[The White Majority Values Hate Speech] After Ct Decision Whites Race To Trademark Racially Offensive Speech

Racists Pretend Hate Speech is a Legitimate View Point That Has Value. Racism is not simply an unpopular view which requires special governmental solicitude-it is, sadly, the majority view. Still confused? Most white people are racist. "Most white people hate Black people. The reason that most white people hate Black people is because whites are not Black people. If you know this about white people, you need know little else. If you do not know this about white people, virtually all else that you know about them will only confuse you." -Neely Fuller and [MORE] and [MORE]

From [NPR] Racially offensive trademark applications are piling up at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The Supreme Court decided last month the federal government couldn't ban trademarks simply because they're disparaging. NPR's Planet Money team talks to some of the people trying to trademark racial slurs.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Racial slurs can now be registered as trademarks - theoretically, at least. The Supreme Court decided in June that the government can no longer ban a trademark simply because it's disparaging. Ailsa Chang from NPR's Planet Money podcast talked to some people who are now trying to trademark slurs. A warning - her report includes some very offensive words. They're important to the story, though, because that sort of language is what this debate is all about. The piece runs just under four minutes. Here it is.

AILSA CHANG, BYLINE: Ed Timberlake is a trademark lawyer who's convinced the floodgates have opened. To him, what the Supreme Court has done is given the bigots of the world a green light to register the most disgusting trademarks ever. He's been making a list of all the trademark applications filed the last five weeks since the court's decision.

ED TIMBERLAKE: Gutter sluts, chink, damn vegans, nigga, nigga, nigga, nigga and niggademus (ph).

CHANG: Wow. Wait; how many niggas did you just list off there?

TIMBERLAKE: There - at least five here, and there are probably more since then.

CHANG: So at least five have been filed since the Supreme Court decision?

TIMBERLAKE: Yes - a couple on the day of the Supreme Court decision.

CHANG: Wow, people were ready.

Here, the caucasional NPR writer interrupts her serious discussion [which lasted about 2 minutes] with a mindless diversion from a sleeping Black man who believes he can rehabilitate the word nigger and make some coin at the same time. NPR and the alleged brother don't get it. As explained by Derrick Bell, 'Protection of racism and its expression in racial invectives has favored the powerful against the powerless. Oppressive speech is as much a badge of servitude as segregation or employment discrimination. 

While the First Amendment may be "the Constitution's most majestic guarantee," it is nonetheless a limited guarantee.  Racial insults are particularly undeserving of First Amendment protection because the perpetrator's intention is not to discover truth or initiate dialogue but to injure the victim. In most situations, members of minority groups realize that they are likely to lose if they respond to provacative epithets by fighting and are forced to remain silent and submissive. [MORE] 

I decided to track down whoever filed those two applications for N-I-G-G-A on the same day the Supreme Court decision came down. Whoever it was, they were clearly determined, poised to pounce and own this word before anyone else. And it turns out both of those applications that day were filed by the same man.

CURTIS BORDENAVE: I'm in Columbus, Miss., right near the Alabama state line.

CHANG: Curtis Bordenave calls himself a consultant who helps businesses develop product lines and brands. He's filed a ton of trademark applications over the years, but trademarking nigga was about something very personal.

BORDENAVE: I thought that I had a duty - you know what I'm saying? - and a responsibility to protect that word, to secure that word - you know what I'm saying? - and to make sure that it's used in a way that I think would not disparage people.

[A Derogatory Term] As explained by Dr. Blynd in FUNKTIONARY:

NGHR - the consonant-letter-configuration for the ineffable (unmentionable) derogatory name ascribed to Afrikans, first by ignorant and degenerate Caucasians, then by us—especially here in racist Amerikkka. We use the unexpressed letters "NGHR" to convey the reality that we cannot delete (erase) the name, nor can the name '"'Nigger" for which it represents, be rehabilitated or commandeered to a word of endearment (without dire consequence)—even between two Afrikans conscious of the damage and semantic baggage the name carries and the atrocities carried out from its dehumanizing effects without—and the psychological effects of self-hatred deep within. When group slurs are used to insult an individual—in person our through the media—unwittingly a whole people are being attacked in the process. Using the "N-word" loosely among ourselves arms those who are our natural enemies the aided ability and added enmity to act out their madness upon us as we act-out (perpetuate) the self-hate buried within and behind the seemingly harmless expression that whenever spoken is exhumed and haunts us like a ghost off the Goree Island coast. The "brother" who playfully embraces you with a hug around the neck as he greets and speaks "My Nigga," is more likely (than not) the same one who will point a gun to your dome and pull the trigger. Supposedly though, you were his "Nigger," so now being a statistic only your survivors are left to go figure. Through the means of languacultural and literary exorcism the historical word "Nigger," whenever summoned by a writer, should now be written as "NGHR" to inform all others that you have consciously taken control over your use of the nefarious name and realizing that using it from now on will never be taken, given or accepted the same nor will it be spoken like its all just a harmless game. "NGHR" is also an acrostic for "Now Giving Honor Respectfully." That is, we are no longer giving the "N-word" circulation because its currency has always been spurious, inflammatory, "illegit" and strictly counterfeit.

