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ESQUIRE’S CONTROVERSIAL ESSAY STILL MAKING WAVES: Writer attempts to separate 'good blacks' from the 'niggers.'
*Before Michael Richards opened his mouth at the Laugh Factory last month, the December 2006 issue of Esquire magazine hit the stands with an essay from John Ridley titled, “Manifesto of Ascendancy of the Modern American Nigger.”
Like the memorable conversation between Mookie and Pino in Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing,” or even Chris Rock’s famous bit in a 1996 HBO special, Ridley’s piece attempts to separate the “good blacks” from the “niggers.”
The article has caused outrage among black readers and at least one subscription cancellation by a professor at Atlanta’s Spelman college. In a letter to the editor forwarded to EUR, Professor Jelani Cobb wrote: “I have been an Esquire subscriber for nearly 10 years and they have almost never touched upon race as an issue. Until now. I was offended in the extreme by the denigrating tone and half-truths of the piece attacking the black poor.”
Ridley begins his Esquire piece : “Let me tell you something about niggers, the oppressed minority within our minority. Always down. Always out. Always complaining that they can't catch a break. Notoriously poor about doing for themselves. Constantly in need of a leader but unable to follow in any direction that's navigated by hard work, self-reliance. And though they spliff and drink and procreate their way onto welfare doles and WIC lines, niggers will tell you their state of being is no fault of their own. They are not responsible for their nearly 5 percent incarceration rate and their 9.2 percent unemployment rate. Not responsible for the 11.8 percent rate at which they drop out of high school. For the 69.3 percent of births they create out of wedlock.”
Later in the article, Ridley makes no apology over his use of the N-word. He writes: “I have no qualm about using the word nigger. It is a word. It is in the English lexicon, and no amount of political correctness, no amputation into "the n-word"—as if by the castration of a few letters we should then be able to conceptualize its meaning without feeling its sting—will remove it from reality.”
Cobb’s reaction to the essay seems to symbolize the sentiments of African Americans who have read the article and posted comments on various message boards. His letter to the editor continues: Ridley's essay would be inflammatory had it been published anywhere, but publishing an article in a magazine with a 97% white readership that derides "niggers" and attempts to highlight the differences between them and "good black people" is highly irresponsible.
“Moreover, Esquire would never publish a piece that sought to distinguish in earnest between whites and crackers, Italians and wops or women and bitches. I have already sent them a letter and will be cancelling my subscription.”
Read Ridley’s entire Esquire article here: http://www.esquire.com/features/articles/2006/061105_mfe_December_06_Essay_1.html
