Day 7

July 21, 2009

I realized today that I can’t date a Ghanaian. Probably no African. Probably no man that isn’t African American (Caribbean men are still ok, lol). If he is from another culture other than mine he must be conscious. He must be aware of and concerned with racial issues and their histories. Especially African Americans.’ I was in the car with Elvis and two other Ghanaian volunteers. He was on the phone with another man and said “Ok bye my nigga.” I said, “What did you say?” The volunteer in the back said “nigga.” My eye brows raised. I heard that some Africans use the term more so because they listen to American hip hop where is it used so freely.

Elvis said “what?”
I replied, “I’m surprised you used that word. Do you know the history behind that word?”
Elvis said, “When I was in the UK at the school I was in, when the whites called the blacks nigga they will always fight. I told them if someone calls you that don’t mind them or you will always be fighting.”
“Then maybe then they will stop calling them that.”
“But that doesn’t solve the problem.”
“And you using it causally will? If you know its a bad word, a word that causes fights, why use it?”
“We don’t know the history so it doesn’t matter to us.”

I paused. Disgusted. Maybe more so disappointed. The “N” word is a hot topic in the US which has not been resolved and probably never will be. The thing is, those who chose to use it have, even if, a minute understanding of the history and the discrimination associated with the word. But now it is spreading all over the world without the history attached to it. It’s like the word has been fetishized (in the Marxian context). Fetishized commodities are items, merchandise, that is sold from which the labor history has been erased. For example, you can buy a shirt from Wal-mart or any store and all you see is a design or cut that you like. You don’t see the international politics or discriminatory labor practices that may be associated with growing the materials to make the fabric or the hands that made it in a Chinese or Taiwanese sweat shop. This labor is used to benefit a business owner. The product is made under dubious circumstances to benefit someone else. The same thing can happen with words. Nigga or nigger (to me there is no real difference, although some argue that there is) assisted in creating a racial divide in the US that perpetuated political, economic, and social benefits for those who claimed whiteness (meaning US born whites, European immigrants, and even those who could pass as white). Some blacks began to take on that term and claim it as a term of endearment. This is most evident in the hip hop community. Some have said they have changed the meaning of the word, but I argue if you have successfully done so, then why are you angry when a white person calls you that name? That means the history still lingers. I said to the “Bebop to Hip Hop” class I TA’ed for last quarter, “Are there any other words that are derogatory slurs that the people who are being discriminated against, have adopted as something positive? Do Mexicans say ‘Hey that’s my spic!’ or do Jews say ‘Yo that’s my kike.’ No you don’t. So why is it that African Americans have done so? Is this a manifestation of internalized self-hatred?” I then showed them this quote:

"When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his ‘proper place’ and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary." Dr. Carter G. Woodson, "The Miseducation of the Negro"

I showed them this quote because it is no longer socially appropriate to refer to blacks as niggas. But instead of blacks creating a term of endearment and no longer associating themselves with words that was suppose to put them in their “proper place”, many have taken it upon themselves to do it for the whites that aren’t. It would be something different if the history was erased. Meaning, anyone could use the term without consequence, but that is not the case, both in the US and in the UK. The class and I also talked about the word “bitch”. Women both white and black discussed how they will use that term to talk with their friends. They can use it with their friends but no man can call them that. I then asked them, “Is there such a term for men? Is there a word that man innocently use with each other that they wouldn’t ever want a woman to call them?” Interesting all over the world blacks and women are the ones most consistently discriminated against regardless of region or culture, and in the US they are the only ones that have negative terms attached to them that they have embraced. How backwards is that?
Now the “n” word has made its way to Africa and the history is lost. But not completely because it is understood that in some contexts (such as with whites and blacks in the UK) the term is so offensive, people become physically violent. I’m bothered. Maybe more thoughts to come...

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On another note, we went to meet some HIV clients in the rural communities today. It was interesting. They were all new cases and the goal was to find out what they need and how the organization can help. The first was a woman and child. She told us that she believes the disease is an evil spirit from the devil and if only she prays, God will remove the evil spirit. She and her child are showing signs of the beginning stages, frailty, the skins is toughening, and the hair is becoming discolored. To many, her explanation may sound absurd, but as I explained to the nurse that came with us, for a Christian it isn’t absurd. But what may need to happen is that mediator that is a pastor should come wit us for such cases. As a Christian, you believe that all that is in the bible is true and all the miracles that happened in the past can still happen today, because as the bible says, God is never changing. For example, in Mark (I believe) there is a story of a man whose body would randomly fall to the ground and became ridged. They called the apostles to remove the spirit from his body. Today we would call the man’s actions, epilepsy. But then, it was called a demon. An evil spirit. And according to the bible the man was healed. Just as the woman who had an “issue of blood” (what we would call today hemorrhaging because she had a blood clotting problem) touched the hem of Jesus’ garment and was healed. The HIV-infected woman’s thought process is not so far-fetched. If anything her faith is very strong. So strong she is willing to risk dying because of it. Which makes me think, can your faith kill you? I called my cousin to wish her a happy belated birthday and I told her about the woman. She reminded me of a story of have heard before.
There is was a man in the middle of the ocean treading water trying not to drown. A boat passed by and asked “Do you need any help?” The man said. “No, God will save me.” Another boat came and asked the same thing. “Do you need any help?” The man said “No, God will save me.” After the third boat came the man drowned. The man went to heaven and asked God, “God, why didn’t you save me?” And God said, “I sent you three boats.” The moral of the story being that Jesus isn’t here for God to heal us directly. So God uses people to work through and assist us. It can be anyone. But we have to be in-tuned enough to God to know when he has sent us a boat. The right boat. I wish I would have told her the story. I am afraid that she won’t come to get the insurance and the HIV drugs. Elvis said, that he will pay for the insurance and the drugs they just have to make it to the hospital. The second woman was in worst condition. She was literally on her death bed. She had full blown AIDS unlike the others who have HIV but have not progressed to AIDS. She was all bones. You can see her rib cage. She had boils all over her body which is why she said she cannot move. Her child already died earlier this year because she didn’t take the child to the doctor. I’m not sure why though. I don’t know if she has the same beliefs as the other woman. I have the least amount of confidence that she will come to the hospital. Not only because she still has not gone to the hospital even though she has been told that it is the HIV/AIDS disease that is making her sick and that killed her child, but also because it is very difficult for her to move so I don’t know how she is going to make it. The third woman looked very frightened. More so nervous when we met with her. We had to go off to the side in the front part of the community so no one would see us and question her about why she was meeting with us. I wonder about her as well.