Al Roker and His Daughter: What's Wrong Witchu?

The Word I Wish My Daughter Never Heard: A Response to Al Roker

            In 1995 I picked up a copy of Family Circle while sitting in the doctor's office (that was all there was to read. I perused it and came to a back page editorial written by none other than NBC weatherman, Al Roker. Following are my views on what he had to say.

            As a former Black Studies and Sociology professor,  I try to teach my students to not only understand reality, but to also understand that it is always changeable. But that in order to change it, you must understand the truth about it, not someone else’s version of it.

          The June 20^th issue of Family Circle carried a “Full Circle” piece by Al Roker titled, “The Word I Wish My Daughter Never Heard.”  I am a long time viewer of NBC’s “Today” show, and one reason why is Mr. Roker. He is honest, funny and professional. However, his disbelief that his daughter would hear the “n” word, the manner in which he phoned the parents of that white child to “find out where she heard it,” and his own profound ignorance of the context in which race relations function are points of concern to me.

          I have three daughters and I WANT them to not only hear the “n” word, but to understand that it has to be dealt with. To attempt to keep kids in a protective vacuum and naively stick our heads in the sand and conclude that by doing so we can “change the foundation of the future: our kids” as Mr. Roker concludes, is ludicrous.

          There is one word, however, that is used by Mr. Roker, his kids and most other “black celebrities” and leaders all over this country, a word far more degrading that the “n” word could ever be.  That word? 

          “Slave.”

          Those in power well understand how degrading this word is. It is describing a “non-being,” an entity with no self-respect and therefore not worthy of respect. The word describes a being not worthy of recognition. Carter G. Woodson recognized the negatives of the word when he suggested that a slave need not be told to go to the back door, but will do so on his own.  On the other hand, a n----- exists only in the mind of the white man. It is a word that is used to degrade and humiliate – but in order to use it, you at least have to recognize the humanity of the person you are seeking to dehumanize.  So I ask, which is worse?

          This is not an abstract argument to bring the “n” word into vogue or to suggest that it be used, by any means. I merely understand the human language and how it is used, and I realize that black people bought over here were human beings, and that once here, they were “captives” and “prisoners of war” – not “slaves.” I wonder how those in power would feel if the individuals in the Vietnam POWs were considered “slaves” because they didn’t appear to resist.

          Black people resisted, hence the need for the Fugitive Slave Laws, the Black Codes and, of course, the nightriders. The word “slave” is a form of blasphemy against our ancestors, as LaRue Nedd wrote in his book, “Black Laws.”  I can only pray that even as he takes time making phone calls to the parents of young white children, Mr. Roker will also take time to explain realities such as the one I have outlined to his own beautiful, black little girl.