Nigger! ~name given to African Americans.
Queer! ~name given to homosexuals.
Faggot! ~another name given to homosexuals.
Heb! ~name given to Jews.
Dyke! ~name given to lesbians.
Gook! ~name given to Koreans and others of Asian lineage.
These are names, that no matter the method of delivery, they affect one’s soul. To say them leaves the intended target; wounded, scared, and humiliated. If you say them to someone, it affects you as well. You are belittled in the eyes of most decent people. You are reviled by most decent people. You are inevitably ridiculed for your obvious lack of intelligence and social graces. You embarrass yourself.
How exactly does a person feel when someone says, (and I paraphrase), ”you dirty nigger!”, or ”Haunted Fucking Faggot Memphis Bitchboy?”
My friend Joan, a civil rights freedom fighter and historian, would tell you in her experience that to have someone spit in your face and call you a nigger, is as painful as a physical punch in the stomach. The person who says this to you, has so much disregard for your well-being, and so much visceral hate towards you, that they wish you were dead and buried.
The first time I heard someone call me a faggot, I can remember thinking that this person wants me dead. I can’t believe this complete stranger wishes I were dead. What could I have done to make someone so angry at me? I would rather have been cut with a razor blade. It would have hurt less. I already had low self esteem. I already felt different because I was gay. My ego was pretty well shot by the time I heard this name. I wish he would have stabbed me. It would have hurt less.
The same can be said for every one of the names I listed above. The common theme is hate. The common thread is that they all make their victims feel pain. Physical pain. Emotional pain.
Why does someone use a word like that in anger? It can be as easy as you were raised with white trash as parents. “You didn’t know any better because your mom and dad said this all of the time.” Some people use these words to make themselves look more important. Usually in front of people with even smaller minds. Maybe you say the word because in fact you envy your victim. The reasons for inflicting that kind of pain are various.
Recently a Tennessee teenager, Jacob Rogers, committed suicide. He took his own life because he was bullied, daily. Daily he was called faggot and queer and sissy. He took it as long as was humanly possible.
We can’t evolve like we were created to do, if we are STILL using these words, even in “humor” or “Satire. These are words that anchor us to shame. I ask that if you comment on this article, that you please watch your language. There are some words that kill.
