I'm a weird person. That's all I can tell you. I'm a conservative with liberal qualities who voted for the NDP party. I voted for NDP because both the Liberal and Conservative parties kept attacking each other and I didn't like these childish acts. Told you I'm weird.
I'm an old school person. I like hearing music from the 80s to like early 2000s. Songs from Bonnie Tyler, Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Bryan Adams to All4One, Neyo and Chris Brown when he was singing songs like 'With You' and 'Wall to Wall'. Don't get me wrong, I do listen to music from this era from artists like Kendrick Lamar, Lecrae, Andy Mineo. I really like songs that are basically poetry with beats. Songs though that speak about disrespecting women, pride and money is when I start to cringe... but hey, it's 2016, this is not new.
So here is the thing, in this generation, in this culture, the 'n' word is used in so many different ways. Truth is, I 'm not gonna hate on you if you refer me as that or judge you but I would politely say if you don't refer me to that.
Thing is, I've watched too many historical videos and films depicting the lives of African Americans going through slavery, segregation, still dealing with racism. It hurts me, it breaks me. Films such as 'Lee Daniel's The Butler, Selma, 12 Years a Slave, Free State of Jones, 42, displays the torture on how African-American folks were dealing throughout the generations. Unfortunately, what really happened was worst. They were being tortured with rods, whips, even worst, especially for the women. Many were even sexually abused by the masters or slave owners they were living under. And it seemed like the words they always referred to these group were 'N-ggas'.
This word is a white man's word. Full of hate, pride and arrogance. It was a derragatory word to refer the African Americans as slaves. I even remember in the movie 'The Butler', the mentor of Seymour played by Forest Whitaker, spoke to him as a youth slapping his face the moment he said he was a good house n-gga explaining to him what the word means. That scene will always be in my head when I hear someone yell out that word to me.
Nowdays, it's uncommon not to hear it. People refer their homies and friends as n-ggas. It's not a surprise when I hear a girl refer their boyfriend as that. I just raise my eyebrows when I hear that.
Sometimes, it confuses me on how these African American youth claim that they are allowed to use it and not a caucasian person. I even have asked this question to the minority folks whenever I get the chance encountering them when I'm on the bus. They give me the usual repsonse... 'Because I'm black and they are not.' So I respond with, "Well, I find that word offensive because it is a word that masters used to refer to their slaves because they were worthless and no good." I had few responses. Some started to think and agreed to that, others countered it with, "Well the slave word is 'n-gger' and this modern one is not a hateful word.' So, changing the last few letters changes the defenition but is the modern word derived from that detestable word?, "Well, it was a slave word, but we try to cover it up and turn it into a positive thing by referring your homie like that." So because we mask a word into something better, should we ignore it and comfort to what the rest believes? I mean, I don't use the word, b-tch because it means female dog and to me it sounds like when a person says that to a person, they are downgrading them, they are saying they are better and the victim is below them. And don't get me started when a girl refers to another girl a 'hoe'. Am I that of a sensitive person? Hey, I just treat people the way I want to be treated and if I won't tolerate someone calling me these names, I wouldn't too.
You can use the word and say it defines this and that but the origin still stays. You can put bare bandages on a wounded heart but truth is, it's still going to be wounded.
The N word was the last word a slave had to hear before they got tortured or burn to death. Just imagine how it feels that this culture has so many issues when it comes to racism. What if Martin Luther King Jr. saw that we use this word in entertainment, art culture and day to day basis? Who knows what he would say.
I wanna hear your thoughts on what you think about the N word. I'm not attacking people, I have friends and we get in friendly debates when this topic is bought up. I don't get very offended like if a guy was saying it to a friend, I'd come and tell him this..
No, I respect people even if they do say it. I just wanted to write this in giving anyone some education if maybe they didn't know about this. It's always great to learn. We all need to learn, including me.
So do you think this word is offensive? Do you think we should cover the negativity about this word and use it in a positive way? Say what you need to say!!