NPR ends with nonsense:

CHANG: The race to trademark nigga is a race against the racists. Bordenave, who's African-American, plans to sell T-shirts that celebrate themes like unity and brotherhood, hoping people will connect those ideas with the nigga brand. It's his way of reclaiming the word. And he says he's glad he filed his trademark applications immediately because a few days later, another guy applied to trademark the same word. And what gave Bordenave a bad feeling was that guy also applied to trademark the swastika the very same week.

BORDENAVE: I don't know that party's intent. It doesn't seem like a good intent to want to have those two marks together.

CHANG: I wondered about the intent, too, so I set off to find this other guy. And he turned out to be a patent lawyer in Alexandria, Va., Steve Maynard.

Why swastikas?

STEVE MAYNARD: Because the term has an incendiary meaning behind it.

CHANG: Yeah.

MAYNARD: And it's currently used as a symbol of hate. And if we can own the brand, we will be able to control the sale of the brand and the use of the brand as well.

CHANG: Oh, so you're trying to basically grab the swastika so real, actual racists and haters can't grab the swastika as a...

MAYNARD: Correct.

CHANG: ...Registered trademark.

MAYNARD: Correct.

CHANG: But there's a catch. Maynard can't just get the trademark, put it in a drawer and make sure nobody else uses it. To keep a trademark, he actually needs to sell a swastika product. So he will - blankets, shirts, flags. But he plans to make these products so expensive he's hoping no one will ever buy them.

MAYNARD: If you want to buy that swastika flag, you've got to buy it through us. And it's going to be a thousand dollars each.

CHANG: This pre-emptive strike against bigotry still has strategic flaws. You get trademark registration only if you can show consumers will connect your trademark with you, the maker of the product. The swastika and all its history is so ingrained in people's minds already, it's unlikely anyone would ever connect the symbol to a brand of blankets. So Maynard probably won't get that trademark. But then again, neither will anyone else. Ailsa Chang, NPR News.

CHANG: The race to trademark nigga is a race against the racists. Bordenave, who's African-American, plans to sell T-shirts that celebrate themes like unity and brotherhood, hoping people will connect those ideas with the nigga brand. It's his way of reclaiming the word. And he says he's glad he filed his trademark applications immediately because a few days later, another guy applied to trademark the same word. And what gave Bordenave a bad feeling was that guy also applied to trademark the swastika the very same week.

BORDENAVE: I don't know that party's intent. It doesn't seem like a good intent to want to have those two marks together.

CHANG: I wondered about the intent, too, so I set off to find this other guy. And he turned out to be a patent lawyer in Alexandria, Va., Steve Maynard.

Why swastikas?

STEVE MAYNARD: Because the term has an incendiary meaning behind it.

CHANG: Yeah.

MAYNARD: And it's currently used as a symbol of hate. And if we can own the brand, we will be able to control the sale of the brand and the use of the brand as well.

CHANG: Oh, so you're trying to basically grab the swastika so real, actual racists and haters can't grab the swastika as a...

MAYNARD: Correct.

CHANG: ...Registered trademark.

MAYNARD: Correct.

CHANG: But there's a catch. Maynard can't just get the trademark, put it in a drawer and make sure nobody else uses it. To keep a trademark, he actually needs to sell a swastika product. So he will - blankets, shirts, flags. But he plans to make these products so expensive he's hoping no one will ever buy them.

MAYNARD: If you want to buy that swastika flag, you've got to buy it through us. And it's going to be a thousand dollars each.

CHANG: This pre-emptive strike against bigotry still has strategic flaws. You get trademark registration only if you can show consumers will connect your trademark with you, the maker of the product. The swastika and all its history is so ingrained in people's minds already, it's unlikely anyone would ever connect the symbol to a brand of blankets. So Maynard probably won't get that trademark. But then again, neither will anyone else. Ailsa Chang, NPR News.