Meanings of a Word Gloria Naylor Cross Cultural Communications WTUC

Gloria Naylor http://www.accd.edu/Sac/English/bailey/naylor.htm

Meanings of a Word Published in 1986 Discusses both the complexity of language and its malleability when used in different social contexts. Powerful explanation of the effects of a particular volatile word on the human psyche. Malleability= having a capacity for adaptive change Volatile=changeable

p. 131, p. 2 Written word= arrangement of sounds and letters that people assigns meaning to Based on these meanings, we understand what is and what is not Words are innocuous, it is the ‘consensus’ that gives them true power. Innocuous= harmless Consensus= the majority of people

p. 3 3rd grade, math tests Little boy sitting behind her said to her, ‘nigger’ She knew that whatever it meant, it was something he shouldn’t have called her. The teacher scolded him for using a ‘bad’ word

p. 6 She has heard the word ‘nigger’ before in her family But the context/situation was different

p. 8 Nigger= refers to a distinguished man who shows strength, intelligence or drive “I’m telling, that nigger pulled in $6,000 of overtime last year. Said he got enough for a down payment on a house.”

p. 9 My nigger= term of endearment for a husband or boyfriend Nigger= pure essence of manhood, ‘you don’t mess with a nigger’

p. 10 Nigger= description of some group within the community that had overstepped the bounds of decency Nigger= parents who neglected their children, a drunken couple who fought in public, people who refuse to go to work, those with excessively dirty mouths, unkempt households Nigger= lack of self-respect Trifling= of little importance; trivial

p. 14 Grandmother’s household use the word ‘whites’ to signify worthlessness or degradation and impotent They transformed the word ‘nigger’ to signify varied ways of how they see themselves They knew the word ‘nigger’ will never disappear from white minds

p. 15 The little boy used the word ‘nigger’ to humiliate her That was what she asked her mother about, why she was humiliated simply because of her color and race

What other common racial, ethnic, sexual, religious slur do you know? What is the origin of this term? How do the people who are the object of such language react to it?