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”.)