The N-Word.
Call it a racial slur, radical language, or simply talk "not for everyone", this rhetoric originates from a re-imagining of the Spanish/Portuguese noun, negro( itself from the Latin, niger, meaning "black"), and has inserted itself into modern pop culture through the media use and causes a general confusion over the word itself. Everyone from the comedic Chris Rock to self-described "King of Rap" Kanye West himself repeatedly reuse the two syllables throughout their successful ventures.
The commonality between them: they're people of color. Even more: They're black people.
Many remember Chris Rock's notoriously controversial HBO special, "N----- v. Black People" in 1996. In it, he bluntly addresses a multitude of negative African-American stereotypes as attributes of "niggas", depicting them as a subset of the black community that give the rest a bad name. The mostly comedic rant, though hugely popular, eventually was retired from the HBO special and Rock's personal archives of joke material, quoting in a 2005 interview on 60 Minutes how: "....some people that were racist thought they had the license to say n-----,". Kanye West's Gold Digger itself portrays a blatant use of the word, and a 2017 video of several sorority sisters, all white, chanting the lyrics in full circulated the web. Piers Morgan stirred even more of controversy surrounding the topic when he absolved the women of any racist intent, and demanded the word's complete banishment from accepted English language as a solution to debate over the matter.
Who can use it? Who can't?
In short, I've found that it is fairly safe to presume, if you are not a person of color, and even more safe, a black person, I'd refrain from using the word in any capacity.
I spoke with Robert Barkley, a brother of mine from Phi Mu Delta Mu Alpha fraternity well-versed on race relations, who conveyed to me a few of his thoughts on the matter. I came from the backwoods of PA, and adopted into a white family, so what could I possibly know? Was I even 'black enough' to speak on the subject? Ironically, he told me a life story fairly similar to my own. In his words:
".....It's not that I was born with the privilege of calling someone a n----; on the contrary, for most of my life I felt like I shouldn’t say it because I wasn’t considered 'black enough'...I would say my experience with race relations, especially regarding the use of the word....has always been just unnecessarily complicated. At some point, it started becoming a conversation about who was 'allowed to say it....Freedom of speech is something that civil rights leaders, white and black, have fought to maintain and see true for decades now, and if that’s the case anyone “can” say, n----."
While both Barkley and I agree this doesn't call for the n-word to be shouted from the rooftops, I will never say the n-word, not with an "a" nor a hard "r", as growing up in placid Pennsylvania wasn't always pleasant for me. Not in a place where the word was spat whenever I spoke so eloquently, dared to date outside my race, or heard it hurled from a beat up hatchback, Confederate flag included. Knowing the history behind the hate ingrained within its usage only makes me more affront to it. To quote Barkley again, "....I recently watched the Dave Letterman interview with Jay-Z and Hov says, 'this word is something that people heard as they died. That’s the last thing they heard.'.....I have so many friends that get upset that they can’t say it, but never actually want to know why they shouldn’t."
Understand, I fully respect its reclaiming by black people, whose youth have taken it upon themselves to detoxify its meaning and reintegrate the n-word as a term of endearment, who for them the word will always denote a power or privilege over another party. This is a privilege that many black people have never had, or never will have. The thing that is often missing from the conversation is the understanding that it’s not a privilege or a right, but rather a history. So many who miss the meaning behind the word overlook the history behind it. While I will never use the word, nor would want it used in reference to me, I see the reclaiming of the word by black people not only as a coping mechanism for the absolute atrocity that was the Atlantic Slave Trade and its effects on modern black culture, but also as a means of coming to terms with a history whose impact is still heavily felt today. A part of black culture.
As an English enthusiast myself, I bring up Huckleberry Finn as a prime example of the n-word debate in action: written a total of two hundred and fifteen times in the colonial-era book, should the novel even be taught in an educational sense? Yes, I believe so, and whitewashing the words away not only removes the racial epithets, but also the bite behind it all. It should be uncomfortable to examine books depicting the enslavement of of an entire people, feel dirty to even read the n-word on the page in that context, and still have that stark, sharp reaction-inducing receptivity. It should because you are involuntarily relating it back to slavery, and (hopefully), being repulsed by that fact. When I first heard rappers use it I truly hated it, but upon listening closer, realized that many artists convey a message through its usage that relates the dark past with the current struggles people of color ultimately still face.
Anyone can say the n-word, though God help you if you do. It denotes a painful past people of color are intimately close to, and so it is more than fair to state it is "their word", and even more so, to allow black people the choice of whether or not to use it without fear of not being perceived as "black enough". To those who choose to, just remember the power behind these two syllables, their history, and in that in using them you are not just talking the talk but throwing considerable weight around in conversation. Be mindful of this.
In addition, to those wondering why a word may be exclusive to a race, and arguing that the very notion is racist in itself, I explain the dynamic of my family: My brother and I are brown as can be, but the rest may burn after but an hour in the sun. We love each other, and though we are extremely close and share a multitude of memories, can never truly relate the discrimination firsthand my brother and I may face that they, purely through proximity to us, can an only experience from an "outside" perspective. To me, the word will always be synonymous with the emotions of hatred, ignorance, and other-ing. To some, they redefine the word to a meaning more akin to brother, friend, or family. This is their choice, but again, is a word so closely tied to one race that is in their hands to define its meaning and its furhter usage. This is a deeply personal subject for me and difficult to approach, and while I do not claim to be the expert on this, believe that a direct discussion about the stigma behind the word has been generations in the making.
