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The 'N-Word'; A look at its past and its future
By Becca Heller
Staff Writer
"Inside the door just walked a nigger/'
said Dr. Eddie Moore, director of diversity
of the Bush School and featured speaker of
"The 'N' Word" workshop. He had turned
off all the lights in Bryan Jr. auditorium and
asked his audience to clear their minds.
"What does he look like to you?"
The audience gathered in the room on
Sept. 23 was a diverse one. At Moore's
opening statement, students, teachers,
African-Americans, whites, and Latinos, all
took in a sharp breath. The room was silent
for a few seconds. Then, suddenly, people
began to call out words: "black," "male,"
"skinny," "ignorant," "baggy clothes,"
"unkempt," "uneducated," "rude."
Moore wrote down each word until
the whiteboard was filled, and then gave
everyone a moment to reflect on the image
they had just created.
During the workshop, Moore
acknowledged both the painful history and
associations that come with the n-word,
but he also admitted that chances were
slim of the word dying out anytime soon.
"'Nigger's' here to stay," he said. "Tm
not here to stop 'nigger' from existing.
What I'm more concerned about is the
psychological impact."
The audience discussed the rapid spread
of the word, examining its acceptance into
the everyday vocabulary of many young
African-Americans, and in popular music.
"Nine times out of ten, you see teens
using the word in a seemingly friendly
way," said senior Jabari Sellars, who
attended the workshop. "It's becoming
extremely colloquial. Pop culture uses
it so much, it's almost been completely
desensitized."
Its usage today, however, cannot escape
the degrading history of the word, Moore
pointed out. The history of the 'N-word' is
entrenched in hierarchy and oppression,
whether or not rap artists are willing to
recognize it. In fact, according to Moore,
the popular usage of the word in rap music
may have stemmed from the inherent sense
of superiority that it grants the listener.
"People believe you can take poison and
turn it into kool-aid," he said, discussing
its seemingly harmless usage among teens
and rap artists today. "It just doesn't work
that way."
He explained that the 'N-word's'
acceptance into our culture is practically
complete, due to the cultural effect of
wildly popular artists like Dr. Dre, and
to the thirst for the word that exists in
society. People feed off of the negative
reflection that the word has on people,
because it puts one group of people down,
and brings the listener up in the process,
Moore explained.
"That's the thirst for 'nigger,'" Moore
said, referring to the hungry way in which
people listen to and seek out music that
uses the 'N-word.'
"The niggerization of America is
complete," Moore continued. "It's got a
pretty good chance to last through the next
century."
Having established its permanence in
our culture the focus shifted to how we can
minimize its impact on people today.
The group discussed the effects that
the 'N-word' has on young African-
Americans, often returning to the negative
image constructed on the whiteboard.
"My main concern with 'nigger' is
that, especially with young black men,
when this becomes a point of identity,
there's something really wrong with
that," Moore explained. "That you can
take something born for greatness and
end up at the bottom-that is some serious
'nigger' success," he said, referring to the
'N-word's' ability to bind and oppress the
people it's applied to.
The workshop emphasized the word's
remarkable power. The associations
that went along with it-that of being
uneducated, especially—were real. The
word's presence alone, in common
conversation and music, has drawn many
young people towards achieving the image
that comes with the 'N-word.'
"We need to teach young blacks how to
disconnect from this 'nigger' picture," said
Moore, pointing back at the whiteboard.
By the end of the workshop, after
Moore's exhaustive coverage of the topic,
the group still had come to few conclusions.
"The extinction of that word, at least in
my lifetime, is not going to happen," said
Sellars. Still, it has the power to inflict
damage on our society.
"The 'N-word' has been and continues
to be pejorative," said Dana Professor of
English, Carolyn Beard Whitlow, in an
interview. "It's painful, it's hurtful, and it
ought to die out in usage. Period."
