Michelle Obama's landmark podcast (self-titled: The Michelle Obama Podcast) launched as a Spotify exclusive today, and featured her husband, the former Mr. President Barack Obama. As one might expect, she touched on a variety of topics that come into play in her relationship with Barack: family, community, love, and life. But she also didn't shy away from talking about race.
Michelle Obama introduces us to some very important nuances of racial language with her use of the soft 'a' "boy" ("boh-eh," @ 13:26). Many of you may be familiar with the soft 'a' version of the N-word, which some white supremacists falsely claim is an acceptable use of the word (it's still unacceptable).
But it doesn't end with the N-word.
I have to admit, until a couple years ago, I was ignorant of the powerful historical context behind the term "boy." "Boy" has connotations stemming a long way back from slavery times, through the Emancipation Proclamation, and more recently through the Civil Rights movement. The word is used to refer to a black person, oftentimes a slave or servant, in a demeaning way, looking down on them (e.g., "boy, get over here!" Ugh, now I feel dirty).
And Michelle has the awareness to speak properly and avoid using this word in the hard 'y' form. (#Kween)
This is part of a larger discussion on the role of racial slurs and derogatory nomenclature in our culture.
It doesn't end with the N-word.
Take, for example, Roseanne Barr's racist and dehumanizing tweet "vj [Valeria Jarrett]... Muslim Brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby," likening a half-black woman to an ape. And remember how many people came to her defense claiming, it wasn't that bad. Well, it was.
Or even today in some Arabic countries like Jordan or Kuwait, as well as Arabic-American communities, the prevalence of the word "abed" ("ah-bēd") used to refer to African or African American people. This word translates from Arabic literally meaning "slave." And although there are some who might claim that this meaning and so-called "American historical context" is not intended in the use of the term, it is still just as hurtful, and these people have the duty to learn about this egregious offense of anti-Blackness.
The N-word gets a lot of attention because of how vile it is, particularly in modern-day America. However, it is not the exclusive end-all, be-all of hate speech and anti-Blackness. We need to have this discussion now (we should have had it a long time ago) about eliminating these other words from our speech because of how they harm the Black community, at home and abroad.
It doesn't end with the N-word.
Thank you for your bravery, Michelle Obama. And you can bet that I'll be eagerly tuning in each week for new episodes.