You recognize the word, don’t you? I have heard the word since third grade. That was the Fall of 1969 in a formerly all-white southern school. I learned early out to reject the word. I have never uttered the word in my life, never. I don’t care to add to ill-will in the world. Once a family member thought me a prude for never having uttered the word in my life. We were in a so-called nice restaurant in a sketchy part of Los Angeles. To make her point, the family member yelled “N——-, N——-, N——-” out loud to flex her power to say the word and have others just take it. It was not a shining moment in family relations.
When I wrote my first draft of my novel Gotterdammerung, a beta reader urged me to write out the N word since that was how people talked back in the 1830s and 1840s. I declined to do so as I have exiled the word from my vocabulary and refuse to breathe life into it, even if in a novel.
My young novelist friend believed I should use the world and divest the word of its power. I chose to disagree as a matter of internal manners.
Why is all of this relevant this evening?
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Tomorrow, my Book Club convenes at 6:00 p.m. We will be reviewing His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life by Jonathan Alter. Alter could have written a sanitized version of Carter’s life, a life begun at a hospital in Plains, Georgia in 1924. The use of the N word was in the air in that place and time. To his credit and the discomfort of some readers, Alter lets it all hang out. We peer into the family of President Carter and one sees unvarnished prejudice and bigotry. Takes one breath away.
Where shall I begin?
As you read the following uses of the N word by Carter family members, remember this southern white family was eclipsed by Carter’s second cousin, Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown Records. Gordy could have bought, and sold, his white cousins a dozen times over and remained one of the wealthiest black Americans in the 1970s. Berry Gordy Net Worth $400 Million I just wanted to throw that frame out there to show the non-sense and small-mindedness of race prejudice.
The Carter Family and the N Word
“We called them n——- then,” — Willard Slappey, cousin of Jimmy Carter, p. 34
“No white man would ever bet with a n——-…That just wasn’t done.” — Uncle Buddy (Alton Carter), p. 46
“Not much of a town—it’s mostly n——-” — Alton’s Son Hugh (“Cousin Beedie”), p. 250
“Somebody should have shot that n——- before he came on the lawn.” — Lillian Gordy Carter, Mother of Jimmy Carter, p. 276
“A n——- in a wood pile” — Billy Carter, Brother of Jimmy Carter, p. 318
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How does one navigate a prejudiced family if one lives in a bigoted place and time? There is no evidence that Jimmy Carter himself ever used the n——- word. Should we hold Carter accountable for the casual racial slurs of his cousins, uncle, mother and father? What duty does a family member have to stamp out the prejudice of close kin? These are not easy questions. Think of it this way. I am surrounded by family members who all believe Blackness is very important or important to one’s sense of self. The only possible exception might be one family member. How far would I get if I attempted to correct four or five family members about their strong Black identity? I would not get very far. Family harmony would diminish. Marital relations would suffer.
Should we be equally generous in understanding Jimmy Carter’s place and time? Then again, it is a special type of person who throws out racial slurs with close black cousins in the family tree. A special type of dysfunction.
To his credit, Carter broke away from the segregationist past of his people and culture. He lived in the larger world beginning with his study and education at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. He got outside of Plains, Georgia (population 601) and saw a better way of living and treating black people with respect. Growing up, I viewed Carter as a Southern Moderate who was a friend of black Americans. Consider the following accomplishments of Jimmy Carter:
Placed black congresswoman Barbara Jordan on the short list for Vice-President in 1976.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Sr. delivered the benediction at Carter’s nominating convention.
The convention delegates sang We Shall Overcome
Dr. King, Sr., Coretta Scott King and Andrew Young organized support for Carter
After a church vote to uphold a ban against blacks at Plains Baptist Church, the Carter family left the church and joined a new integrated church.
President Carter appointed Patricia Roberts Harris as Cabinet Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the first black female cabinet member
President Carter appointed more blacks, hispanics and other minorities to sub-cabinet positions than ever before by a U.S. President
President Carter appointed at least one black federal judge from each state in the former Confederacy.
President Carter appointed a total of 55 black and hispanic judges to the federal bench
President Carter enrolled his daughter at a mostly black public elementary school in Washington, D.C.
Conclusion: By these actions in the public square, did President Carter atone for the private bigotry of close family members? Should President Carter have felt a duty of atonement for the racial slurs of others? Did President Carter miss a splendid opportunity for racial truth and reconciliation by not inviting his black American cousin Berry Gordy to the White House for a family reunion? Should Alter have erased the n——— word altogether from his biography of an American President? Should we all give thanks that the days of racial slurs in public are no more?
It is said that good and evil runs through the heart of every man and woman. What would you have done if you were born white in Plains, Georgia in the year 1924? Would you have had the moral courage to tell your cousins, uncle, mom and dad to stop using the n——- word? To never use the n———word again in your presence? How would that edict have gone over in the Carter family?
Things to consider for the Carters (and Gordys) on both sides of the color line.