The N-word; or, why we need the arts

Inevitably when teaching a course on rap music, conversation turns at some point to the n-word. Our rather free-form discussion today ventured into that territory and so today was the day. We touched on many of the usual topics that come up in these discussions:

• Are there any contexts in which its use is acceptable? (Some say among friends; some say never; some say any time)
  
• Who can use the word and who can't? (Only those in hip-hop culture? African Americans? Anyone? No one?)
  
• Is there a difference between the -a form and the -er form? (Some say no difference; some say the first one is a "term of endearment" and the second is derogatory)
  
• Does using the word over and over again "disempower" it (as some rappers argue)?
  

The list goes on and on. One student related that a few of her friends mentioned that they're going to stop using the word during Black History Month ("And then what? Come March first, it's OK to start using it again?). We discussed that one of the biggest rap songs last year was Jay-Z and Kanye West's "______ in Paris," a song whose title many people simply don't feel comfortable saying.

The topic is a difficult one to teach. I'm not going to lie--it makes me a bit uncomfortable to talk about. I do my best simply to stay out of the way and to moderate the discussion. I've been fortunate enough to have students who are very respectful and understanding and so things have never gotten out of hand or too adversarial. (I taught a rap class at Texas Tech twice, but that covered different material in a different way. This discussion still came up.)

I'm glad that it makes me uncomfortable. During the course of the discussion, we talked about efforts to "whitewash" Twain's Huckleberry Finn. Some believe the book should be banned outright; others believe that all instances of racial epithets in the book should be sanitized. Both of these solutions attempt to protect young people from a part of history. History, however, is full of messy things and horrible acts and pain and suffering. Students don't need to be protected from these things; they need to be taught the causes of these atrocities, how to deal with them, and how to prevent similar things from happening in the future.

I would contend that teaching students how to engage with issues of race, gender, religion, and other controversial topics (I refer to them as "all the things you shouldn't talk about on a first date") is precisely the reason that we need Mark Twain, rap music, contemporary visual art, etc. Art provides us with a stimulus for discussing and working to address these issues. All of the science, technology, and math in the world will not equip students to deal with issues of race, gender, etc. We need to preserve art for the kinds of discussions that it provokes, not because it makes people better at science and math.