JOBNIGGED NEWS!
Jobnigged is being refashioned as a novel for eventual publication. There will be frequent upcoming posts on the project.
Friday, February 22, 2013
Sunday, July 24, 2011
WHY "Jobnigged"?
In the inaugural blog post I explained the what-is-it-ness of jobnigged. Now, as promised, I will explain the why-is-it-this-ness of jobnigged.
Recapping briefly: for an African American to be jobnigged means for an African American to suffer discrimination on the job because of race and/or color. (Oh, and may I make a short plea here for close and careful reading? I am not a proponent of frequent recaps for the casual and/or careless reader. CLASS: let's pay attention!)
Note the word suffer. Remember it. It is crucial to today's lesson. Oops. I mean today's conversation. I'll address this below.
I have already acknowledged to myself what you have thought to yourself: the term jobnigged is extremely offensive. It is intentionally extremely offensive. As extremely offensive as is the practice of job discrimination against African Americans because of race and/or color. If you are offended by the term, I hope you are as offended by the practices that the term describes!
Jobnigged is also a term that is horribly impolite. Imagine, for example, the horrible social impropriety of it being introduced into presumably polite social conversation! AWKWARD!!!! But the horror of the term is meant to convey the horror of the experience for the victim of it.
Two social scenarios that attempt to illustrate...something.
Scenario #1. I am meeting my blond friend Tristan after work and he notices that I seem out of sorts.
Tristan: "You seem out of sorts. Are you OK? How are things at work?"
Your Blog Host: "I am being discriminated against on the job because of my race and/or color."
Tristan looks concerned and does his best concerned friend routine.
Tristan: "Gosh, that's awful." PAUSE. "I'm sure it will be OK. I, mean, that's illegal, right? Let's order pizza."
Scenario #2. I am meeting my blond friend Tristan after work and he notices that I seem out of sorts.
Tristan: "You seem out of sorts. Are you OK? How are things at work?"
Your Blog Host: "I am being JOBNIGGED!!!"
AWKWARD!!!! Tristan is horrified by the term but knows instinctively, because the term itself is so horrible, so socially improper, that something horrible must have happened to me. A heavy silence follows without an offer of pizza, because at this moment Tristan doesn't know WHAT THE FUCK to say. He cannot think of anything that will immediately ameliorate what he knows instinctively to be horrifying; knowing because the word has effectively conveyed to him the horror of what I am experiencing... whatever it is. He is now horrified for me!
Therefore, to say that, as an African American, I have been discriminated against on the job because of race and/or color is certainly the emotionally appropriate, socially nice, and legally "right" response to Tristan's friendly query about work. But to describe in that way what has been happening to me on the job leaves out all of the experiential pain and anger -- all the goddamned suffering -- that jobnigged conveys; and that jobnigged was "neologized" to signify.
JOBNIGGED is not just a description of a set of practices. It is a cry of pain! Saying it aloud is a crying out of the pain and anger-- the sheer hopeless rage -- that are the emotional corollaries to this experience and which "I am being discriminated against on the job because of race and/or color" just doesn't express. To say "I have been jobnigged" suggests not only the legal assault on my rights as an African American in the workplace, but conveys the sting of the metaphorical lash across the back that is the experiential core for the victim.
The true beauty of this ugly little term jobnigged is that it lays bare -- indeed, has built right into it -- the vicious ugliness that is the practice of job discrimination against African Americans; it doesn't camouflage the ugly practice in neutral terms reflecting legal niceties.
So...now that we have addressed the what and the why of jobnigged, we are prepared to examine the how of being jobnigged. And that will be the topic of the next blog post.
Recapping briefly: for an African American to be jobnigged means for an African American to suffer discrimination on the job because of race and/or color. (Oh, and may I make a short plea here for close and careful reading? I am not a proponent of frequent recaps for the casual and/or careless reader. CLASS: let's pay attention!)
Note the word suffer. Remember it. It is crucial to today's lesson. Oops. I mean today's conversation. I'll address this below.
I have already acknowledged to myself what you have thought to yourself: the term jobnigged is extremely offensive. It is intentionally extremely offensive. As extremely offensive as is the practice of job discrimination against African Americans because of race and/or color. If you are offended by the term, I hope you are as offended by the practices that the term describes!
Jobnigged is also a term that is horribly impolite. Imagine, for example, the horrible social impropriety of it being introduced into presumably polite social conversation! AWKWARD!!!! But the horror of the term is meant to convey the horror of the experience for the victim of it.
