Word: nigger
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...sooner does a generation unlearn a racial epithet than the stigma loses its sting. Consider, for example, the burgeoning controversy over the title of a new Western film. The Legend of Nigger Charley. Paramount released the movie with the "historical explanation" that the character of Nigger Charley was based on black cowboys who roamed the West after the Civil War -a period in which the term was in common currency and not necessarily derogative. But Charley's well-documented credentials failed to satisfy a number of newspaper, television and radio advertising executives. For example, the Oregonian first changed...
Charley himself, former Pro Football Player Fred Williamson, thinks the controversy is useless and that in fact the change seriously weakens the impact of the title. "Media people are expecting repercussions based on the significance of the word nigger to white people," he says, "but blacks don't have the same reaction to it any more. Changing the name just reflects the insecurity and guilt of some whites who think the niggers in their town will be offended and throw rocks at the theaters." Paramount Vice President Charles Glenn adds: "I wonder what the media would call a film...
...documentary describes only one incident in Malcolm's childhood--a conversation with his English teacher. "What do you want to be when you grow up," his teacher asked him. "I've been thinking about being a lawyer," Malcolm replied. "But you've got to be realistic about being a nigger. A lawyer--that's no realistic goal for a nigger," the white teacher advised...
Charley also boasts an ex-athlete in a starring role. As Nigger Charley, Fred Williamson (called "the Hammer" as a former halfback for pro football's Kansas City Chiefs) staggers through the whole film in what seems to be a mild state of concussion, as if he'd been roughed up in a scrimmage. Williamson and Johnson were apparently recruited not only for their athletic prowess but for their pectorals. Both are frequently required to shed their shirts and flex their chests. This provokes lustful cooings from any black women in the vicinity as well as envy...
...could not reconcile being regarded as "an African prince" in Europe and "a domestic nigger" in the U.S. The result was guilt about why he was not home paying his dues...