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I'm curious. There's a John Lennon/Yoko Ono song called "Woman Is the Nigger of the World" from the early 70s. Was that comparison in common use at the time? I
by sgentle 16y ago
I'm curious. There's a John Lennon/Yoko Ono song called "Woman Is the Nigger of the World" from the early 70s.
Was that comparison in common use at the time? I can't find any references elsewhere, but it seems like a strange coincidence otherwise.
- brudgers 16y agoThe term was in casually used in the US at the time.
- philwelch 16y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger#Denotational_extension http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger#Denotational_extension "The denotations of nigger also comprehend non-white and racially disadvantaged people; the US politician Ron Dellums said, “... it's time for somebody to lead all of America’s niggers”.[23] Jerry Farber's 1967 protest, The Student as Nigger invoked the word as a metaphor for the victims of an authoritarian society. In 1969, in the UK, in the course of being interviewed by a Nova magazine reporter, artist Yoko Ono said, “... woman is the nigger of the world”; three years later, her husband, John Lennon, published the song “Woman is the Nigger of the World” (1972) — about the virtually universal exploitation of woman — proved socially and politically controversial to US sensibilities."
- sgentle 16y agoHey, thanks a lot. I looked at the WP article but I must've missed that section. Looks like this essay, then, is the first example I can find of its use. Dellums wasn't in office until 1971, and the Lennon song was 72.