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NEW YORK CITY BANS N-WORD: Symbolic move hopes to drive home point that word is ugly – in any context; Chris Rock responds.
*The word “nigger” will no longer be tolerated in New York City after its legislature voted unanimously Wednesday to ban the racial epithet from being spoken – whether directed toward blacks or used among blacks.
The moratorium will not carry a penalty, but the City Council hopes its action will encourage most Americans, as well as the hip hop community, to voluntarily delete the word from their vocabulary.
"This could be the beginning of a movement," said Councilman Albert Vann. Councilman Leroy Comrie, a sponsor of the moratorium, has also reached out to BET in hopes that the network would stop using the word in its shows.
The New York City measure follows similar resolutions this month by the New York state assembly and state senate, and supporters of the ban are taking their campaign to The Recording Academy, asking it not to nominate musicians for Grammy awards if they use the word in their lyrics. A Grammy spokesman said he doubted the academy's 11,000 voting members would support any measure that might censor artists.
Chris Rock was asked to comment about the new legislation during interviews for his upcoming film, “I Think I Love My Wife.”
"What, is there a fine? Am I going to get a ticket?" Rock told Reuters. "Do judges say, '10 years, nigger!"'
Rock said politicians were trying to divert attention from real problems: "Enough real bad things happen in this city to worry about how I am going to use the word."
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