Unpacking the N word’s Relationship to Diversity in Northern NY
I am sure some of you may know that I do a presentation on the N word around the country from time to time, often with a colleague of mine, Dr. Eddie Moore Jr. We actually had the pleasure of doing it recently at SUNY Plattsburgh and enjoyed an audience of over 300 participants examining various dimensions of the rhyme and reason, power and pain associated with such a problematic word. So, I think quite a bit about this word, yes, even when it isn’t aimed at me.
I also engage many educational and business organizations in discussions on diversity and social justice. In fact, it is easier naming the schools in up, up, Upstate New York that I haven't engaged than the one's I have. So, you don't take a journey like that without stories galore. I recently shared with the ninth and tenth graders at Peru High School that two northern New Yorkers, one a seventh grader and the other an eighth grader, from two different schools, both responded to a question I asked them in similar ways. The question I asked was “When you hear the word diversity, what is the one word that comes to mind for you?” The answers I have received from this question are always intriguing, and wide ranging. People offer as answers “differences,” "energy," “choices,” bullying," “prejudice,” “fear,” "respect," etc. It never fails to amaze me what people might say. But these two students, upon being asked “when you hear the word diversity, what is the one word that comes to mind for you?,” both answered “nigger.”
What could have possibly been the reason the N word would be their answer to a question that basically asks what is a synonym for diversity, or the first word that enters your mind when you hear the word “diversity?” Now that we have been kicking around some different topics the last two weeks, I feel as if I have a crew that will assist me in attempting to tear the cover off of this topic so that we can examine it. Straight up, I need someone to help me unpack this conundrum.