The N-Word Special Report: Chapter IV

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Words in Disguise

Politicians, the media and others won’t use the N-word up front. But coded terms have become commonplace when referring to black people.

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After the Carolina Panthers dismantled the Arizona Cardinals in the National Football League playoffs in January, a young black quarterback by the name of Cam Newton reached one of the top pinnacles of professional sports: a trip to the Super Bowl.

As the Panthers’ signal caller, Newton led the team to a nearly unblemished record during the season. Known for his size, strength and quirky end-zone celebrations, Newton also created a stir this season and developed his share of critics.

Some called him a showboat. Others complained that his antics after touchdowns were bringing the league down. When he suggested his critics were calling him out because he was a black quarterback, many responded by calling him a thug.

Newton shot back via Instagram, quoting boxer Muhammad Ali: “I know where I’m going and I know the truth and I don’t have to be what you want me to be. I’m free to be what I want.”

The implication in the use of the word “thug” was clear: It refers to malintent or criminal behavior. But Newton made it clear that he wasn’t going to let the media take shots with such coded language.

Many words – among them “ratchet,” “ghetto” and “sketchy” – are widely used by mainstream media. And their use implicitly degrades people and communities of color. The language, in essence, becomes code for something negative.

Nike Arnold, an associate professor of applied linguistics at Portland State University, says the notion of coded language is rooted in the power dynamics of race. “Humans have always used language to position themselves and position others,” Arnold says. “It can happen implicitly and very explicitly. In the case of these derogatory terms, that’s a very explicit positioning of somebody.”

Like the N-word, these coded terms carry weight. Their connotations extend into perpetuating offensive stereotypes and adding to the superiority complex of white dominance in American culture. Still, discussion around coded language is a relatively new concept.

The N-word’s use began dwindling from the political and public arenas in the 1960s. Since then, the word has mainly been used by people who express overtly racist beliefs or by young people who seek to reclaim it.

But it’s becoming increasingly apparent that although the word is no longer socially acceptable in a formal sense, it is still communicated in other ways.

“In the context of American racial history, there have always been many terms that have been used to identify a black person, a person of color,” says Darrell Millner, an emeritus professor of Black Studies at Portland State University. “Those terms have always coexisted. And each of the various terms had a particular connotation when used in that exchange between the user and the target.”

These coded terms have acquired their negative implications through both systemic and de facto racism and harmful stereotypes. They have become common because they don’t solicit the same social backlash that the N-word does. Still, they are abundant in the media, in politics and among groups of friends.

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Sophomore Deaijainae Tolbert, who is African American, says her experience with the use of coded terms at Grant is frustrating and unfair. “I get called for being ghetto, but for some reason in order for me to express myself, I (have to) be loud,” she says.

The term “ghetto” denotatively means an area of a city with a large concentration of ethnic or racial minorities. Ghettos often form because of social, economic or governmental restrictions and today are commonly used to describe something as cheap and substandard. More specifically, the word is used to target and degrade the black community.

But Aujai Webster, a junior who is African American, notes: “Not just one race can be ghetto. Ghetto is a word, that is, anyone can be ghetto. It’s not just one race…It is an offensive word for some but then you hear some people calling themselves ghetto.”

The use of this word can be traced back to the 16th century when European countries segregated the Jewish population to specific parts of their cities. By the end of the 19th century, Jewish ghettos around Europe were thought to have disappeared, but that changed with the rise to power of Nazi Germany.

In the United States, the word has morphed into both an intra and interracial put-down.

Junior Brianna Henderson admits “even black people now think like, thug and ghetto are ways to…classify black people in…their class and stuff and like…‘Oh you act like or look like a thug. Because you act classless, you must live in the ghetto.’”

“Thug” has also become a popular word that, unlike ghetto, hasn’t strayed far from its meaning. The etymology of the word traces back to India in the 19th century where the Hindi word “thag” was used to refer to criminals and swindlers. It eventually made its way to the United States as “thug.” It still retains the original meaning, but the targets of the word are more often than not black men.

“A black protester is far more likely to be called a thug than like a white protester,” says Grant English teacher Lukas Sherman, who is white. That’s “without people really understanding the implications of that word.”

In 2013, Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman, who is black, was fresh off a win that would take his team to the Super Bowl. The Stanford graduate drew plenty of media attention when he exclaimed over and over, “I’m the best corner in the game.” The sound bite was broadcasted over sports networks and primetime news shows for months.

Critics didn’t shy away from calling him a thug. But Sherman shot back.

“The reason it bothers me is because it seems like it’s an accepted way of calling somebody the N-word now,” he said at a press conference. “It’s like everybody else said the N-word and then they say ‘thug’ and that’s fine. It kind of takes me aback and it’s kind of disappointing because they know.”

He continued.

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His questions were met with laughter from the correspondents in the room, but it’s no laughing matter to black students like Henderson.

“Thug shouldn’t be a term used to label minorities and you see that in the news a lot,” Henderson says. “Like, ‘He was a thug, a gang member…He lived in the ghetto and stuff.’”

