According to Tolerance.org, the n-word is “the ultimate insult— a word that has tormented generations of African Americans. Yet over time, it has become a popular term of endearment by the descendants of the very people who once had to endure it.” To me, it is a derogatory term that I don’t use. However, when this topic first arose, I instantly wanted to know more about it. As a person of mixed race, I felt that— to talk about the issue— I needed more insight into the people of the black community who use the word. I interviewed my fellow students right here at MSA as well as a former classmate at my previous school. Here’s what they had to say:
Do you use the n-word? Why or why not?
“No, I don’t because I find it very degrading,” says Elijah Karriem, an MSA vocal.
Another vocal student, Cedrick Smith, agreed with Karriem’s response, saying that the word derives from hate. However, there are many other students who do use the word for a variety of reasons.
For example, Carter Skipwith, an MSA literary student, said: “Yes, I grew up in an all-black neighborhood. It was the ghetto, I guess. Also, my school was majority black. My friends said it, my classmates said it, a lot of adults in my life said it, so I said ‘Okay, this is common’. Now that I’m older and around different groups of people, I have to understand that not everyone takes it as lightly as me. I probably use it the way people use crap, like ‘oh crap!’. That’s just how I was raised. My mom doesn’t say it though, but my grandma says it and she’s like my second mom.”
Stephyne Weathersby, MSA literary, says this about the word: “I never say it as a demeaning word. The way the word originated is horrible, but I think the black community turned the word from something that was demeaning into something you can bond with; it’s a connection among black people, ya’know? It’s so beautiful how we’ve transformed this word.”
Weathersby’s response prompted me to ask the very question that this piece is entitled.
Do you think that the n-word is creating a community or repeating a cycle of hate?
Smith says, “Racism is in the DNA of America, and words like that are what keep racism in the threads of America. If we keep using it as a free slang word, we are basically whitewashing our own history. So, it is repeating a cycle of hate.”
On the contrary, Skipwith says, “I feel like it just depends. I feel like it could build a community if people weren’t so hateful, but it all depends on what you’ve been taught. If people didn’t teach hate with that word, I believe that it could build a community. It would break a racial barrier; it would break a cultural difference, but there are still people in the world teaching and rehearsing hate. Honestly, though, we could just get rid of the word in general— there’s so many possibilities.”
However, a student from my former school said this, “Well, I am white, which shouldn’t make a difference, but no. However, I believe that it was once used to degrade a community, so I wouldn’t recommend affiliating it with one.”
Because this student is not a person of color, I asked the controversial question:
Do you think that people of other ethnicities should use the n-word?
He says, “I believe that, in a way, that’s using something that was once used against the oppressed to oppress others, which I can understand, but I don’t believe is okay. It’s still oppression, just less direct. I believe everyone should use the word or no one.”
Similarly, Smith says, “It’s a word that’s used so freely that most people don’t understand the severity of it. The way the black community uses the word makes other people feel like they can use the word, as well. And if you say that the word is being used for good now, then you can’t tell others they can’t use it because then what good is that doing?”
However, Weathersby says, “I wish we could go back to the time where that word didn’t mean what it means, but it does. There’s no changing that, so respect has to be given. I’d feel so uncomfortable if a white person was talking to me they called me a nigga like that’s hands-off because that makes me feel like they’re talking above me because that’s what the word meant. So, that’s just how I feel about white people saying it. I don’t think they should say it. And the white people who think it’s fun and cool to say, I look at them in a certain way because that’s not fun or cool for them to say because they don’t know the background of it, ya know? And there’s some white people who don’t think it’s a big deal, but you have to make them realize that it is a big deal. Because some schools haven’t even ever really taught black history, so they really don’t know. Like you know Martin, you know Malcolm, but you don’t really go into it, and that’s a problem. That’s a real problem.”
The n-word has been desensitized. It is a word that’s used so commonly and freely that most people don’t know the history of it, like Weathersby and Smith said. So, I asked another MSA student what they thought.
Azya Lyons, a literary arts student, said this: “It does, but it shouldn’t make them too comfortable to where they feel like it resonates with them. It shouldn’t because it just doesn’t.”
Furthermore, Skipwith says, “I think that the n-word has been desensitized to us as a way to get rid of “racism”. People will try to say that we shouldn’t dwell on that, but it happened, and it’s still not fixed. Saying the n-word so loosely has been implemented in the black community which makes others think that it’s okay to say it. But I think it started as a way to try and eliminate racism, but it’s not working. And the word still has underlying racist tones. And we’re trying to use something that was hateful before to make peace and it’s just not working. It’s just black people saying, ‘That’s our word and we gone reclaim it, but you best not’.”
[Part 2 coming soon]