t always meant a homosexual, and the rainbow’s significance used to mean a promise between God and his people that he would never use water to destroy the earth again (think Noah). The rainbow is a promise, now someone how it’s become the “mascot” or image portrayed for homosexuals and whatnot.
I judge not anyone. Great point the teacher was making, but educators have to be careful with their “teachings” and whatnot, because parents can be “bitches” to say the least.
June 6th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
Gay did used to mean happy, but it became, somehow, the most popularly used word for homosexual over time; I’d be interested in finding out the lineage for that, sometime.
However, just because something once meant something, doesn’t mean that it means the same thing anymore. Negro isn’t considered kosher to use anymore, because of its ties to nigger. And gay has all but lost its original connections, now only having them in the literature and art that was produced before the shift (although much of that is being re-translated, I’ve heard of Xmas carols changing gay to ‘bright’).
If a word is continually used as an insult, then it will become popularly known as an insult. That is, in fact, the reason for the ‘taking it back’ movement for the n-word.. though unfortunately, in my opinion it isn’t being done well.
June 6th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve read about in a long, long time. It’s such a small thing, really, but it can have much more of an impact than any of us realize now.
I actually came out to my younger brother a few years ago (well before I came out to my parents) when I caught him calling this “gay” or that “gay”. I told him that if he didn’t stop using that word to describe things, I would have to relieve him of an incredibly important part of his anatomy. He asked what the big deal was, so I told him that I’m a lesbian. I’ve never heard him use it since. A small thing, too, but significant in my personal life. And there comes a time when what is significant to only one person becomes significant to many.
December 6th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
I am of a younge age, but i hear this word on an hour to hour basis at my school. amelia high is full of homophobes. i scream so much my lungs go numb from the vibrations. i’m also from the “weird” group. or the “goths” what ever you need to call me to get the point. so alot of the girls at my school prefur the word dyke. i try reminding my self of “nomus day” wich means love every one’s higher self, they can’t controll their beleifs… but then there is that nawing voice in the back of my head screaming ” rip put their intestans and hang them with them.” has anyone ever beat this strive for tranquillity with people you hate?