When asked for some simple steps that
we can take to curb the usage of the word
in our community, Moore listed three:
"We have to continue to build and
establish multicultural relationships," he
said. "There has to be ongoing effort to
talk about difficult topics, and we need to
lead by example. There need to be more
positive role models in our communities."
Edible Schoolyard will teach children about health, local food
By Eric Ginsburg
Staff Writer
Digging their shovels into the
dirt, four Greensboro children
may not have understood
the historical significance of
their actions. On Sept. 24, The
Greensboro Children's Museum
broke ground on "The Edible
Schoolyard," making health and
wellness a cornerstone of visitors'
experience.
Standing with elected officials,
author and advocate Alice Waters,
and museum board members and
staff, the four children helped
kick off the Edible Schoolyard.
Located in the heart of downtown
Greensboro on Church Street, the
Edible Schoolyard is designed to
teach children about how food
is grown and the importance of
eating well.
Alice Waters, who created the
first Edible Schoolyard over 10
years ago, came to Greensboro for
the event as the guest of honor.
Waters is an internationally known
advocate of local, organic food,
teaching children about health and
food, and is also the famous cook
and co-owner of the Chez Panisse
restaurant in Berkeley, Calif.
"They described you as the
Michael Jordan of edible gardens,"
said Mayor Yvonne Johnson,
introducing Waters. Johnson also
gave Waters a key to the City.
"It's planting an idea in very
fertile ground and I think it's a
universal idea," Waters told The
Guilfordian at the event. "We need
to embrace it as a nation."
The groundbreaking of The
Edible Schoolyard comes as
community gardens are on the
rise in Greensboro and nationally,
including the new garden at
Guilford. The project at Children's
Museum is the first Edible
Schoolyard in the Southeast.
But the idea for gardening and
food education isn't a new
phenomenon.
. "I can remember when my
parents had a Victory Garden
in New Jersey," Waters told the
crowd of roughly 200 people
attending the groundbreaking.
Victory Gardens were popular
during both World Wars as a way
for families throughout the country
to grow more of their own food
and offset a strain on the nation's
food-supply. Victory Gardens
were supported and encouraged
by the U.S. government, and
Waters is urging more federal
support for local and organic food
growth and consumption.
After remarks by a number of
people associated with the project
and the official groundbreaking,
dozens of women and a few men
waited in a line to meet Waters
and for a book signing of her
various books.
Senior Katrina Siladi works
full time as the Edible Schoolyard
Education Programmer and
AmeriCorps Access Member.
"I've been working my dream
job for the past five months, and
today is a celebration of what we
have done and what we're going
to do," Siladi said. "My education
at Guilford directly prepared me
to understand the importance of a
project like this."
Other people working on the
Edible Schoolyard project were
excited about the event and the
potential for the garden.
"It's a refuge for me in the City
where I can get my hands dirty,"
said Justin Leonard, who has
been working at The Children's
Museum for a year and a half.
His wife Dawn Leonard worked
on preparing the groundbreaking,
and emphasized the opportunities
for other edible gardens in
Greensboro.
"We can grow food in the city-
there's a lot of unutilized space,"
she said.
A number of Greensboro City
Council candidates were present,
including Joel Landau and
Mary Rakestraw. Landau is the
general manager of Deep Roots
Cooperative Market and is the co-
chairoftheGreensboroCommunity
Sustainability Council. Rakestraw
sits on City Council as an at-large
representative but is running as a
district candidate this fall. They
are two of the four candidates
for District 4, which includes
Guilford's campus.
"I'm so pleased to see this
happen," Rakestraw told The
Guilfordian. "It's going to teach
children about the importance of
Mother Nature."
Check next week's Guilfordian —
for a full interview with Joel Alice Waters, local, organic food advocate and author, kicks off the
Landau about local food, his work Children’s Museum Sept. 24 groundbreaking with two Greensboro children,
on the Sustainability Council, The Edible Schoolyard, located in downtown Greensboro, is designed to
and his connection with Guilford teach children health and food awareness,
students.