What do you all think about the very suppression of our voices actually giving racism the power, the violence, the viciousness?? There is a very strong case that by actually censuring, you empower a private racism.
This was from Lenny Bruce in the late 50s. Some may find this deeply offensive, in which case you would have missed the point -
....Then the relief, the notice of kikes, spics, miks, guineas, etc., diffusing the cruelty. Finally the moral, the call to resolution, the fable about the public use of taboo epithets in order to destroy their wounding power, and we see this routine is as much about the conventional moral code of forbidden public language, the "zug-gornisht" or say nothing, as it is about racism, even as it uses that power of taboo to shock and manipulate the audience.
By the way, are there any ******s here tonight?
"What did he say? Are there any ******s here tonight?
Jesus Christ is that cruel. Does he have to get that low for laughs? Wow!"
Have I ever talked about the schvartzes when the schvartzes had gone home,
Or spoken about the moulanyans when they'd left,
Or placated some southerner by absence of voice
When he ranted or raved about ******-******-******?
Are there any ******s here tonight?
I know that one ****** who works here, I see him back there.
Oh, there's two ******s, customers, and, aha!
Between those two ******s sits one kike, thank God for the kike.
Uh, two kikes, that's two kikes, and three ******s and one spic.
One spic, two, three spics. One mik.
One mic, one spic, one hick thick funky spunky boogie.
And there's another kike, three kikes.
Three kikes, one guinea, one greaseball.
Three greaseballs, two guineas.
Two guineas, one hunky funky lace-curtain Irish mick.
That mick, spic, hunky funky boogey.
Two guineas plus three greaseballs and four boogies makes usually three spics,
Minus two yid spic polack funky spunky polacks.
Five more ******s! Five more ******s!
I pass with six ******s and eight miks and four spics.
The point? That the word's suppression gives it the power, the violence, the viciousness.
If President Kennedy got on television and said,
"Tonight I'd like to introduce all the ******s in my cabinet,"
And he yelled, "******-******-******-******-******-******-******" at every ****** he saw, "boogey-boogey-boogey-boogey-boogey, ******-******-******-******,"
'till ****** didn't mean anything any more, 'till ****** lost its meaning,
you'd never make any four-year old ****** cry when he came home from school