You Shouldn’t Have to Explain Why You’re Offended By the N-Word

In case you missed it on Friday night, Bill Maher not only whiffed on a joke, but he tried to use the n-word to sell it. Maher reacted to Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse’s asking him to come work in the fields by saying that he wouldn’t do that because he’s a house nigger. Sasse squirmed and smiled. After all, he was on to sell a book. The Senator has since issued a mea culpa.

Unsurprisingly, African Americans were pissed and there were plenty of white people yelling “1st Amendment” or “comedic license.” Here’s the thing, the two sentiments, African Americans taking offense and 1st Amendment rights, are not mutually exclusive. Bill Maher has every right to say what he said and African Americans have every right to be offended and angry. Let me explain further.

I have no problem acknowledging that Bill Maher has every right to say the n-word to try and sell a joke. He can even do it publicly on live television. But just because he has his 1st Amendment rights and even more, comedic license, doesn’t mean that the public has to be okay with it.

As a viewer of Real Time With Bill Maher for years, I can tell you that sometimes I find him funny, other times I find him to be a caricature. He’s always an egomaniac, but who on TV isn’t? One problem I’m having with people’s reactions right now is that they are conflating Maher’s statements on Islam with his use of the n-word.

For those who aren’t familiar, Bill Maher has for the past few years been making the point that Muslims have some house cleaning to do. He has been doing so within the framework of his overall thesis that all religion is bad. His point with regard to Islam is that mass murders in the name of religion are uniquely Muslim in the past several decades. He also points out the backwards nations of the Middle East like Saudi Arabia and the like who subjugate women, the LGBT community, and any non-Muslims really.

The thing is, Maher is painting with a broad brush when it comes to Muslims, but his point might not be completely incorrect. Does this mean I support all of Bill Maher’s statements about Muslims, or Trump’s Muslim ban, or any religious intolerance toward Muslims? Not at all. My problem is with fundamentalism, no matter the religion. The problem is that worldwide there are a lot of fundamentalist Muslims. I believe in the separation of church and state. Check out the number of Muslims in the Middle East who believe in governing by sharia law, including stoning as a punishment for adultery.

Again, I have nothing against Muslims as a people the same way I have nothing against Christians as a people despite the fundamentalist Christians who think it’s okay to murder abortion doctors. I love my Jewish brethren while at the same time condemning Jewish terrorists, like the one who assassinated Yitzhak Rabin or more recently the Jews who kidnapped and murdered a random Palestinian teenager. The difference is in the number of fundamentalists worldwide. Why the difference? I don’t have an answer for that because it’s not my field of study.

So why do I bring up Maher’s stance on Islam? Because conflating that stance with his use of the n-word is wrong. Having a conversation about Islam, fundamentalism, and terrorism using facts and statistics is not in the same ballpark as trying to make light of slavery. As a Jew, if someone made a joke using the word “kike”, I would be irate. There’s no excuse. I can’t put myself in the shoes of African Americans, but that’s the closest I could come as far as an analogy goes for my personal experience.

Bill Maher’s current situation reminds me a little bit of when Andy Kaufman took things too far. Obviously we’re talking about a far different context. Andy Kaufman offended women and pretty much everybody in the south with his wrestling shtick. His nemesis, Jerry “The King” Lawler was in on the bit, but that didn’t matter. Kaufman was ousted from Saturday Night Live because the paying public was offended, wouldn’t watch him, and called for his axing. So he was axed.

Bill Maher’s situation is different because there isn’t any African American in on the joke and this isn’t wrestling, a business where antagonizing the crowd was part of the draw. No, rather Bill Maher thinks it’s funny, or cool, to be a “house nigger,” a term used in literature to describe the slave who worked in the house and was despised by the slaves in the field.

So where does that leave us? My guess is that the predictable outrage from white people will fade into oblivion by the next news cycle. White people were pissed at Andy Kaufman and stopped watching. They’re not really pissed at Bill Maher, they just know that they’re supposed to act pissed. The same way a lot of white people knew that they were supposed to be offended by Donald Trump before the election and then went in there and voted for him anyway.

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What should we as white people have done and what should we be doing? How about listening to African Americans explain to us why the use of the n-word is offensive instead of listening to Bill Maher explain himself? How about giving African Americans a platform to voice a message to white America on what is going wrong in society as it pertains to racism?

There are those who call for Bill Maher to leave. HBO isn’t including the “joke” in its re-airings of the subject episode. How about we call on HBO to host a forum on race where they invite African Americans on for an open discussion where white people will have no alternative but to listen. I know I said it a few days ago, but nothing is going to happen until white people start listening to African Americans instead of preaching to them. Nothing is going to happen until we collectively shun denigration of minorities, until the day where those sentiments are so deplorable that the thought of a President Donald Trump or Attorney General Jeff Sessions is laughable at best. I have no faith in the latter happening in the short term as it concerns racism, but the listening to African Americans is doable and would at least be a start. So is listening to minorities of all walks of life when it comes to the hate and discrimination that they experience.

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