"Words themselves are innocuous; it is the consensus that gives them true power" (Naylor, 344).

The consensus governs our society because of the power it holds. The understanding of the spoken word, especially derogatory terms, shapes our world because of the power these vile words hold in balancing or tilting race relations. The American Heritage College Dictionary defines power as political, social, or economic control (1072). White America has social control over the consensus, but in "Mommy What Does 'Nigger' Mean?" Gloria Naylor shows that African-American minorities can reclaim the power of the consensus and give new, equal meanings to words that have plagued African Americans for ages.

Gloria Naylor uses a young boy in her third-grade class as an example of white America's social control over the consensus. In her third-grade class she recalls the young white boy getting a lower score on a math test and her rubbing it in. Upon hearin

example of a more positive meaning of the word "nigger," Naylor introduces her southern, black family and its use of such controversial words.

Naylor, Gloria. "Mommy, What Does 'Nigger' Mean?" New Worlds of Literature. Eds. Jerome Beaty and J. Paul Hunter. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1994. 344-47.

Naylor's family is an example of a minority group retaking the power of the consensus. Instead of using "nigger" as a term of humiliation, her family uses the word as a term of distinction. Naylor vividly recalls one family member saying, "I'm telling you, that nigger pulled in $6,000 of overtime last year" referring to a man who had "distinguished himself in some situation that brought [her family's] approval for his strength, intelligence, or drive" (345). These men and women have reduced such a powerful term in white America to a minute expression of praise in their vocabulary. Naylor explains how "the people in [her] grandmother's living room took a word that whites used to signify worthlessness or degradation and rendered it

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Approximate Word count = 698
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)