Power of Word

Language is really colorful, and people put the colors into language. We can put some bright colors to words when we are happy, or dark colors to express that we are not in a good mood. We give them their own power, and in the article “A Question of Language” by Gloria Naylor, the author shows us her idea about that power of words. Words themselves are harmless; the problem comes from the way people want to use them.

Naylor starts her text by mentioning about her first time hearing the word “nigger”. It was in her third-grade class, when she was passing down the math test to a little boy in back of her. Once again, that boy received a much lower grade than hers, so he grasped his paper hastily from her as he let out that word. At that time, Naylor didn’t know exactly the meaning of the word and didn't notice the word "nigger" even though there had been dozens of times that she heard it. However, based on the boy’s expression and the way he used it, in the humiliating way, she still could realize that it was not a good word to be applied to her. It had a strong effect on her, caught all of her attention.

In fact, the author had heard the word several times before that incident happened. Gloria Naylor is an African-American who was born in New York. She came from a large household with so many people such as her family, grandparents, numerous aunts, uncles and cousins as well as their friends. “It was a bustling and open house with assorted neighbors and tenants popping in and out to exchange bits of gossip, pick up an old quarrel or referee the ongoing checkers game in which my grandmother cheated shamelessly”, she writes. The house where she lived was a crowded and noisy place with all kinds of elements. They considered that nothing is harmful for children’s ears except sexual misconduct and death, and the word “nigger” was used in her childhood, but its meaning was appear totally in a different way. Therefore, same as most of the children, she learned the meaning of words by hearing them in her family.

“Nigger” is a very popular word in the black community. As an example from the text that Naylor brings to us, it is always applied to a man who had distinguished himself in some situation that brought their approval for his strength, intelligence or drives. "Did Johnny really do that?" "I'm telling you, that nigger pulled in $6,000 of overtime last year. Said he got enough for a down payment on a house." People use it as an exclamation, to express their strong feeling about something superior of a man. In another sense, when used by a woman, the word “nigger" is often used to call her husband or boyfriend. In the plural, it becomes a description of some group of people that have passed the edge of decency. The author gives some examples such as “parents who neglected their children, a drunken couple who fought in public, people who simply refused to look for work, those with excessively dirty mouths or unkempt households”. They all have been called as "trifling niggers.". Moreover, it just can be applied to men, and a woman can never be a nigger in the singular. The word is only used between individuals of the same generation, or from an older person to a younger.

However, “nigger” has a totally different meaning when it is used by people who come from other communities. It have been understood as a disparaging term for a black person. In the past, the word “nigger” was a slang term which had been used by slave owners to call their slaves. Its original term was "negro", which means black, but slave owners took the word and changed it into "nigger". They prefered to use the word with their slaves because they didn't only want to call them with a real name but they also wanted to disparage them. That was why when Naylor told her teacher about the word that the boy had applied to her, the teacher just criticized him harshly for using a "bad" word.

However, the author shows her opinion that she doesn't agree with the argument that use of the word nigger “at this social stratum of the black community was an internalization of racism”. “The people in my grandmother's living room took a word that whites used to signify "worthlessness or degradation" and rendered it impotent.” she writes. Nowadays, some black people also take a hurtful word such as “nigger” and turn it into something they can use to lessen it's original meaning, the same as men use it to express a strong feeling about their strength, intelligence and drives, or how women apply it to call their lover. As a result, words have been given their own power which is dependant on how people want to use them, and a community can change the power of a word by transforming it into a positive meaning.

There are several situations that I have been involved in the real life which have the same problem as the word “nigger” that Naylor stated in her text. In my country, for example, “you” has a lot of terms, depending on who you are talking with. In Vietnamese, the word “may” is one of those pronounce. When you are talking with your friends, it is applied to show a close friendship to a group of people. For instance, my best friends and I can call each other “may” each time we talk to show that we are closed enough and there are nothing to be aware of hurting our friendship. However, when you use that word to address other people you don't really know, it means you want to humiliate or insult them. In some situations, it can be used to express angry feeling towards others, such as parents with children, older sisters with the younger one. “May” cannot be applied to people who are older than you; to use this word when addressing an older person is an insult. That is a very important rule in Vietnam, based on our own culture and language. As the result, people is the one who put power into language because words themselves are harmless.

In conclusion, as what Gloria Naylor as states in her article “A Question of Language”, no word in itself is bad. However, it can still be offensive, depending on who you are and how you use it. Those who understand how to use language and can take advantage of it can be successful in many areas of life.