Walters, the sociolinguist, says these words are used to skirt around the issue of race.

“When you take terms like ghetto, thug…those are clear, very, very negative terms to start with,” he says. “But they’re also being used in a sense as stand-ins so that someone may not have to say something that they don’t want.”

This often happens in the entertainment industry.

In 1999, rapper Anthony Mandigo introduced a new word that would soon enter the multitude of other coded terms when he released his single, “Do tha Ratchet.” In the song, the word ratchet finds its roots in his hometown of Shreveport, La., where he describes the hard working pride of the community.

Five years later, he collaborated with Lil’ Boosie to revamp the song. The accompanying music video highlighted the signature dance style that came to be known as “The Ratchet.” This version of the song gained much more popularity and the phrase was thrown into the center stage of pop culture.

But as it was introduced to a larger audience, the meaning began to change. Marked by the release of “Ratchet Girl Anthem” by Emmanuel and Phillip Hudson in 2012, it became a term to degrade African-American women by stereotyping them as wild and unrefined.

And its use has carried over into television to further enforce stereotypes. Henderson says: “I was actually watching a show not that long ago like, ‘Real Housewives of Potomac,’ I guess. And like these are black women and like that’s the only time, like shows about black women are always about drama.”

Today among students, “ratchet” can be heard in almost any conversation with implications meant to degrade.

Perhaps the most common and overlooked of the coded terms is the word “sketchy,” which means incomplete. But informally among young people and in pop culture, it’s taken on the meaning of threatening, dishonest and disreputable and tends to describe areas or neighborhoods with greater minority populations.

Walters points out that coded language doesn’t always come out in obvious ways. He asserts that terms like “urban,” “inner-city” and “at-risk” have become increasingly racialized and are commonly used in conversation to allow members of the dominant culture to speak without any repercussions.

“For example,” recounts Walters, “Portland State advertises itself as an urban university, and it has every right to do that because it’s located smack dab in the middle of downtown Portland. But I have certainly been places and people have said to me, ‘Oh, Portland State’s an urban university – how many black students do you have?’…In that case, (urban) is a kind of euphemism.”

The danger of coded language extends beyond school hallways and Twitter; it’s found a place in politics, as well. Dog-whistle politics is a concept that utilizes coded language to implicitly demean certain people without being outwardly discriminatory. Today’s politicians often choose their words wisely and, with the help of racially-coded terms, can send charged messages through their rhetoric.

“The issue is if you understand the code, then you get the meaning,” Walters says. “But this means you don’t really have to say the potentially offensive thing, at least not initially.”

In 2014, now Speaker of the House Paul Ryan went on the record during a morning talk show to say there was a “real culture problem” in the country’s “inner cities.” He went on to directly criticize men in these communities for not stepping up to the plate. Ryan’s pitch was meant to gain support for his upcoming legislative proposals, among them work requirements for “inner-city” men.

“You can’t publicly say black people don’t like to work, but you can say there’s an inner-city culture in which generations of people don’t value work,” Ian Haney López, author of “Dog Whistle Politics” and law professor at University of California-Berkeley, said in “The Root” article following Ryan’s interview.

Ryan’s word choice and message as a whole was offensive. Some understood the true meaning of his commentary while others didn’t recognize the problem, an element to the dog-whistle tactic.

“All that a political candidate has to do is use the word thug, and many listeners will immediately picture someone who is African American,” Walters says.

The reality of dog-whistle politics is that there’s a thin line between strategic, implicit messages and outwardly racist remarks.

These implicit messages are especially abundant in the media, whose unique ability to shape the public agenda has enforced the use of coded language.

Last April, CNN news anchor Erin Burnett referred to black protesters in Baltimore as “thugs.” City Councilman Carl Stokes, who is black, responded sharply saying facetiously, “Come on. So calling them thugs — just call them niggers.”

Although the use of these words in the media is disputed, it continues to happen.

And this carries over into the school setting. These words are not new to the lexicon of Grant students or staff, and teachers can be heard lightly saying many of these coded terms during class. This offhand use is especially problematic because people throw them around as if they don’t mean anything, refusing to acknowledge the role that race plays in a number of dynamics.

Millner says: “There’s a scale between using the term that an individual prefers to use as self-identification, all the way down to the N-word. And every term that would be a part of that hierarchy would be a coded reference to how you felt about that person. So instead of calling that person in the early 20th century a colored person, if I called them a darkie that was an indication that I had no respect for them. But not to the degree of calling them the N-word.”

The concept of coded language doesn’t extend as far back as the N-word, but it has certainly found a place today in American culture. And it speaks to a bigger issue.

Until race is acknowledged as a prominent intersection in the public arena, the undertones of the N-word will continue to penetrate all facets of our culture.

Nike Arnold, the associate professor of applied linguistics at Portland State University, says that it’s part of a cycle. “These conscious efforts to find a new term that is not as loaded,” she says, “over time, these terms have gained the same negative connotations and then we’ve looked for other ones. This is an endless process.” ◊