Yep…I’m gonna go there. The N-word, I do not say it, I do not like to be called by it, and I do not like to hear it. In fact it breaks my heart when I hear it. I’m always amazed when I hear an otherwise intelligent person say “We’ve taken the power out of it, it’s a term of affection”. If that were really true then black folks wouldn’t mind if a white person called them the N-word. If that happened most likely a fight would break out. If it were true the the N-word was just a term of affection, then rappers wouldn’t refer to people they want to kill as “N-words”.
I hear black people gleefully claim that “we took the word back and they (white people) can’t use it, it’s only for us”. I wonder to myself if there could EVER come a time when a Jewish person would use a horrible epithet to refer to themselves or another Jew…I think not. I wonder if a white person would call a white friend a derogatory term and say it’s a term of affection. I’ve never heard a Hispanic person call another Latino a horrible slur as a sign of affection. Why is this?
Well…I’m a black man, so I can only guess on the answer to this question. But my guess would be that people of other ethnicity’s have pride in their heritage. To disrespect their heritage would be unthinkable. Of course they wouldn’t take upon themselves any term that was created to make them feel like they were less than human. Ironically it has become common for Hispanics to use the N-word, but why? Because it’s not the S-word. It’s easy to co-opt disrespect that isn’t directed at you. If we interviewed Hispanics about this they might not think about it so deeply. They may just say “oh, it doesn’t mean anything, it’s just a friendly term”. But I doubt that you could find many Puerto-Ricans who would find use of the S-word to be a harmless expression. Again…it’s pride, pride about where they come from…and that’s something that way too many African Americans don’t have.
The history of African Americans in this country has been a difficult one. We’ve been robbed of our history. Most black folks have no idea what country they come for…not what continent, but what country. So many things happened to make us feel…less than. Too many of us have internalized this oppression without even realizing it. A lot of black folk have the outer expression of confidence but that confidence is betrayed by willingly taking upon ourselves the disgrace of the N-word. This sickness shows itself in other ways like: saying a black person is “acting white” when they speak proper English, throwing in the towel in the work place because “the white man won’t give us a chance”, selling drugs to our people in our neighborhoods, killing each other, the most likely cause of death amongst young black men is murder at the hands on other young black men.
Black folks need to wake up…we need to learn from the good examples of other ethnicity’s. Jews don’t thrive here in America because they are cheap, they thrive because the are hard workers, and they support each other…black folk can learn from that. Hispanics speak their language openly and freely (I can’t lie on the job I have a problem with this sometimes) and play latin music because of ethnic pride…black folk can learn from that.
I am a black man…I’m proud to be a black man. I’m proud of what we have done and what we have overcome as a people. In fact I’m so proud to be black that I have never been nor will I ever be an N-word. I will never fall for the stupid explanation for why other blacks accept and embrace the word. I love being a black man enough… to tell the truth…we as a people have some growing to do.
Stay Fly and Fly High!
KLH
