So Madonna Instagrammed a picture of her son boxing and hash-tagged “disn***a”. There’s so much wrong here that I don’t know where to start.
The incident bothers me because her apology started with a combative “Ok let me start this again. #get off of my dick haters!”. Later, she begrudged:
“Sorry if I offended anyone” is the apology that shouts, “I don’t see anything wrong with what I did,” putting the onus on the offended party, not on the offender. I certainly am not, nor was I being, offensive, but if you were so sensitive that you misinterpreted my words, I guess I feel kinda bad. I would really prefer that people not apologize at all over hearing that weak line ever again.
But it was a term of endearment for her son! Yikes. I’m a parent and try not to judge choices that other parents make, but I guess whatever backward family stuff you have going on at home should at least stay off Instagram. In all seriousness, though, let’s examine “#disn***a” as a term of endearment. The photo was not of her son’s SAT scores or piano recital. This was a boxing photo. Would Madonna have celebrated one of the first two in the same way? Would she have used the same hashtag? Still today we live in a “Birth of a Nation,” Trayvon Martin country, where Black men are feared as inherently violent and criminal. We don’t need another reinforcement this ugly racist stereotype, which is exactly what this awful Instagram moment accomplishes. We should be moving past a time when this is the only type of Blackness that is assumed and/or valued.
More than anything else, can we just agree that it is never okay for a white person to use the N-word? This is a word that slavery and racism invented, and we’ll never be so far past that that white people should be privileged to superimpose “irony” or “endearment” as a new connotation. While there may be some laws protecting Black people from discrimination, and while racism may no longer be quite as overt as it once was, the truth is that by walking through this life with dark skin, you are more likely to…
Be charged with drug possession
Be suspended from school
Not graduate high school
Be harassed by law enforcement
Be targeted by debt collectors
Die young
Be afflicted with major illnesses
Have a poor night’s sleep
Receive the death sentence
These are real effects of our racist past and perpetually racist present. 40 acres and a mule never happened. Many white people still cringe and cry “reverse racism” anytime we’re asked to acknowledge our own privilege. Could we just leave this one damn word alone?
Music Teacher Talk 