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#NeverForget: Bill Maher Once Questioned A Black Woman's Blackness Over the N-Word

Bill Maher (HBO Screenshot)

Friday’s “house nigger” moment was not the first time TV host Bill Maher has crossed the line where race is concerned. Long before Real Time With Bill Maher was a thing, he once talked over, insulted and questioned the blackness of veteran black actress Anne-Marie Johnson, all while arguing that white people should be able to say the word ‘nigga.’

Back in August 2001, Maher was still hosting the first iteration of his political debate show, Politically Incorrect. He had guests Anne-Marie Johnson, offensive ass comedienne Sarah Silverman, comedian David Spade and Guy Aoki on his show to discuss race after an incident during which Silverman had made an inappropriate joke using the word ‘chink.’

Maher made the assertion that the word “nigga” (or nigger as it were) had changed over the last 10-15 years, and Johnson asked him “according to who?”

“According to culture,” Maher replied condescendingly. “According to the fact that it’s in every song.”

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Johnson, visibly upset by this, told Maher to ask every African-American in his audience what that word means, but before she could complete her thought, Maher talked over her and told her, “Every African-American person uses that word night and day. It’s in every song; it’s all through culture.”

“The word has changed,” Maher said, “it has been co-opted as a term of endearment…”

Aoki jumps in and tells Maher that the word has been co-opted as a term of endearment between black people, and Johnson tells Maher that she is the only person on the panel qualified to talk about the issue.

“First of all,” Maher said to Johnson, “I wouldn’t even know you were black if you hadn’t told me.”

The conversation continues, and Maher continues to assert that it’s OK for white people to use the word because there’s even a group with the word in their name, NWA. He then repeats that it is in every song on the radio.

Anne-Marie Johnson (YouTube Screenshot)

“Nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga,” Maher says. “It’s in every song. I have people walking up to me going, ‘Hey Bill, you a nigga,’ and I can’t thank them?”

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The video is a disgusting example of how Maher, and white people who argue for the use of the word in general, refuse to listen when black people try to tell them the word is harmful.

Never mind that black people and even other people of color (in this instance Aoki) have tried explaining how the co-opting of it is for black people only; Maher and his ilk want in, and they are going to get in by any means necessary, even if it means yelling down a black woman and questioning her blackness because of the lightness of her skin color.

At any point, Maher could have conceded Johnson’s point and left it alone, but his ego-maniacal need to be right won’t let him. He has to have this one thing, because it’s so very important.

Sarah Silverman in blackface (Sarah Silverman show screenshot)

As someone on my Facebook feed aptly noted, just not saying the word is “easiest, simplest way that white people can show themselves denying their white privilege.”

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“Literally all you have to do is NOT do it. Just don’t do a thing. With that, you show respect for our humanity and acknowledge the complicated history of the word, & let us have this thing to grapple with as you opt out because not everything is yours,” Mela Machinko wrote.

And that is the crux of it. Beyond a need to deny the racist history the word is an insidious desire to be part of everything, whether it is meant for them or not.

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Yes, we get it; not all white people, but a good lot of you who argue for the use of the word will in fact call black people racist when they tell you it’s not OK to use it. How does that work, exactly?

I’m including a video clip of the full segment below because it’s worth watching the part that features Silverman and Aoki debating her use of the word chink. She too feels like it should be OK, even as Aoki tells her that people of Asian descent consider the word to be a slur.

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White privilege is a dangerous thing, and as I have said before, white fragility leads to white violence. The violence is not always physical; what Bill Maher did to Anne-Marie Johnson in this clip was a form of violence. Instead of listening to her and trying to understand his point, he inserted himself into a debate where he really has no place.

White people: it is not up to you to determine how and when a racist word that has been used pejoratively against people of color is offensive. It is not up to you to decide when it’s OK for white people to use the word. And it is definitely not up to you to question someone’s blackness in defense of your ignorant ass argument.

It doesn’t matter who you hear say the word, how many times you hear it used, or how many rap songs you hear it in.

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Nigga is not your word. Stop trying to justify saying it.

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