When Judge Bennett’s post arrived and I read it, I was surprised. I wouldn’t use the word, purely as a matter of personal choice because I find it to be the single most repugnant word there is, but the judge used the word and who was I to impose my values on him? Judge Bennett was the furthest thing possible from racist, and certainly was entitled to make his own choice, particularly given the context of his use of the word.
It made me uncomfortable, but it wasn’t about me. The post was published “as is.”
As a criminal defense lawyer, the word pops up with regularity. Clients use it all the time. Not white supremacist clients, but black and Hispanic clients. They use it in conversation with me. They use it with each other. I do not use it in return.
In one extremely awkward case, a wiretap was replete with the word, so much so that it was impossible for the word to be redacted while maintaining the integrity of the eavesdropped conversations. The judge, prosecutor and I tried to do so, pored over the transcript word by word, each of us openly weirded out by what we were doing and how we were to discuss our efforts.
The euphemism, the “N-word,” doesn’t do much to change the word. The word is there, in our heads, in all its horror. The euphemism may allow us to dance around uttering the word, but then the word itself smacks us in the face, used with wild abandon even as we do everything possible to avoid using it, while being forced to see it and think it. My efforts seem almost childlike to avoid using it, yet I do go to pretty much any length necessary to not say, not write, that word.
Netflix can produce programs that show anything, say anything. It’s under no constraint, as reflected by the full frontal nudity, both male and female, on WestWorld. Auditions must be lit. But while they have the ability to do so, they have chosen to be circumspect about some things.
Jonathan Friedland, who has served as the streaming giant’s chief communications officer for the past six years, is out at the company after “insensitive” remarks he made to his team. Sources say that Friedland used the N-word in a meeting with other Netflix staffers, some of whom later reported the incident.
Friedland used the word in a meeting about words that are unacceptable and cannot be used. His use of the word became an “incident,” for which he was chastised. He then used the word again in a second meeting to address the error of his using the word the first time. That was an utterance too far.
In a lengthy internal memo, CEO Reed Hastings addressed letting go top communications executive Jonathan Friedland: “His descriptive use of the N-word on at least two occasions at work showed unacceptably low racial awareness and sensitivity.”
Friedland could have used the euphemism instead of the word itself. It’s not as if anyone would have misunderstood what he was talking about. But he used the word, the actual word, and that was more than the others in the meeting could tolerate. Whether Hastings was pushed beyond his tolerance or was playing public relations is unclear, but he fired Friedland and put an end to the controversy, making clear to the public that the utterance of the word was unacceptable at Netflix.
Maybe Friedland was great at his job, a good and decent person and wholly dedicated to racial equality. Maybe his utterance of the word was with the best of intentions, to make it absolutely, unequivocally clear to others that the word was unacceptable at Netflix. Maybe he expected those listening to him to be above the knee-jerk reaction to the mere utterance of the word and capable of grasping the context and purpose of its use. Maybe the first time he uttered it could be shrugged off, but not the second, after it was made clear that he should never, but never, say it again.
Then again, the word is used all the time, though not by guys with the last name Friedland. But the sound of the word itself makes no head explode when uttered by others, it couldn’t just be its sound. And if not its sound, what about its context? But it’s neither sound nor context, good intentions or purpose. It’s the characteristic of the person who utters it.
There are a laundry list of derogatory words to describe racial and ethnic groups. I can say “kike” because I’m Jewish. Marc Randazza talks about himself as a “dago” all the time. Some people will write “fuck” while others write “f*ck,” as if an asterisk changes the word we see. There are words on the page and words in our mind’s eye. Do we think “N-word” or something else?
The significance of words we utter seem to change with abandon. In a recent oral argument, a judge informed an attorney that his use of the word “hysteria” was sexist, because the judge was told that by his law clerk. Apparently, this clerk was finely attuned to the cutting edge of offense such that a common word was now unspeakable. Was the lawyer a misogynist for using it? Would he be sexist if, after being warned of its sexist nature, he used it again? He was addressing the argument of his adversary, which relied on the word “hysteria,” but was he to call it the “H-word” from that point on or be tainted for his sexism?
The choice of words is a personal thing. I chose not to use words because of my own beliefs. Obviously, I believe my position to be sound or it wouldn’t be my position. But I don’t believe myself to be so universally correct that it’s my place to tell others to abide my choices or suffer the consequences of universal damnation. I do what I believe to be right. You do what you believe to be right. My rules for word choice are mine, and I have no business imposing them on anyone else.
I’m very reluctant to take a word off the table. We have too few available to express ourselves clearly, and a great many have already been rendered meaningless by morphing clear definitions into vagaries. My choices offend people regularly, as I fail to adhere to the cutting edge of lingual propriety, as defined by the high priestesses of wokeness. And so I’m called racist and sexist, as well as libtard and even “kike.”
What Friedland had in his head when he decided to utter the word that cannot be spoken by a white dude I cannot say. It’s extremely hard to imagine he rose so high at Netflix while being racist, but it’s possible. More likely, his use of the N-word was well intended, was meant in context to serve good purposes. It didn’t matter.
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