Cornel West Vs. Michael Eric Dyson: N-Word Debate Resurfaces

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The NAACP "buried" it. New York City banned it. But the N-word continues to resurface in ongoing debates, this time pitting two noted black scholars on opposite ends of the contentious debate.

Princeton's Cornel West and Georgetown University's Michael Eric Dyson deliberate on the place of the N-word in American culture, and whether you can truly bury words, on West's second hip-hop CD "Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations."

"You see, we need a renaissance of self-respect, a renewal of self-regard. And the term itself has been associated with such abuse," West said in an interview. "It associates black people with being inferior, subhuman and subordinate. So we ought to have a moratorium on the term. We ought not to use the term at all."

West teaches religion and African-American studies at Princeton.

In a recent interview with Diverse Issues in Higher Education, West said he wanted the CD to help "the older generation raise their voices and listen to the younger generation so that there can be an internal dialogue between the two generations."

But during a recent radio interview, Dyson has argued that words, particularly those with a dishonorable history like the N-word, refuse to be buried for long.

"I think the Holy Ghost of rhetorical fire will insist that the N-word not be buried. I don't think you can bury words," Dyson said. "I think the more you try to dismiss them, the more power you give to them, the more circulation they have. I think that there are many more issues that the NAACP should be focused on: structural inequality, social injustice, this war in Iraq, the imperial presidency, which has subverted the democracy of the country."

From Michael Richards' tirade to Don Imus' "nappy-head hos" comment, the use of socially unacceptable language has come under increasing scrutiny the last several months. Rappers who have used the word liberally on their recordings have come under criticism as the subject prompted DiversityInc readers to speak out.

Whether the word will ever permanently be banished from the public lexicon remains to be seen, but there's a groundswell of support urging its abolition. Students at the historically black Bowie State University banished the word from two dorms and charges those who use it with fines. The publisher of Ebony and Jet ordered writers late last year to stop using the word. The town of Brazoria, Texas, tried unsuccessfully to pass an ordinance leveling $500 fines for uttering the word.

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