the N word
Tillie (Isabel Sanford) used the N word, calling Dr. John Wayde Prentice Jr (Sidney Poitier) that name in the film. Should I be shocked or was this the norm in 1967?
shareYes, you should be shocked because Tillie meant it as an insult. The way I understand it, to some African Americans back then that word meant a person of color who thinks he or she is above others of that race. A snob.
That word has always meant someone who does not care about himself or anyone else and who is not proud of his heritage.
Hmm, I think we better ask Nichelle Nichols who played "Uhura" in the original series "Star Trek."
Lee Bergere (I just looked up the episode in IMDB) playing the part of Abraham Lincoln asks a question something like "Who is this beautiful Negress?" And then excuses himself for making a point of her color.
Lieutenant Uhura replies that no apology is necessary. She is not offended to be called a "Negress" and takes pride in her heritage. I think she mentions being originally from Ethiopia. I'm not sure if that's the right country. She doesn't even take offense at President Lincoln using a female gender specific term.
Culture changes. Polite terminology changes over time. The N-word that most people mean when they say or write "N-word" has always been used as a vicious pejorative, while "Negro" was once considered as just a descriptive term. As I have never been Black in America and never expect to become so, I don't feel qualified to tell someone who is how to feel about the terminology. I am willing to adjust as rapidly as I can to that which is most preferred. However, I refuse to feel wrong for using "Negro" or "Colored" in the day when those terms were accepted as polite descriptive terminology.
Tillie's insult was in the description of how she perceived Dr. Prentice as behaving. Not in her description of his skin color.
The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.