K is for ... that K-word.
September 24, 2007 at 8:44 AM
by Ashleigh
Can you tell I've been stalling this entry?
Writing about things that are sensitive, or which fill me deeply with shame are difficult.
What's all this fuss about a word I hear you say?
In Southern Africa, the word 'kaffir', used as an ethnic slur has ghastly connotations to anyone who grew up post-independence.
Just the idea of typing the word makes me feel uncomfortable.
Yet people of a generation older then me throw the word around with such abandon?
I suppose it works as a sort of de-humanising tool.
If you can de-humanise a group of people then you no longer see them as individuals and once you've passed that boundary you can do and think anything you like about them.
People are strange, aren't they?
Comments
The Dutch 'kaffer' is weirdly enough about behaviour, not about colour.
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaffer
I'd be more inclined to think 'nikker' is derogative. But (like most white Dutch people I know) I'd rather say 'neger' than 'zwarte' which makes it hard to write in English because I'm never sure which word is insulting where. I now say "people of color" in the States, but it makes me feel like a Benetton ad and irks me because I have to use a description that feels more belittling.
Hi must say that when my distant family all got together in June to celebrate my father's birthday I nearly fell off my chair in shock and shame when some of them did in fact use the K word as if it were no more shocking that "cat" or "spoon". You kind of grow up in a generation and a mileu where you think nobody speaks or thinks like that any more, and then you are brought face to face with the fact that such people ARE in fact still very much alive and kicking. These are the kinds of people that kick and struggle against change and hold our country back.
Thankfully my parents don't use that word at all. I would have a heart-attack if they do. My father-in-law does though and I think it's low and is a sign of...no shouldn't say that of my in-laws
September 24, 2007 2:36 PM