Names and Titles in Gloria Naylor's novel, Mommy, What Does Nigger Mean

When we talk about preferences, it is important to observe if the other person is willing to be called that racist term. Naylor states, “I didn’t know what a nigger was, but I knew that whatever it meant, it was something he shouldn’t have called me” (Naylor 477). Naylor’s character is very biased. The analysis of her essay towards such racist terms is that you can’t call someone the word “nigger” if you don’t know him or her well enough. Even though in her family the racist term came up a lot, she

In the essay “Nigger: the meaning of a word” Gloria Naylor discusses the essence of a word and how it can mean different things to different people in a myriad of situations. Depending on race, gender, societal status and age Naylor outlines how a word like ‘nigger’ can have different meanings within one’s own environment. Naylor discusses how a word can go from having a positive to a negative connotation merely due to how it is spoken and by whom. Naylor shares a personal experience with her audience as she describes the first time she really “heard” the word ‘nigger’. A young white boy in her third grade class spit it in her

An instance of her exemplification is by calling someone a, "trifling nigger" (Naylor 2) is to say that person has a bad reputation of being drunk, foul or rude. Calling another person that name may be demeaning to their reputation but in no way does it discriminate against them racially. A second exemplifying definition is the possessive adjective use by a woman to her boyfriend or husband. When that woman calls her man “my nigger” (Naylor 2) it means a term of endearment or a compliment. By defining a word specifically one can alter the meaning and the reality of that word through language while excluding prejudice.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Director of the Hutchins Center for African American Research at Harvard University, and an esteemed Alphonse Fletcher University Professor. According to his Harvard University profile he is an “Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, institution builder…and the recipient of fifty-five honorary degrees and numerous prizes.” Professor Gates was also the first African American scholar to be awarded the National Humanities Medal. In 1973 he earned his Bachelors in English Language and Literature from Yale University, and in 1974-1979 he got his Master’s. and Ph.D. in English Literature from Clare College at the University of Cambridge (Department of African and African American Studies). Throughout many of his texts Gates provides examples of the ambiguity of language and identity, and the oppressive role ideology plays in the black community; allowing readers to apply the idea of deconstruction to our own daily experiences

In 12 years a Slave, a film depicting the struggle of Solomon Northrup as he his kidnapped from the North and forced to endure 12 years of being a slave, the term “nigger” is used in its truest form, and accurately depicts the original connotation of the word. The cruel connotation of the word “nigger” is depicted in a scene in which Ford and Freeman, two white slave owners, interact in a transaction. After Ford buys Eliza, a black slave who already had her son sold off, she begs to allow her daughter to come with her to the plantation. Ford tries to comply with her wishes but Freeman refuses to sell the daughter stating, “There's heaps 'n piles of money to be made off her. She is a beauty. One of the regular bloods. None of your thick-lipped, bullet headed, cotton picking niggers” (12 Years a Slave). It is obvious that to White society in colonial America, that African Americans were no different then a piece of disposal equipment whose only job was to serve, not deserving basic human rights and courtesy. The outlook whites had of African Americans clearly show the dehumanizing connotation that the word Nigger truly had. In “The Word "Nigga" Is Only for Slaves and Sambos” by Rob Nelson, he discuss the use of the word “nigga” and how “it has somehow dangerously and disturbingly found its way into everyday language” (Nelson par. 2). He argues, “no matter what's done with the last syllable of the word, it doesn't make it any less offensive or demeaning. It doesn't soften the blow of a word that has been used for centuries to ostracize, [and] humiliate” (Nelson par.7). Nelson makes a point that many older African Americans sympathize with because, despite how we twist the word,

Gloria Naylor talks about her first time experiences with the word “nigger” and how her family and her deal with the word. She was in her math class and her teacher was giving back their math exams. A little boy sits in front of her and she score a higher grade than the little boy. The little boy snatched the paper out of her hand and spit out that word “nigger”; she couldn’t be more puzzled. Naylor didn’t know what the word was. It seems to her that it was her first time hearing that word in her presence, but the truth is that she has heard this word many times before. Every word has several meanings its not just the meaning that was given by the person who came up with the word.

