Let’s Start a Dialogue about the N-Word
All joking aside, there are three recent posts of mine which attempted to connect the dots where harsh truth is concerned. The first was about Dred Scott, the second about Roe v. Wade and the third concerned JWR. But the connections were so subtle that the thread was lost, somehow. (In reality, the progression of my thinking appears too disjointed because of the other posts that I published concurrent to these ones.)
In each case Justice was the theme, and the undercurrent was Prejudice.
Woman Is The Nigger Of The World
Song by John Lennon, Plastic Ono Band, and Yoko Ono
Woman is the nigger of the world
Yes, she is, think about it
Woman is the nigger of the world
Think about it, do something about it
We make her paint her face and dance
If she won’t be a slave, we say that she don’t love us
If she’s real, we say she’s trying to be a man
While puttin’ her down, we pretend that she’s above us
You know, woman is the nigger of the world, yeah
If you don’t believe me, take a look at the one you’re with
Woman is the slave to the slave
Ah, yeah, if you believe me, scream about it
We make her bear and raise our children
And then we leave her flat for being a fat old mother hen
We tell her, home is the only place she should be
Then we complain that she’s too unworldly to be our friend
Well, now, woman is the nigger of the world, yeah, she is
If you don’t believe me, take a look at the one you’re with
Woman is the slave to the slave
Yeah, if you believe me, you better scream
We insult her every day on TV
And wonder why she has no guts or confidence
When she’s young we kill her will to be free
This is the one that I can never remember
But you get the message anyway
You know that woman is the nigger of the world
Yes, she is, if you don’t believe me, take a look at the one you’re with
Woman is the slave to the slave
Yeah, Connolly was right, we scream it
We make her paint her face and dance
We make her paint her face and dance
We make her paint her face and dance
You know, we make her paint her face and dance
Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance
We make her paint her face and dance
(1972)
(And if you’re wondering how Jody Wilson-Raybould fits into this equation, the title of her book is an allusion to the phrase “Nigger in the Woodpile”.)
cdsmiller17 
Indigenous politics remain, to this day, very colonial and very male-centred, although this is changing. The Indian Act, and the institutions it supports, perpetuate this reality. The misogyny exhibited by some around the Assembly of First Nations executive table was just an example of this. Indigenous peoples are healing, and as individuals each of us is at a different place along the spectrum of decolonizing. This is true of Indigenous leaders as well, and as in human societies throughout history, women have borne the brunt of some of the hardship and inequalities this creates.
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Wilson-Raybould, Jody. “Indian” in the Cabinet (p. 49). HarperCollins Canada. Kindle Edition.
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