The N-word

The N-Word

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h3wdKJy7_s9rRnU2H3jR-4A-HIuw
Why I don’t say it

Most people are fully aware of my stance on the N-Word. I don’t use it, and I generally don’t like when other people use it either, especially black folks. Sure you will always get racist people that will take great pleasure in saying it, but I find it also just as damaging for black people to say it as well.

In America, many of the other minorities don’t use the racial slurs within their culture like we do within black community. There are people that take pride calling one of their own the N-word. One thing I do find is this; the more educated the black person, the more likely they won’t use the N-word. I’ve had more than a few arguments with some coworkers at work about that word. They’ve generally been people who barely got out of high school.

How can we come down so hard on Kramer and Imus, when we don’t hold those within our community to higher standards?

We have to be better than this?

However as a writer, part of me doesn’t want governments to ban words. There should be a self-censorship but not a government issued one.

To those white people that think it’s okay to say it, because it’s merely a word

I run into many white people that can’t understand why the N-word is such a hot button issue. Growing up with mostly white people and very few blacks around, I encountered subtle and not-so-subtle forms of racism from whites. I had teachers who showed their racism plain as day by treating me with contempt.

The N-word has a long history of placing blacks into a lower-class category. There is too much pain and anger in the word, which white people may never comprehend.