NAACP to "bury" the "N-Word" at a Symbolic Funeral

On Sunday, April 29, The Reverend Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, announced that NAACP members and supporters will conduct symbolic funeral services and a "eulogy" for the "N-Word" at the upcoming NAACP national convention that will be held from July 7-12 in Detroit. Rev. Anthony made this announcement at the NAACP's Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner.

63 years earlier, Detroit's NAACP chapter held a symbolic funeral for "Jim Crow", the mostly Southern practice of discrimination and segregation against African Americans.

Since national radio talk host Don Imus's controversial on-air racist remarks directed at the Rutgers University women's basketball team in early April, this has spurred discussion about the rampant racist and sexist language present in popular media, including radio, television, and the music business, particularly rap and hip-hop music.

On April 23, one day after Imus' show was canceled, leading hip-hop music executive and co-founder of DefJam Russell Simmons recommended that the recording and broadcast industries "voluntarily remove, bleep, delete the misogynistic words 'bitch' and 'ho' and the racially offensive word 'n***er'."

Also at the Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner, former President Bill Clinton spoke in front of the 10,000-strong crowd. He was the keynote speaker. The issues he addressed included the growing problem of lower income people relying on payday loan franchise "paying interest of 40% to 500%" for their daily banking instead of the regular banking system. He urged the mostly-middle-class crowd to put pressure on banks to open their businesses to lower income Americans.

SOURCES:

"NAACP to 'bury' the 'n-word'", Corey Williams, Florida Sun-Sentinel, URL: (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-430nword,0,5167374.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines )

"Detroit NAACP to hold symbolic funeral for the N-word", AP, URL: (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,269213,00.html)

"NAACP: Clinton offers some hope", Mark Hicks, Detroit News, URL: (http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070430/METRO/704300347/1003)

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Music/04/23/usa.hiphop.reut/index.html

"Clinton closes NAACP event", Kathleen Gray, Detroit Free Press, URL: (http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070430/NEWS05/704300367/1001)