Jiggers With Attitude
- 8 Jun 07, 06:35 PM
The Big Brother debate over the ΅―n΅― word shows how critical the context of a word is. Used by the likes of Chuck D from Public Enemy, the word is a spear sharpened at both ends, jibing and provoking and forcing the listener to see a long history of subjugation and common pain. But when the speaker is a blonde and mildly posh 19 year from Bristol - former slavery centre of the Empire - people aren΅―t happy.
The closest thing we΅―ve got to it here is the term Paddy. Again there΅―s a history there ¨C a long tradition of repellent Bernard Manning jokes, calling us thick and uncultured and deserving of colonial abuse. I remember the first time an English guy called me Paddy. I was working as a post boy in a computer firm in Whitechapel when he saluted me in the lift with this name. And while he wasn΅―t actively malicious, I was furious. All of my individuality had been stripped away. I had become generic in his eyes. By the end of a very short journey, he had been encouraged to say sorry.
A few years later and a cool T-shirt arrived in London. It was all green apart from three huge letters: P.W.A. Music biz people, in particular the Irish crowd (sometimes referred to as The Murphia) knew that it stood for Paddies With Attitude. It became such a popular item that U2 bassist Adam Clayton wore his onstage, with pride. And he΅―s basically an Anglo. But hey, there was some dispensation involved.
If in doubt, bury the racial insults. Sly Stone who led an amazing, multi-cultural act The Family Stone expressed it thus: ΅°Don΅―t call me nigger, whitey/ don΅―t call me whitey, nigger.΅± Amen.
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