Bobby Ramkissoon
Contributing Writer
Dylynn Lasky
Contributing Writer
Recently, President Bolton issued an email regarding a “racial bias incident” in which the head coach of the Wooster men’s lacrosse team uttered the n-word. In a moment of righteous indignation, President Bolton declared that “this language is wrong, unacceptable, and has no place at The College of Wooster.” Readers could be forgiven for assuming that the head coach had directed the slur at one of his players. However, as President Bolton states, he merely referenced the word in the context of a cultural discussion. Nevertheless, the head coach was temporarily suspended and sentenced to six months of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) re-education.
Those who subscribe to this idea that the n-word should never be uttered by non-Black people, regardless of context and intent, have elevated the slur to a mythic status comparable only to the way Harry Potter characters process the name “Voldemort.” Moreover, insisting on this taboo misses the simple distinction between the usage and reference of a word. For example, the sentence “That is a blue bike” uses the word “blue,” while the sentence “The sign reads, ‘Blue bikes rule’” merely references the word “blue.” In the immediate case, the use-reference distinction holds that the head coach referencing the slur is neither objectively nor morally equivalent to someone who uses the slur.
This should be obvious. We understand that there is a fundamental difference between the head coach referencing the slur and a Klansman who rides down Beall hurling the slur at passersby. To that end, to miss the use-reference distinction is particularly pernicious as it trivializes actual acts of racism.
Additionally, the assumption that all Black people are necessarily affronted by the reference as by the use of the n-word implies a considerable lack of intellectual fortitude. An assumption that is not only infantilizing but patently false. However, if someone saying a word – even in the process of emphasizing its harm – has the power to ruin your day, any claim to strength must immediately be called into question. This may seem harsh, but we are truly astounded by the fact that ordinarily rational and confident people can be thrown into a psychological frenzy over the mere utterance of a sequence of sounds.
One common explanation is that the n-word has been used by non-Black people historically as a means of dehumanization, and thus for non-Black people to continue to reference it would only serve to compound generational trauma. Indeed, there is undoubtedly some truth to this claim. However, as recently as the 1990s, most Black people did not think that this history or trauma meant that no one could even reference the word.
Therefore, an alternative explanation, one we hold with relative reservation, may be that the vitriolic reaction to the n-word and insistence on the termination of any who dares to utter it has little to do with history or trauma but instead with the kind of power it confers. But Black people must ask themselves whether this power is legitimate and genuinely advances their interests in the long term.