Two social scenarios that attempt to illustrate...something.
Scenario #1. I am meeting my blond friend Tristan after work and he notices that I seem out of sorts.
Tristan: "You seem out of sorts. Are you OK? How are things at work?"
Your Blog Host: "I am being discriminated against on the job because of my race and/or color."
Tristan looks concerned and does his best concerned friend routine.
Tristan: "Gosh, that's awful." PAUSE. "I'm sure it will be OK. I, mean, that's illegal, right? Let's order pizza."
Scenario #2. I am meeting my blond friend Tristan after work and he notices that I seem out of sorts.
Tristan: "You seem out of sorts. Are you OK? How are things at work?"
Your Blog Host: "I am being JOBNIGGED!!!"
AWKWARD!!!! Tristan is horrified by the term but knows instinctively, because the term itself is so horrible, so socially improper, that something horrible must have happened to me. A heavy silence follows without an offer of pizza, because at this moment Tristan doesn't know WHAT THE FUCK to say. He cannot think of anything that will immediately ameliorate what he knows instinctively to be horrifying; knowing because the word has effectively conveyed to him the horror of what I am experiencing... whatever it is. He is now horrified for me!
Therefore, to say that, as an African American, I have been discriminated against on the job because of race and/or color is certainly the emotionally appropriate, socially nice, and legally "right" response to Tristan's friendly query about work. But to describe in that way what has been happening to me on the job leaves out all of the experiential pain and anger -- all the goddamned suffering -- that jobnigged conveys; and that jobnigged was "neologized" to signify.
JOBNIGGED is not just a description of a set of practices. It is a cry of pain! Saying it aloud is a crying out of the pain and anger-- the sheer hopeless rage -- that are the emotional corollaries to this experience and which "I am being discriminated against on the job because of race and/or color" just doesn't express. To say "I have been jobnigged" suggests not only the legal assault on my rights as an African American in the workplace, but conveys the sting of the metaphorical lash across the back that is the experiential core for the victim.
The true beauty of this ugly little term jobnigged is that it lays bare -- indeed, has built right into it -- the vicious ugliness that is the practice of job discrimination against African Americans; it doesn't camouflage the ugly practice in neutral terms reflecting legal niceties.
So...now that we have addressed the what and the why of jobnigged, we are prepared to examine the how of being jobnigged. And that will be the topic of the next blog post.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
What's "Jobnigged"?
I have been jobnigged! Yes, indeed!
Let's define my term first, before I tell you any of my story or set forth the larger purposes of this blog.
The definitional logic of my, presumably offensive, neologism "jobnigged":
1). "Jobnigged" is a verb. We'll discuss noun derivations in a future post.
2). My identity as an African American is crucial to the term. Yes, think "nigger."
3). I consider "nigger" deeply, horribly offensive. So you can assume that, for me, any term that includes "nigger" (or any portion of it) must define something that to me is deeply, horribly offensive.
4). We will discuss the specific historical emergence of the term "nigger" in a later post. But for present purposes you need to know only that it emerged in mid-nineteenth century American usage as not merely a descriptor of a certain class of persons by another class, but as an intended derogation of a group more politely referred to, then, as "negroes," "colored," "black," "persons of color," "free people of color" and, yes, as "slaves." Into the twentieth century "nigger" was used, by those outside of the group so derided, as an exclusively derisive term of contempt for people who were describing themselves, variously over time, as "Negroes," "colored," "black," "Afro-American," "African American." I have always found "nigger" an offensive term when used by non-African Americans. I am also appalled by its usage within sectors of the African American community as a term of intra-group familiarity, though I grasp the implied efforts not only to wrest ownership and control of the term away from others but to subvert and undermine its hostile meaning and derogatory intent by the process of "familiarization."
5). Leaving aside the intra-group usages by African Americans themselves, I am only concerned with "nigger" and derivations of it where its implied meaning of "categorical contempt beneath the law" is behaviorally enacted by those who are not themselves African Americans; by those who are not African Americans who treat African Americans -- even when they do not use the term nigger -- like niggers. One does not need to be called a nigger to be treated like one. Indeed, most who treat African Americans like niggers may be averse to using the specific term that influences their behavioral choices.
6). For an African American to be treated like a nigger means: to be treated by non-African Americans as a "categorical being" who, specifically because of race and color, does not have equal rights, or equal value, or equal worth, or deserve equal treatment as prescribed by law. The categorical nature is crucial, for by being placed in the category of "nigger," an African American is stripped of his or her individual identity and placed in a category of beings determined worthy -- by virtue of his or her membership in that class of persons who are African Americans -- of unlawful, certainly unethical, certainly unequal treatment.
