klog

okay - “nigger”. this word is so bloody annoying. It’s not even the word itself, which is just a colloquialised version of “negro”, but rather the stupid stigma which has risen around it.

Bronwyn likes to watch Big Brother. Personally, the show annoys me - it’s composed mostly of very stupid people who will soon be very rich for no good reason.

Last year’s season included a scandal where a group of girls bullied Shilpa Shetty. What people should have been annoyed at was that bullying had taken place, but that appeared to take second place to the fact that Shilpa is not british. So?? Bullying is bullying, no matter where someone was born!

Now, this year, an eejit on the show uses the word “nigger” in a mis-guided effort to be cool.

“Wazzup my nigger”. Is that okay to say? Apparently, it is okay to say if you have dark skin (”black”? no-one has black skin - dark brown, maybe). If a non-”black” person says the word, they are immediately and incontrovertibly branded as racist, and have absolutely no defense. Stupid? Yes.

The problem here is not that “nigger” is an insulting word, but that it is apparently only insulting if it is used by a “white” (pink, maybe - how many people do you know that have white skin?) person.

The problem here, then, is that the actual usage of the word is racist. If used by a white person, it is insulting. If used by a black person, it is not. I wonder if Channel 4 would have given out at all if one of the black people on the show had used the word? They haven’t so far…

It might be tempting to ban the word, but that leads to extremity. What if people then start saying “wazzup, N?”, where ‘N’ is obviously a shortened version of “nigger”? You cannot ban a letter.

It’s all stupid.

I like to think I am not racist. Who knows… am I? After all, I did just write the word “nigger” a few times!

Just to make it absolutely clear, as Bronwyn has read through tis article and not gotten it - I am annoyed that people misunderstand where the racist connotation is with the word “nigger” - I’m annoyed that only black people can use it without being branded - that is racist. The word itself is racist as well, obviously, but to say it is okay for some and not for others is bloody stupid.

Another “by the way”. Bronwyn does not like me to even use the word “nigger” in this article, even though the whole thing is about the word. I believe that if we hide away from it, then we perpetuate the whole stigma against the discussion of the word.

Yes, the word is an insult, but we should still be able to talk about it.

Lots of news.

Jareth, my three-year-old mute genius, who can draw houses and write whole alphabets in lower case or upper case, and can also write “daddy”, “mammy”, “jareth” and “boann” from memory (as well as the word “color”, which we will forgive him for (he’s too young to know how wrong Merkin spelling is)) - has said his first word.

Yesterday, he said the word “Two”. And it wasn’t a fluke occurance. When asked what each of a group of numbers was, he would “um-hmm” for every one of them except 2, which he would consistently speak.

Yesterday as well, we got word that the sale for our new house has gone through, so we will be out of our present one within a few weeks. It’s a massive house compared to all the previous places I’ve lived - two storeys with a converted attic, making four bedrooms, and something like five toilets (one for each work day). It’s in a perfect location as well - well off any busy road, so it will be safe to let Jareth out playing in the summer.

we’re in number 16 or 17 or something

two and a half floors of goodness

I bought Bronwyn a laptop, as she kept complaining when I brought mine to work, as she likes to sit in her armchair and read her Grahom Coxon and knitting forums. The machine I got her is twice as fast, and has more than twice the RAM and HD space as mine, and all she uses it for is her poxy forums! I want it! I could use the power!

Her machine has Vista on it as well. I’ll leave it on it to teach her a lesson… when the viruses start infecting her machine, I want her to appreciate it when I install Linux on it

After setting up her machine, I must admit, Vista is pretty polished-looking. Although - is that all?? After five years of development, you’d expect a bit more than just some glossy window decorations. After Bronwyn had gloated about how Vista looked, compared with my machine, I installed a Beryl theme which emulated the same decorations, but in a free and secure operating system.

Vista? Hah! We shall see… *steeples fingers*