The student as nigger

http://ry4an.org/readings/short/student/

by Muzza • 15 years ago

8 8 15 years ago

ry4an.org

RiderOfGiraffes• 15 years ago

[1969]

Muzza• 15 years ago

Yes? It's not like much/anything has changed.

philwelch2• 15 years ago

Well, aside from the social acceptability of using the word "nigger" to denote oppressed people in general, I really don't see student-faculty relationships (at the university level) nearly as bad as this article portrays.

sgentle2• 15 years ago

I'm curious. There's a John Lennon/Yoko Ono song called "Woman Is the Nigger of the World" from the early 70s.

Was that comparison in common use at the time? I can't find any references elsewhere, but it seems like a strange coincidence otherwise.

brudgers2• 15 years ago

The term was in casually used in the US at the time.

philwelch2• 15 years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger#Denotational_extension

"The denotations of nigger also comprehend non-white and racially disadvantaged people; the US politician Ron Dellums said, “... it's time for somebody to lead all of America’s niggers”.[23] Jerry Farber's 1967 protest, The Student as Nigger invoked the word as a metaphor for the victims of an authoritarian society. In 1969, in the UK, in the course of being interviewed by a Nova magazine reporter, artist Yoko Ono said, “... woman is the nigger of the world”; three years later, her husband, John Lennon, published the song “Woman is the Nigger of the World” (1972) — about the virtually universal exploitation of woman — proved socially and politically controversial to US sensibilities."

sgentle2• 15 years ago

Hey, thanks a lot. I looked at the WP article but I must've missed that section.

Looks like this essay, then, is the first example I can find of its use. Dellums wasn't in office until 1971, and the Lennon song was 72.

The student as nigger

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