Opinion: Where Do You Stand on the N-Word?

The Education of History

There is a great clamour for education, education that changes the circumstances of a person, lifting them out of situations that tell a compelling story of social mobility where the success we see today is far from the lowly beginnings that will resonate and offer hope to others.

However, with education, I adjure you to get history, a sense of history, the lessons of history that will hopefully ensure that you have learnt from the mistakes of the past and can build on the foundations that were laid before.

Those who carry that sense of history when celebrated can find such inspiring words as were spoken by Oprah Winfrey when she was inducted into the NAACP Hall of Fame in 2005[YouTube] – “Because they were the seed of the free, and because they were the seed I get to be the fruit.”

Getting the Perspective of the N-Word

Beyond the uproar that accompanied the means-profiling of Oprah Winfrey in Switzerland in that CBS-ET interview there is an even more significant aspect of the interview that is being lost, it is in the use and the context of the N-word. See the later part of that video.

This is what Oprah Winfrey had to say:

“I do not run in the circle of people who use the word loosely or use the word because for me, it is out of respect to those people for whom that was the last word they heard while they were being hung, it’s the last word they heard when they were being fired, it’s the last word they heard when their house was being burnt, it’s the last word … it’s the word they heard every day when walking down the street, when they had to step off the sidewalk and let other people pass.”

She concluded by saying, “I owe them the responsibility and honour by not trying to denigrate them as they were by using that word.”

There is no other history for the N-Word

The N-word is loaded with history that some of us have never learnt and those who have learnt have easily forgotten, but the memory of those it was not a few generations ago to bear the humiliation, carry the repudiation and live the seething hate that denigrated a people to almost insignificance cannot be abolished to a trend and fad that is gaining currency amongst our youth – a people without a history are a people bereft of roots, swept around like clouds in turbulent winds without stay or anchor.

No, my friends, we do have history, documented and living history that should hold a significance in the journey of life that we experience from a record of our ancestry to the gifts that we bequeath those who follow us – there is no respect in the N-word, it cannot be gentrified away from the seed, the tree and the fruits that have ripened and been eaten by those who revelled before as the necks of those before us bore the yokes we can never imagine or fully understand.

If there is anything that we can take away from this, it is that there is no other parallel history of the N-word that means nice, beautiful, acceptable, honoured, revered or desired.

Standing as 10,000

Oprah Winfrey sadly appears to misquote Maya Angelou in Our Grandmothers when she says, “I come as one, but stand as ten thousand”, it is no less significant in the misquote or paraphrase, it is laden with meaning and a clear perspective of history, knowing the road she has walked and where she has arrived today.

This is what the part of that poem says:

No one, no, nor no one million
ones dare deny me God, I go forth
alone, and stand as ten thousand.

Where Do You Stand?

The question then remains, shall we - with the sense of history that underpins the present in which we stand on the shoulders of the many who marched, walked, talked, prayed, were harassed, were beaten, were murdered and were martyred for the cause that gives us the humanity we now enjoy – go forth alone and stand as ten thousand for the shame and humiliation they suffered by celebrating the name that made our history so blackened by suffering and denigration as our new identity?

I say again, with education, get history and with history, get enlightenment for the N-word was given to call our grandmothers worse than the master’s dog, it must not cross our lips again, if we really know who we are.

Switzerland: A misunderstanding of racist proportions - Great for tourism

I know what I want

When I bought my home about 12 years ago, one of the things I went shopping for was a bed, a good sturdy bed that will stand the test of use and time that I sought advice from my estate agent where best to go.

It was on the other side of town, in Amsterdam, so I mounted my bicycle and was outside the shop in about 25 minutes. The shop owner walked up to me and asked what I wanted and I told him, I was somewhat immediately profiled and he thought what I needed was the ordinary box spring variety, I allowed him his spiel before I specifically told him what I really wanted, it was deeper in the store.

I strode in and immediately saw what I was looking for, wooden, carved, polished and really sturdy to the touch, the feel and the hold apart from it being quite heavy – I pointed at it and immediately he said it was too expensive – maybe it was, but that was what I wanted.

