Posted March 18, 2014

I commend the Fritz Pollard Alliance Foundation (‘FPAF”) for its call to past, present, and future National Football League (“NFL”) players to “respect the dignity of your teammates, fellow players, officials, coaches, fans, and yourselves,” by not using the ‘n-word’.  I hope the NFL appreciates the wisdom of the FPAF and joins in their call for action.  To do so, recognizes human dignity and is a reminder of good sportsmanship.  Moreover, it would be a sound business practice to minimize hostile work environment claims, particularly since hate speech is not protected by the First Amendment. This is a moment for education and for the maturation of our nation.  Indeed, the NFL is in a position to serve as an example for the nation and the world by educating its players and making known that hate speech, in all its forms, has no place in athletics.

The n-word is a word of absolute hate.  Those who claim otherwise are misinformed about a word steeped in a history of pain and degradation inflicted upon Africans, who were forcibly transported to America to be enslaved due to the color of their skin. Institutionalized enslavement of Africans and their descendants in America spanned nearly two and half centuries, plus a century more of de facto enslavement in the form of legalized discrimination and racism. These facts must be understood as the reality for millions of people who were forced to live and die with indignity of the n-word hurled at them.  In some instances, these people used their oppressors’ words to denigrate themselves.  An elementary understanding of the Stockholm syndrome helps to explain why traumatized and oppressed people accept the words of their oppressor to identify themselves.

The generations of trauma from institutionalized slavery has yet to be fully addressed, let alone healed in the psyche of our nation. Of course, I applaud how the film, “12 Years a Slave” shed light on slavery in America.  Yet, this Oscar-winning film only focused on the life of one man, Solomon Northup. He was born a free man, educated, and was able to write about his capture and enslavement.  Northup’s enslavement and that of millions of others, who were legally banned from learning to read or write, was a nightmare. Their nightmare cannot be converted into a dream by a contemporary notion of changing definitions. To claim otherwise, is to disrespect them and the collective history of America.

While everyone may not share a deep connection to the history and legacy of enslaved people and their enslavers in America, the fact and impact of slavery must not be minimized.  Education allowed Northup to write his 1853 memoir about the horrors of slavery. In 2014, more education is needed about the pain inflicted from the n-word.  I have had the opportunity to contribute to that education in That Word, an inspired work of epic poetry, in which the “Council of Elders” in the “Circle of Truth” reminds some and teaches others why the n-word is profane.  From the spirit realm, the Elders in That Word lament to their descendants:

“We knew who created that word and why

That word was to perpetuate the lie

The lie of our inferiority

To promote our oppressors’ lie of superiority

Now we’re compelled to leave our graves

As we hear you saying it like you’re slaves

 That word was created to denigrate us and our descendants too

Under no circumstances, should we hear it from you”

Like the Elders in the Circle of Truth, I implore those who do not know history, to learn, to heal, and to respect the pain and legacy of those who were enslaved and their descendants. Continued use of the n-word and variations of it represent the back door referred to in The Mis-education of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson.  Mis-educated people build back doors to use even after signs directing them to do so have been removed. It is time to remove those signs from our minds.  It is time to stop building back doors.

CeLillianne Green copyright © 2014