No More N Word

Growing up mixed with black and white has it’s pro’s and con’s. One of the pro’s is being able to relate to both sides of my heritage. This debate focuses on the black side of my mix. When it comes to the “N” Word, ironically I have mixed emotions, no pun intended, but seriously this is an important discussion that needs to be had. I admit to using the “N” Word throughout my life, with my black friends as a term of endearment and it’s obviously the version spelled with an “a” at the end. The word itself has horrible origins and has caused pain for so many of our African American ancestors and elders, but we always looked at the use of the word as taking back control of it and erasing it’s power. In current times the word has been glamorized to a commercial level and can even be heard by other races using it as a term of endearment as well. When white people use the word we have a major issue with it, but we throw it around like it’s perfectly fine…are we being hypocrites? Have we been brainwashed by a society that encourages the ignorance of our people? Is the joke on us? Or did we just out smart the evil people that created this word by diminishing it’s power? People have different outlooks on this and thus the debate for wether or not we should continue to us it amongst the black community has begun. After watching this extremely eloquent young man plead his case for the eradication of the word from our current vocabulary, I must admit that I agree with him 100%. Now that I’m older and I would like to think wiser, I’ve decided to no longer use this word as an adjective to describe my beautiful brothers and sisters. We’re smart enough to use words that were created to uplift one another, it’s time we started doing that instead!

Please share your thoughts!