Means-profiling

He remonstrated until I snapped back at him, “Who told you I can't pay for it? That is the bed I want and let’s be done with it.” With that came grudging respect, an offer to deliver the bed at any time of my convenience into the late evening and the service I should have had from the moment I showed up as a customer – Courtesy, respect, friendliness and helpfulness.

What had happened to me was I was ‘means-profiled’ by reason of some subjective quality, probably race, in the mind of the shop owner, he had thought – “I have seen many shoppers come here and this chap cannot afford the best goods I have in my store, I will not waste my time with him window shopping, I’ll just show him what belongs to the affordable profile of his type.”

We all suffer it

I am sure many of us have been ‘means-profiled’, belittled, patronised and basically disrespected on the premise of some subjective and prejudicial perception of another and in those circumstances have had to endure a looming humiliation from people who honestly think they are doing us some good or as a shop attendant said to Oprah Winfrey in Zurich recently, “I don’t want to hurt your feelings.”

In the narration Oprah Winfrey gave and one should not have to introduce her, she was in Switzerland to attend TinaTurner’s wedding when she decided to go shopping without an entourage or posse. [The Oprah Interview with CBS ET – The story has since been edited after I first read it.]

A clear perception

She walked into one of the Trois Pomme luxury shops in Zurich on Bahnhofstrasse, probably with the name Prada Donna and a conversation ensued where she wanted a particular bag and the shop attendant refused thrice to obtain the bag for her with a clear statement that it was too expensive.

It is not that the attendant, did not want to serve Oprah, but the attendant concentrated on showing Oprah bags she did not want, as Oprah pressed thrice to have a look at the $40,000 bag before she left the shop having been pitied, sympathised with, belittled and patronised, with a lovely statement from the attendant, “Oh, I don’t want to hurt your feelings.”

In fact, Oprah delivered that line with a mock-Swiss accent, highlighting occasions of subtle racism that she has encountered as a self-made billionaire, successful and powerful global media figure who just happens to be African-American.

No, she didn’t say that

As the backlash began to grow against the store, then, Zurich and possibly might even engulf Switzerland and create a seething animosity to any encounter with the Swiss from here on, the shop owner, Trudie Goetz, so lacking in nuance and perception of the grave situation that had been triggered, first apologised for the “misunderstanding” and then palmed it off with, "We don't have any facial recognition here.”

You have to ask, what can be so misunderstood with a simple request as, “Please can I see that bag?”? Especially, when that request was made thrice, giving time to exercise the utmost patience and avoid the need to flare up like a diva that you are probably in your rights to do, if you needed to.

The one about facial recognition is beneath contempt, it is lower than a rotten snake’s belly. Why should a shop have to have face recognition to determine whether a stranger is of means or a pauper to decide what service they should get?

Strike off Switzerland?

No, but the smarter heads in charge of tourism for Zurich and Switzerland are in crisis and damage-limitation overdrive because the last thing any city that thrives on the rich and tourism needs is this kind of publicity – not in a million years, the cost will be unquantifiable.

The worst part of this is, if such rotten treatment can be meted out to a global personality like Oprah Winfrey, we the lesser personalities who are striving to be popular in the smallest sphere of influence with might have numbering on just the fingers of one hand, have no chance.

Now, I have been to Switzerland twice before, to Zurich and Geneva – these are supposed to be global cities of renown, I had a wonderful time, I met good and friendly people, I loved the place, I love the lakes, but if this kind of attitude lurks in the underbelly of some of the people one might encounter, it is easy to keep Switzerland off one’s itinerary without much effort.

Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls

Thank you, very much, Oprah

I had not meant to comment on the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls (OWLAG) which opened in South Africa earlier this week, but having read a few comments that seem to have missed the point of this philanthropic event, I am compelled to add a view or two to this debate.

What gets to me is the liberal egalitarian view that any act of philanthropy that is offered to an elite – elite, in the sense of people selected by certain criteria for a purpose – rather than to the generalised and un-assessed masses, attracts unwarranted opprobrium.

Philanthropy should not be about the armchair convenience of Utopian altruism, rather, it should be the determined purpose to make a qualitative, radical and appreciable difference; the circumstance has to be affected for the better.

