THE "N" WORD: STILL A FACTOR IN 2011

A good friend of mine and my sister in Christ sent me an email and requested that I blog about it. Here is a piece of the email that she sent:

"Last week at work it was brought to my attention an African American male student was harassed by a white student at a prestigious private school, my son used to attend, by calling him a Nigger. The student never told any authority figure so it happen again and another student over heard the rude statements and told the Dean. The Dean called both parents, but the parents of the Black student feels as though the situation was still not resolved. Now the Black student wants to transfer to another school where he is more comfortable socially."

The word "nigger" has always had negative connotations to it for African Americans since the days of slavery. As it was a derrogatory term used to describe African Americans. Somewhere in the past 30 years or so the term has been readily accepted among some of the African American community with a twist and used as a term of endearment "nigga". Including some powerful, influential African Americans. As they feel it is their right to use the word. However, African Americans that use the word feel it is ok for them to use but it is not ok for anyone outside of the race to use at all. On the contrary, there are powerful, influential African Americans that feel the word nigga shouldn't be used by any one for any reason.


Definition of NIGGER by Merriam-webster
1 usually offensive; see usage paragraph below : a black person
2 usually offensive; see usage paragraph below : a member of any dark-skinned race

From wikipedia:

Nigger is a noun in the English language, most notable for its usage in a pejorative context to refer to black people (generally people of Sub-Saharan African descent), and also as an informal slang term, among other contexts. It is a common ethnic slur. The word originated as a term used in a neutral context to refer to black people, as a variation of the Spanish/Portuguese noun negro, a descendant of the Latin adjective niger, meaning the color "black".

Cultural: Addressing the use of nigger by black people, Cornel West said, “There’s a certain rhythmic seduction to the word. If you speak in a sentence, and you have to say cat, companion, or friend, as opposed to nigger, then the rhythmic presentation is off. That rhythmic language is a form of historical memory for black people... When Richard Pryor came back from Africa, and decided to stop using the word onstage, he would sometimes start to slip up, because he was so used to speaking that way. It was the right word at the moment to keep the rhythm together in his sentence making.”[15] Contemporarily, the implied racism of the word nigger has rendered its usages social taboo. In the US, magazines and newspapers often do not use it, instead printing “family-friendly” censored versions, usually “n*gg*r”, “n**ger”, “n——”, and “the N-word”; however, historians and social activists, such as Dick Gregory, criticize the euphemisms and their usage as intellectually dishonest, because using the euphemism “the N-word” instead of nigger robs younger generations of Americans of the full history of Black people in America.

So what do we teach our youth specifically our males about the word nigger and its use? How do we prepare them for the possibility that in 2011 and beyond someone may call them a nigger? What should their response be when/if addressed in that manner? What advice would you give the parents of the student who experienced this? What do you tell the young man that now wants to switch schools because of this?

Be a blessing and be blessed,
Epiphany Essentials