AMERICA:Jesse Jackson is in hot water after a TV microphone picked him up using the 'N-word', writes Denis Staunton.
IT HAS been another tough week for civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, who was caught last week whispering that Barack Obama was talking down to black people and that he wanted to cut the candidate's "nuts" off.
Now it has emerged that, a few moments later in the exchange picked up by a Fox News microphone, Jackson used a different "N-word" to describe African-Americans.
In common with other papers, the Los Angeles Times declined to quote the word Jackson used but identified it as "the plural form of a slang word that means 'Negro'".
The revelation opened Jackson to charges of hypocrisy because he has been part of a campaign to discourage African-Americans from using the word, particularly in hip-hop music.
This week, the rapper Nas released a new album that was untitled, partly because of protests led by Jackson over its planned title - the word he used himself last week.
"The title using the 'N-word' is morally offensive and socially distasteful," Jackson said last October.
"Nas has the right to degrade and denigrate in the name of free speech, but there is no honour in it. Radio and television stations have no obligation to play it and self-respecting people have no obligation to buy it," Jackson said.
Fellow civil rights activist Al Sharpton said he was "very disappointed" by Jackson's use of the word, although he admitted using it himself.
"I think that this certainly does not reflect the Rev Jackson that we all know and love," he said. "Those of us, and many of us have used it privately, said we must refrain from it if we're going to challenge people using it publicly. You must be consistent."
Almost everyone agrees that white people should never use the "N-word" under any circumstances but African-Americans are divided over whether they should use it themselves.
Many blacks use it in casual conversation among themselves, sometimes affectionately, and some black intellectuals argue that they have reclaimed a traditional term of abuse and made it their own.
Addressing Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH coalition earlier this year, actor Bill Cosby spoke of his distaste when he heard young African-Americans addressing each other in terms soaked in a legacy of oppression.
"They think they're hip. They can't read; they can't write. They're laughing and giggling, and they're going nowhere," he said.
The prevalence of the word in rap lyrics troubles some black leaders, partly because 70 per cent of hip-hop music is bought by young white men.
Right-wing blowhards piled on Jackson this week, demanding to know why, if the "N-word" was unacceptable among whites, blacks should feel free to use it. The dispute spilled over onto The View, a daytime show hosted by a panel of women, including actor Whoopi Goldberg.
When Goldberg used the word a number of times, a white panellist said she thought there should be a common standard but black co-host Sherri Shepard said the word has a different meaning for black people.
"It's something that means something way different to me than it does to you. I can use it as a term of endearment," she said. "I don't want to hear it come out of your mouth."
Black blogger Jimi Izrael suggested this week that it was Jackson rather than Obama who was talking down to black people by telling them what they could or could not say.
For Izrael, use of the word among blacks is a cultural idiom, although he warns whites that they exercise their First Amendment right to use it at their own risk.
"The 'N-word' is a part of my life and connects me to the experience and the black people I know best in this country," he wrote.
"Some white people are saddened and outraged that black people can use a word that they will be vilified for using.
"There are some white folks out there slinging it around, and I'm okay with that, as long as they are not surprised when someone cashes that check with their teeth. Not everyone should use the word because not everyone knows how to use it. And no, I'll not teach you."
