Check out the Raceplay coloring book
You made it! You are here. Here is Plantationland, the place I created to explore racism and its effects. Yes, raceplay is a bi-product of the horrific acts that were played out here on purely innocent human beings for nearly 400 years. But the country (USA) would not be what it is today without the black experience permeating every state, every city, every nic and cranny of the USA, even Hawaii and Alaska, the US territories and if we are talking about influence, the entire world has been changed and affected by Jazz and Rap music. There is not a place on the map where rap music is unknown.
You may not know, but I have a master's degree in computer science & indigenous politics. Obtained from the CU (Denver Campus). I did my master's thesis on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and worked with Russell Means for 4 years. If you dont know who he is check him out here. For the last 20 years I have fought for displaced people. My child is with a black man who died in 2021. I have always revered Black people and studied fervently the Harlem Renaissance and still today am always supporting black artists, all artists who have a voice to stand for equality. My favorite artist living today is Ai WeiWei. He is a human advocate and one of my heros. Amongst my heros are Rosa Parks, Sojourner Truth, James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes and more modern poets such as Danez Smith
What is R@cePl@y?
The weight of the "N" word:
History
The word ni**er was used in America as a way to denote the slaves that worked for the plantation owners or any owner, to be a slave you had to have an owner. The owner was 'massa' or master, and the workers were slaves or "ni**ers" The origin is from the word Negro (black in Spanish) the word came from the shortening of the Spanish word or omitting the "O".
Ethnophaulism
The word nigger carries with it much of the hatred and repulsion directed toward Africans and African Americans. Historically, nigger defined, limited, and mocked African Americans. It was a term of exclusion, a verbal justification for discrimination. Whether used as a noun, verb, or adjective, it reinforced the stereotype of the lazy, stupid, dirty, worthless parasite. No other American ethnophaulism carried so much purposeful venom.(Jim Crow Museum )
No American minority group has been caricatured as often, in as many ways, as have black people. These caricatures combined distorted physical descriptions and negative cultural and behavior stereotypes. The Coon caricature, for example, was a tall, skinny, loose-jointed, dark-skinned male, often bald, with oversized, ruby-red lips. His clothing was either ragged and dirty or outlandishly gaudy. His slow, exaggerated gait suggested laziness. He was a pauper, lacking ambition and the skills necessary for upward social mobility. He was a buffoon. When frightened, the Coon's eyes bulged and darted. His speech was slurred, halted, and replete with malapropisms. His shrill, high-pitched voice made white people laugh. The Coon caricature dehumanized black people, and served as a justification for social, economic, and political discrimination.(Jim Crow Museum )
Nigger may be viewed as an umbrella term - a way of saying that black people have the negative characteristics of the Coon, Buck, Tom, Mammy, Sambo, Picaninny, and other anti-black caricatures. Nigger, like the caricatures it encompasses and implies, belittles black people, and rationalizes their mistreatment. The use of the word or its variants by black people has not significantly lessened its sting. This is not surprising. The historical relationship between European Americans and African Americans was shaped by a racial hierarchy which spanned three centuries. Anti-black attitudes, values, and behavior were normative. Historically, nigger more than any word captured the personal antipathy and institutionalized racism directed toward black people. It still does.(Jim Crow Museum )
No black people are niggers, irrespective of behavior, income, ambition, clothing, ability, morals, or skin color. Finally, if continued use of the word lessened its sting then nigger would by now have no sting. Black people, beginning in slavery, have internalized the negative images that white society cultivated and propagated about black skin and black people. This is reflected in periods of self- and same-race loathing. The use of the word nigger by black people reflects this loathing, even when the user is unaware of the psychological forces at play. Nigger is the ultimate expression of white racism and white superiority no matter how it is pronounced. It is a linguistic corruption, a corruption of civility. Nigger is the most infamous word in American culture. Some words carry more weight than others. At the risk of hyperbole, is genocide just another word? Pedophilia? Obviously, no: neither is nigger.(Jim Crow Museum )