The word nigger is crucial to understanding our history. Some argue that the word is always attributed with the nation’s past blunders such as discrimination and slavery and for that reason it should be banned. For example, the article ____ states that the word “has long conjured images of lynchings, oppression, bigotry, and discrimination” (OBAMA). Although this is true, these images are necessary in describing our country’s background. Without the use of this word to do so, it would be impossible to understand the extent of prejudice that this country had present

In the modern era we often run into stereotypes that have been perpetuated by people in society. For example, actress Leslie Jones have been antagonized by people, and being called names such as an ape. This online abuse on the 49-year old actress rooted from the release of her movie, The Ghostbusters. She received countless misogynistic comments on her Twitter account. But her fight didn’t end there. Similar to Janie, she “ain’t goingtuh hush,” (86) because she consults with the CEO of Twitter, and bans the hate accounts for antagonizing the actress. Others argue that its “freedom of speech,” but Jones argues that “freedom of speech, and hate speech are two different things.” Jones stood up for what's right, and didn’t let society or people change her, because even if some people didn’t accept her looks, she simply didn’t care. Comparable to this, Janie also didn’t care how her physical attributes, or the fact that she had white ancestry think that she was superior than others, instead, she points this out when Mrs. Turner praises her for her white features. Janie simply states, “It don’t worry atall, but Ah reckon Ah ain’t got no real head fur thinkin’.” (142) Janie’s lack of awareness that she consists of white ancestry doesn’t seem to change her

America is a mixing bowl: full of different people, different colors, different languages and different history. Racism doesn’t exist through just blacks and whites; racist tension occurs between the entire populace of America. One might have felt that while reading the sentence, “Why isn’t he calling you by your name Daddy? “. It may have brought a recollection within the reader to recall a specific moment where they’ve experienced racial tension. Henry Louis Gates Jr. brilliantly depicted a moment where there was an impacting loss of respect towards someone of a different race. It evident when he was inspired to record this personal childhood memory of he and his father some 50 something years

In the essay “African American Whiteness in Gloria Naylor’s Linden Hills, Tim Engles is under the assumption that Gloria Naylor uses whiteness in Linden Hills as a recurring theme in order to depict the process of normalization in the characters of the novel. Engles also focuses on how Naylor criticizes and assesses “whiteness” in African Americans as something that is “a generally repressive mode of thought and behavior that paradoxically bleaches away both communal ties and individual distinctiveness” (662). Engles’s essay also addresses the manner in which Naylor parallels this “whiteness” and accomplishment in terms class rather that race, while also displaying how Naylor shows through Linden Hills what a Healthy African American identity should resemble.

This makes younger Gates, question why certain people call other people who aren’t white other names. And claiming it as ‘one of those things’ (4). Now as an older adult, gates still faces racist people down the road of his life, yet still treats everyone with the same respect as everyone ought to be given. But when he was little he stated, ‘i never looked Mr. Wilson in the eye again’ (4), he learned that those who are being racist shouldn’t

The author Gloria Naylor, wrote “Meanings of a Word” in an illustrated and descriptive manner with a gifted influential tone. In this reading, Gloria Naylor articulates in a descriptive manner multiple means of the word nigger. Gloria Naylor’s definitions of the word nigger, was planted like a seed at an early age, 3rd grade I believe, through her mother’s explanation, and by listening to her large extended family, neighbors and tenants who used this word copiously in her presence. For a brief moment, through her use of her influential tone, I began believing in the multiple means of the word nigger and was storing them in my memory. As I got closer to the end, I came to the realization that this piece was written based Gloria Naylor reality,

Culture by definition is the identity or feeling of belonging to a group. It is part of a person's self-conception and self-perception and is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality or any type of social group that has its own distinct culture. To me that definition couldn't be more spot on but let's go more in depth over the past few months in my English class we have been trying to learn what our culture is and what part culture plays in our daily lives so in this essay I will be sharing with you what I think culture is what it means to me and how I think it impacts our way of living and the way we look at each other as human beings and how we treat each other and how all this makes up my culture

Racism is the belief that some races are essentially, superior to others and therefore have a right to dominate them. In the United States, racism, particularly by whites against blacks, has created profound racial tension and conflict in virtually all aspects of American society. Until the breakthroughs achieved by the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, white domination over blacks was institutionalized and supported in all branches and levels of government, by denying blacks their civil rights and opportunities to participate in political, economic, and social communities. So, blacks had a general sense of fear when it came to whites in the South. In the film, Walker displays the racism that black women in the south endured, such as when Harpo’s wife, Sofia, gets asked to clean a house by the white mayor’s wife. Sofia replies, “Hell no” (Spielberg, 1985). The mayor then slaps Sofia for her comment, and she punches him. She is beaten by white people to where they cracked her skull,

Culture entails the way of life of people culture is the total way of life of a people, culture can also be defined as the identity through which a particular set of people are identified.