Is "nappy" a racial slur?

It's censored in the New York Times "Spelling Bee" game today:

The "Help" page only says: "Our word list does not include words that are obscure, hyphenated, or proper nouns. No cussing either, sorry." So "nappy" must be a "cuss." I've noticed in the past that "coon" is off the word list, even though the word "coon" can mean "raccoon" (or, though there's not much occasion to say this anymore, a member of the Whig party). "Nappy" can also mean "diaper." And it can describe the surface of some velvety fabrics. 

It seems that Spelling Bee eliminates a word when one meaning is an insult — a particular sort of insult, aimed at members of a group that has, historically, experienced subordination. 

But is "nappy" an insult? It almost seems insulting to think of "nappy" as an insult.

I found this article from last year (at NPR) — "The Racial Roots Behind The Term 'Nappy.'"  

In 1998, white New York City schoolteacher Ruth Sherman received tremendous backlash after assigning Nappy Hair, a book by Carolivia Herron focused on cultivating positive feelings about nappy hair in young children. One of the parents was not pleased, according to an investigation launched by New York City's Department of Education, because of the belief that the phrase "nappy hair" was a racial slur. The debate resulted in a firestorm of calls to have Sherman fired. 

"[Sherman] had what she considered to be viable death threats against her," says Noliwe Rooks, author of Hair Raising: Beauty, Culture and the African American Woman. "All because she was trying to teach little kids, many of which were of African descent, that 'nappy' could be seen as positive." 

Rooks said that when she first heard about the controversy, she was sure that it was centered on the misconception that Sherman, a white woman, was being racially insensitive. But Rooks says the parents weren't accusing Sherman of discrimination. Rather, they confronted her for framing nappy hair as a positive. 

"You start to hear that [the parents] were like, 'Why would you be trying to tell my child that her nappy hair is a good thing?' " Rooks said. "I found that fascinating."

Nearly a decade later, in 2007, nappy was once again thrown into the national spotlight after radio host Don Imus used the term "nappy-headed hos" in reference to the Rutgers women's basketball team. The backlash was immediate....

I asked [Zine Magubane, associate sociology professor at Boston College] whether there was a context where the term nappy could be used in a nonoffensive manner. Her response was blunt: "No." 

"Certain social movements have changed the meaning of what any word is supposed to describe," Magubane said. "So 'slut,' [for example] — we have had enough of a female revolution so that the idea that a woman must be chaste is mostly gone." 

But she says neither the culture nor the context has undergone a change significant enough for nappy to get the same treatment. 

What would it take? Magubane seems to say that racism must end before the word can be reclaimed as positive. 

I called up Trisha R. Thomas, author of the book Nappily Ever After, which inspired the Netflix hit of the same name. "I wrote Nappily with the goal of putting the term in a new light," Thomas explained... "I knew it may be causing a little stir, but I knew I had to resist the fear and do what I thought was right.

Thomas is asked whether there's hope that the word can become positive:  

"If you would have asked me this when I wrote the book in 2000, I would have told you, 'Yes, there is hope,' " Thomas said. "But I just don't think so anymore. There's a group damaged by the word's hurtful connotation whose pain will never go away. I saw the depths of their hurt, and it was painful to even witness. At this point, I've accepted that it's always going to be a triggering word... Always."

Well, that's sad, and it explains the simple censorship today at the NYT Spelling Bee. 

You can stop now, but keep going for some musical digression and an investigation of the obscure slang word "mamlish."

I looked up "nappy" in the OED and the second definition was "U.S. slang (frequently derogatory.). Of hair, esp. that of a black person: frizzy." 

One of the quotes there was from a 1927 song by Bobby Grant called "Nappy Head Blues." Listen:

 

Lyrics: "Your head is nappy, feet so mamlish, feet so mamlish, mamlish long... You look like a turkey, comin' through the mamlish corn." 

Now, you have to be wondering, what is "mamlish"?! 

Listen to "Mamlish Blues" and see if you can tell:

 

Lyrics here. Excerpting the use of "mamlish": "You used to be my sugar but you ain't sweet no mamlish more...  Mama, must I sell it or keep it for my mamlish self...  Well, my mama, she didn't like me, my papa, he give me mamlish 'way...  Talkin' 'bout your stroller but you just ought to see mamlish mine... She was standin' on a corner, between Twenty-fifth and, mamlish Main..."

It seems to work like "damned" or "fucking" as those words are used by people who say them as often as possible. 

There's also "Bullfrog Blues" by William Harris. Audio here. Lyrics here.

This is that song that begins "Have you ever woke up with them bullfrogs on your mind?" (which has a David Bromberg version). 

"Mamlish" comes up in Harris's song in the middle of a word: "I got the bullfrog blues, mama, can't be satis-, can't be satis-, mamlish -fied." 

Anyway, talk about your racism... a couple verses later, there's this:

I'm gonna tell you, buddy, what a Chinaman told a, a Chinaman told a, I mean, a Jew 

I'm gonna tell you what a Chinaman told a Jew 

"You don't like-ee me, well I, sure God, don't like you."