It should not be about the paltry give a man a fish to feed him for one day, but it is the involvement of teaching him how to fish and during that process, you will be feeding him, provide a boat, provide the fishing nets, sustain his dependants till he can stand on his own feet and having learnt how to use the resources he has, he can be fed all his life.

If you have not read that Chinese proverb to that depth, you have not understood the concept of philanthropy that does make a difference from a dole out that just meets an immediate need.

I am particularly of the view that when an individual or private organisation decides to invest philanthropically in any project, it is first their prerogative and they are at liberty to decide how that philanthropy is channelled.

The job of governments

However, it is the job of established organisations of government to raise whatever standards and services they offer to improve the lot of the masses and where possible meet the standards of the more exclusive or sophisticated outstanding philanthropic acts that have posed a challenge to the lack of vision, leadership and purpose of organs of government that oversee the economy, health, education, infrastructure and opportunity.

I would rather see an extraordinary act of philanthropy that makes a radical difference than a thinly spread activity that hardly affects all concerned, it is in that light that I commend Madonna’s adoption of David Banda into her privileged family and the “lavish” educational facility that is the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls.

Thanks to Nkem on African Shirts, I viewed the interview Oprah Winfrey had with Gavin Esler a couple of times, since I could not find a transcript and noted some points which need to be highlighted.

One person impact

The first point to note is that Oprah Winfrey has spent $40million in building just the academy, compare that with the $200 million that the United States Government in the whole of Africa over 5 years in the Strengthening Basic Education in Africa Initiative.

The US initiative is a mass appeal project that is almost definitely spread thinly across Sub-Saharan African and is probably unduly consumed by administrative processes and bureaucracies than being actively employed in the intended activity.

Oprah highlighted some specific goals in creating this school, it was going to bear her name, it meant that she felt a responsibility to ensure that it was to the standard that she felt comfortable with, hence her involvement in all the minutiae that pertained to the academy.

Oprah recognised that coming from a poor background, the way to create lasting impact that changes people’s lives is to move them out of their everyday environment and change their perspectives.

Changing the perspective

We all very aware of the difference in outlook between children who attend state schools and those who have the privilege to attend public schools; the ones in the latter only see themselves as leaders of tomorrow being prepared to make a difference to their society, I am not a left-wing apologist.

In another interview, she lamented the fact that children in inner city schools in America defined their needs in terms of material things like the latest fads, gadgets and fashions whilst those in Africa had a yearning for education, there was a hunger for opportunity, the opportunity to change their lives and that of their communities.

Building the academy also presents an open challenge to those who have more resources than Oprah has, in that they would realise that one person can really do so much and it really can be done.

Knowing what you can do

Oprah was not going to settle for the mediocre and this does really cost money, the idea that the $40 million spent could have gone into building 40 $1 million schools fails to see that beyond building the schools, they have to be staffed by suitably qualified personnel who have to be paid and maintained through the lifecycle of every students’ tenure.

No one person can sustain that kind of venture and there is no guarantee that if this was done in cooperation with the government, the governments would maintain the standards and aims that accompanied the original purpose and agreements.

OWLAG would be completely run and sustained by Oprah through the Oprah Winfrey Foundation, it covers, tuition, boarding, books, activities, staffing and all incidental and operational costs of the academy that would eventually accommodate 450 students.

When these girls come into their own, I could see a vibrant alumni association giving back to their alma mater with selfless enthusiasm; this is a vision built to last generations, I am in awe.

African girls deserve the best

When Oprah said the library has a fire place and the kitchen has marble tops, she was highlighting a rather subtle point, which was, there were people who did not believe that African girls should have beautiful surroundings.

I cannot argue with that, she was bringing class into education and by doing so challenging the girls to expect nothing less of themselves as they avail themselves of the golden opportunity they have been offered.

These girls would also become ambassadors of light to their communities as other girls outside the academy now redouble their efforts to become one of the chosen few, teachers might even work harder to prove that schools without facilities can perform just as good – it is now a whole different ball game with education.

Oprah has thrown down the gauntlet for philanthropists to consider how to get involved when giving back to their communities and governments have to catch the vision of leadership to make education available to the poor – expose them to the opportunities and see how they realise their power and ability to change their society.

I only have praise for Oprah in this venture and I shall be making a donation to the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation.