The n-word…

I must say off the bat that I really hate the n-word. It is not a part of my vocabulary, and I hate to hear it uttered.

About a week ago, an acquaintance of mine (who happens to be white) told me about a hip hop song that he heard and he wanted to know if I had heard it. I wasn’t too sure if I knew the song, so he began to recite the lyrics for me.

He started to say “…my n$gga….hey n@gga…” I was a little shocked to hear him throw that word around. Once he saw the look on my face, he knew that I didn’t appreciate the use of the word.

Even though I realized that he did not intend to offend me, I still felt the need to tell him that I do not like that word, and I didn’t want to hear it.

When I finished talking to him, I realized that I wasn’t really that angry with him, I was more concerned with the fact that we’ve made the use of that word acceptable. It is spewed out in many rap songs and it is very much a part of “urban” dialogue in any “urban” movie. It is so common that people of all races feel comfortable using the word. They might think that since the word is thrown around a lot, that it is stripped of the negative connotation. Is this a good thing? I don’t think so.

Hearing the n-word used by someone that isn’t black will always come off as racist to me. I guess that comes from being the only black girl in some of my classes when I was younger. It was the one word that my classmates knew was the cruelest word that you could say to me, so they refrained from using it towards me.

Even though some say that the words n*gga and n%gger have different meanings (one is said to be harmless and not meant to be malicious, the other a racist term), I will always see them as words of hate, regardless of spelling. The n-word wasn’t created to instill black people with a sense of pride and community, it was used to demean, degrade and oppress black people. And for that reason, I will not use that word.