Fat ass.

i agree, i wish we would stop using the word altogether, at this point, every use of the word is stupid and useless. there’s nothing empowering about using it to refer to your friend, no matter how much some idiot may want to argue that the way the word was “turned around” by *some* of the black community should be embraced and appreciated by everyone. let’s be serious, the same people that use it with each other refuse to let others use it. you can’t have your cake and eat it too. something can’t be half taboo. it doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t work, and in this particular sense, it’s racist. it’s either universally usable granted you did not mean to offend, or it’s not, period. at this point, since the word insists on hanging around, we should go by the former.

that said, just because you have the right to do something doesn’t mean it’s appropriate all the time. just like one wouldn’t go cursing up a storm in church (…i hope…), there’s no reason for one to go around dropping the n-bomb randomly. most people would just sound stupid. actually, there are probably very few instances in which usage of the word could be argued to be appropriate, so if we all take that discretion usage should limit itself a lot. yes, if someone jokes around with the word someone might overhear, but that’s not that someone’s fault, and they clearly didn’t do it with the intention of offending. sure it’s unfortunate that person has to think about such horrible times, but that’s a personal thing. if i hear a group of people making fun of the name prudence and that happens to be the name of my friend that died two weeks ago (not a true story by any stretch btw, thank goodness), it makes absolutely no sense to go off on them about what they’re saying based on your connection with the name (though it would make sense to tell them to shut up, since they are speaking maliciously…not the best parallel, i know, but i hope you get the point).

About twenty years ago I probably would have used the same logic. “They can use it. I should have the same right to use the word too.”

However, I’m 38 years old now and I’ve learned a lot about people during that time. If you understand how complex race relations are in the US and the history here, then that simple logic doesn’t hold up. You have to ask yourself, “Why would I want to use that word?”

For many people, that word can be *very* hurtful. Even if you just want to use it with your buddies, people overhear you. It’s a powerful word, especially for people my age and older. It conjures visions of some of the worst atrocities that people have committed against one another.

Honestly, I wish we’d all stop using it.

People have been lynched and burned alive while being called that word. The word has been used to intimidate and reduce people to being less than human.

Really consider the effect of the words you use. Get over the immature thinking of “they can, why can’t I?” Think how you might hurt someone, including young children, with that word. Language can have a different meaning depending on who uses it. That’s just how language works, and this word, with its history, shouldn’t be used by whites.

by the same token, anyone that uses the n-word with the intent to offend, black or otherwise, is wrong. using it as an offensive term is just plain racist, whether or not the person using it is black. this is why Black’s tweet is so wrong: especially read without the knowledge that he is making commentary against the language used in rap lyrics, the (i assume) intended sarcasm of the tweet is completely absent to the reader; it just seems like he’s calling kanye west’s dead mother a bitch ass nigga (i’m assuming he spelled it that way). now there are a lot of dumb things about this tweet aside from the racism; if a person that speaks using this type of language were to say this, they most likely wouldn’t be referring to a female, since guys usually only refer to other males as “niggas.” in that light, the n-word wouldn’t even be the offensive element; it’s just being used to refer to the person. stupid, right? well, that’s why i hate hood language…it would be much simpler if we just threw the word away, but if we’re not going to, then we can’t put any race-based restrictions on its non-offensive use either.

i don’t know if any of that made sense, but i hope it did. i agree with everything else shannon said though, btw.

I’m not an American, but have been in America for three years now. I see a lot of black people in my school using N word in an extremely brotherly way. It’s like they feel proud when a fellow black man says “Hey my N*” to them. What is amazing is the same word can leave such a big hurt when a non-white says it to them.

Morale of the story for me: When in doubt, better keep silence.