Essay 1177

Voters must give Va. pol another N-word: No

By Stanley Crouch

After years of protests against an ethnic insult traditionally used to demean black people, the contemporary update of minstrelsy that we call rap has made constant use of the N-word nearly acceptable in both high and low circles. It is even discussed on college campuses and defended as an “authentic” part of black culture. But now the noise level has gone up because Virginia politician George Allen is accused of having used the slur 20 years ago in college and after, while climbing the political ladder. Wow.

Before this controversy arose, the Republican Allen was thought to be a shoo-in when the senatorial election came around in November. Now he and his opponent are neck and neck. As one commentator pointed out, the black people of Virginia, due to civil rights legislation, now have the vote and have made their feelings about the matter quite clear.

The question, however, is why did the whistleblowers choose to remain mum until now? Did they suddenly become conscious of how much of a monster using that insult makes Allen?

Whatever Allen is, by his own admission he has obviously not spent much time paying any attention at all to things that have happened in this country along color lines. He seems to have lived his life unaware of what happened after the Civil War in the form of redneck terrorists who controlled the civilian population with well-documented murder and violence.

Somehow, Allen had no understanding of the impact of the anti-constitutional laws that were passed and used to both disenfranchise black Americans and validate Southern segregation. I assume he slept through the civil rights movement, the race riots of the ‘60s, and the voluminous amount of television time, magazine space and book-length discussion of this issue so central to American life. “Rip Van Allen” might be a good nickname for him. Or maybe, “Long Snooze Allen.”

Only such nicknames could explain Allen’s recently saying to officials from historically black colleges that he has, over the past three years, been capable of understanding “how completely different, and incredibly difficult, the journey traveled by African-Americans has been in this country.” Things do move more slowly in the South.

Of course, I don’t believe any of that and neither should you. His statement did have consequences, however. The Sons of Confederate Veterans repudiated Allen for backing away from the Confederate flag and the spotless glories of the Old South.

“The denunciation of the flag to score political points is anathema to our organization,” said one of those men who should, in good conscience, move to have the organization's name changed to Sons of Confederate Veterans and Other Scum. I think that says it.

Part of the complexity of our time is that, in our decadent popular culture where ALMOST anything goes, a black man with a mouth full of gold teeth can become a millionaire by perpetuating minstrel stereotypes of the sort that the Ku Klux Klan used to justify its actions.

But a white man might lose a senatorial race for charges of having used the N-word, and for only recently acknowledging the monstrous history of the American South, which has been hidden from no one, whether interested or not.

How strange.