7) We need to be very clear however, and this is crucial: those who treat African Americans like niggers do not have to be enacting a consciously determined program of debasement. Indeed, my suspicion, especially in the specific circumstance that the blog will address, is that prejudices largely unconscious motivate the kind of behaviors I will use the blog to discuss.
8). Being "nigged," then, means being treated like a nigger, as a "categorical entity" without equal rights.
9). An African American can be nigged by those not African Americans -- intentionally or non-intentionally -- in any situation. My specific interest and concern at this time -- and, thus, the subject of this blog -- is the treatment of African Americans like niggers in their places of employment. Hence, the neologistic prefiix is "job," and the subject of the blog is being "jobnigged."
My subject, then: being jobnigged. But you know, or have come to know, the circumstances I will address as "job discrimination based upon race or color."
Well then, why not call the blog some catchy form of "job discrimination based upon race or color"? Let's save that topic for the next post: Since we have just addressed "what's jobnigged," the next post will be titled: "Why Jobnigged"?
Let's define my term first, before I tell you any of my story or set forth the larger purposes of this blog.
The definitional logic of my, presumably offensive, neologism "jobnigged":
1). "Jobnigged" is a verb. We'll discuss noun derivations in a future post.
2). My identity as an African American is crucial to the term. Yes, think "nigger."
3). I consider "nigger" deeply, horribly offensive. So you can assume that, for me, any term that includes "nigger" (or any portion of it) must define something that to me is deeply, horribly offensive.
4). We will discuss the specific historical emergence of the term "nigger" in a later post. But for present purposes you need to know only that it emerged in mid-nineteenth century American usage as not merely a descriptor of a certain class of persons by another class, but as an intended derogation of a group more politely referred to, then, as "negroes," "colored," "black," "persons of color," "free people of color" and, yes, as "slaves." Into the twentieth century "nigger" was used, by those outside of the group so derided, as an exclusively derisive term of contempt for people who were describing themselves, variously over time, as "Negroes," "colored," "black," "Afro-American," "African American." I have always found "nigger" an offensive term when used by non-African Americans. I am also appalled by its usage within sectors of the African American community as a term of intra-group familiarity, though I grasp the implied efforts not only to wrest ownership and control of the term away from others but to subvert and undermine its hostile meaning and derogatory intent by the process of "familiarization."
5). Leaving aside the intra-group usages by African Americans themselves, I am only concerned with "nigger" and derivations of it where its implied meaning of "categorical contempt beneath the law" is behaviorally enacted by those who are not themselves African Americans; by those who are not African Americans who treat African Americans -- even when they do not use the term nigger -- like niggers. One does not need to be called a nigger to be treated like one. Indeed, most who treat African Americans like niggers may be averse to using the specific term that influences their behavioral choices.
6). For an African American to be treated like a nigger means: to be treated by non-African Americans as a "categorical being" who, specifically because of race and color, does not have equal rights, or equal value, or equal worth, or deserve equal treatment as prescribed by law. The categorical nature is crucial, for by being placed in the category of "nigger," an African American is stripped of his or her individual identity and placed in a category of beings determined worthy -- by virtue of his or her membership in that class of persons who are African Americans -- of unlawful, certainly unethical, certainly unequal treatment.
7) We need to be very clear however, and this is crucial: those who treat African Americans like niggers do not have to be enacting a consciously determined program of debasement. Indeed, my suspicion, especially in the specific circumstance that the blog will address, is that prejudices largely unconscious motivate the kind of behaviors I will use the blog to discuss.
8). Being "nigged," then, means being treated like a nigger, as a "categorical entity" without equal rights.
9). An African American can be nigged by those not African Americans -- intentionally or non-intentionally -- in any situation. My specific interest and concern at this time -- and, thus, the subject of this blog -- is the treatment of African Americans like niggers in their places of employment. Hence, the neologistic prefiix is "job," and the subject of the blog is being "jobnigged."
My subject, then: being jobnigged. But you know, or have come to know, the circumstances I will address as "job discrimination based upon race or color."
Well then, why not call the blog some catchy form of "job discrimination based upon race or color"? Let's save that topic for the next post: Since we have just addressed "what's jobnigged," the next post will be titled: "Why Jobnigged"?
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