Joe Turner, Nigger Jim And the "N" Word

This morning in The New York Times, I read that a Connecticut high school's production of August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone may be cncelled because the characters use the "N" word. This comes directly on the heels of a new edition of Huckleberry Finn, which changes the word to "slave" Of course, Jim isn't a slave. That's the whole point. But in the headlong rush to offend no one, minor issuies like sense and style don't matter.

I had my own run-in with this absurd form of cultural dementia several years ago. The Theater Workshopof Nantucket was putting on an 'armchair theater' version of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes, another drama in which the word 'nigger' appears often -- this time spoken by white racists as a hateful epithet, rather than by African Americans as a term of endearment, as in the Wilson play. I refused to go along with the proposed revisions. A farcical bit of cultural warfare ensued, and a mousy young woman who watched the whole fracas went home and wrote an outraged letter to the local paper, calling me a racist.

My reply:



To the Editors:

I have to respond to Martina Morrow’s letter in your February 10th issue, in which she refers to “A man fighting with an African American woman because she felt uncomfortable with him using racially derogatory words.”

The man was me. The comment is totally out of con text and deceptive. It’s worth discussing because Ms. Morrow’s response represents so much of what is wrong in America today – the liberal guilt and “politically correct” thinking that allowed – among other outrages -- the elevation of Clarence Thomas to the position of Supreme Court Justice nine years ago.

The incident in question took place during a rehearsal for an arm-chair theatre reading of Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes. This play takes place in the deep south one hundred years ago. The characters – almost without exception hateful, selfish and venal – use the terminology common to their time and place. This includes the “N” word that Ms. Morrow refers to. In the midst of the reading, an African American woman in the cast informed the director and everyone else that she would not tolerate such language “in this day and age”. The fact that the language she objected to actually defined despicable characters as evil did not register with her. She sat for a few minutes allowing various cast members to suggest alternatives which ranged from “negroes” to “workers”. I finally asked her what her suggestion might be. “Black would be acceptable,” she said. I mentioned that the word was not even in use in 1900, and indeed would have been considered insulting at that point in time. “Then we should do a different play,” she answered.

The incipient fascism of this comment startled me, but I said nothing. I didn’t ask what plays she would find acceptable, or what punishments she would favor for those who violated her ideas of proper expression. Clearly everyone else in the room – including Ms. Morrow – was intimidated. They did not want to seem racist. When Clarence Thomas called the confirmation hearings a “lynching”, the white Senators had much the same reaction, and refused to call the other women who were more than willing to verify Anita Hill’s accusations.

“We’ll use the term black,” the director told us, and so the reading began.

Half way into the third act I had a speech, which included the “N” word. So I said it. I didn’t say it because I’m racist. I said it because I respect the text. As actors, that is our first obligation. But I also said it because Lillian Hellman once declared, “I will not cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashions” and I knew she would be appalled by our capitulation to this bully.

The lady was furious. Despite the fact that the director assured her that her revision of the play would stand, she stalked out in self-righteous fury. She did not leave that room because there were racists present. She left because someone disagreed with her.

In a small New England town we have reached the point where it is forbidden to argue with an African American woman. That’s unfortunate, because in this case the African American woman was wrong.

But the fault doesn’t lie with her. The fault lies with our educational system, which allows and even fosters such ignorance. One can’t help thinking of Huckleberry Finn and the efforts to ban that book from public schools all across America. Why? Because Huck’s friend was referred to as “Nigger Jim”. So the first full-blooded and complex black character in our whole literature was banished from our school libraries because of an offensive word.

That is the true racism.

I was fighting it that night, and I will continue to do so.

Ms. Morrow – despite her good intentions -- cannot make the same statement. She’s part of the problem and she has no idea why, any more than Senators Joseph Biden and Arlen Specter did in the Clarence Thomas hearings.

And that’s the real tragedy of this incident.

Nothing has changed since I wrote that letter. While school boards twist themselves into knots about performing a classic American play, "Birthers" who hate Obama for the color of his skin (not the content of his character) continue their crussade, and the anniversary of the the South's treasonous attempt at seccession is celebrated like the Fourth Of July, south of the Mason Dixon line.

I say perform August Wilson and Lillian Hellman, use the word niggerand over-use it, until we sueeze the poison out of it and we can stop posturing and treat each other as the flawed hapless striving primates that we are. That process begins by looking at the things we've done and the words we use, and not looking away.

Then, if possible, let's try to act as Huck does , even though he's been told that helping a nigger will ensure his eternal damnation:

I was a-trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself:
"All right, then, I'll GO to hell."

I hope I'd have the guts to follow you, Huck.

I don't think your new editor would, and I doubt the members of the Waterbury Connecticut Board of Education would, either.

As Huck says, "It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race."