Voice of Black Expression Forum In Defense of The N Word

This is a repost of a reply to another thread.

I understand your POV completely. I grew up in an all White neighborhood. I�ve been called N****r and N****r B***h so many times I thought it was my government. Sorry to say I�ve also been spit on, cursed at, and dodged so many rocks that if it was an Olympic event I surely would have copped the gold. One day when I was thirteen I was standing on a bus stop in Mill Basin, Brooklyn. Back then Mill Basin had their own private bus service. Well, the driver slowed down to pick me up, saw I was Black, and sped up again. AND YET...
The beauty of the N Word is the beauty of our people. As slaves we took GARBAGE: pig ears, snouts, intestines, and turned them into delicacies (more or less; at least we made them tolerable). Now our young people have taken White America�s most venomous word and turned it into something beautiful. Isn't that what we do as writers and poets? Turn our pain into something esthetically pleasing?
As a forty-five year-old I realize my generation may not understand, and might even be a little jealous of what young people have done, but I am proud of them. Not only is being �my n***a� the ultimate bond, but that�s one less word for White folks to hurt us with.
My fiction is liberally spiced with N Words. Understand however that I LOVE MY PEOPLE WITH ALL MY HEART, both their strengths and their habits that make me cringe, and that the novel still delivers positive messages about us as Black people. I sincerly hope this doesn't inspire you to revoke the membershipof my N Word-using-behind.

First of all Hey & What's Up to all my brothas and sistas for whom I have much love, the most love, infinite love, for to not would be to deprive myself of such...

Having said that... I'm feeling the sista on the N word, but what disturbs me even more is how the immoral have taken the stance of setting the standards for the immoral. Get me? As a people, blacks have got to look further than one another's mouths, cleavages, or butt cracks to determine who we are, what we're doing, and whether, or not it's beneficial to us as a whole, or detrimental now, or in the long run. And, we've got to look at ourselves individually, and as a group.

I think the N word should be used by those who are cool with it, and not used by those who are not. It's like any other word in a country where people are supposed to be free. What really flips my lid is when people who've made a living using the N word, now say those coming up, many in the same field they're in, should no longer use it. Paul Mooney's "N" wake up segment last year was the funniest thing I'd ever heard. Now, he was a little hard on Diana Ross and I felt bad for her daughter, Tracee Ellis Ross, when he performed his skit at the awards pretty much knowing she was going to be in the audience. But hey, it didn't make it any less funny. Now, to see this brotha on television saying the word should be banned? Nah! That's not cool. He's cool. But, that's not cool.

You feelin me and I'm feelin you so we here with it. As with everything in this so called free country, it's a personal choice. I don't look down on anyone for their stance/opinion/whatever. I just don't think N Word usin Family should be looked down on either. It's all love.

I really feel you on this one, but my opinion the N-word only has as much power as you give it! ::cool::

Amen

my thing is as long as we keep using the N word, other races will too because young people from every race in America tries to act "black". i've met asians, hispanics, pretty much anything that isn't white and a lot of em say n***a. i'm not offended cuz it's just a word. if you say it only has enough power as you give it then if a white man walks up and says "wazzup my n***a" you can't get offended or then your statement: "it only has power if you give it power" means absolutely nothing. i don't care who uses the word. it's just a word.

i personally think we should stop using it. i use it and sometimes i feel bad cuz many times the word alone makes me sound ignant as f**k.

tell the truth...when you see young black males with their pants sagging, saying "n***a" five times in every sentence, what do you think?

i think ignorance.

I have heard over the years that we (us black people) should stop using the N-Word by our own, because that will stop whites and other races from mocking us and giving them ammunition to call us N*****s. However, I feel that as a young strong black man in America why is it everytime whites or any other race comes out their mouth about us we are the ones trying to correct ourselves instead of us checking them on the matter. We have always bowed down to whites with power out of fear out of acceptance amongst them. But understand that no matter how we plan to change our diction, our dress, our thinking, other people are going to think whatever they want, regardless. I don't change because someone is threatened by my demeanor. Who I'am is who I'am and as black men and women we should not give in to this prejudice society.

There is not any particular way blacks can act. When you mean acting black do you mean, being ghetto? or hip-hopish. Also, power is already in words that is why we are writers. Whites calling us n*****s should always be unacceptable and never accepted. Think of how many of our people died and were put on auction blocks while being described as "a n****r buck" Think about how we were thought to be inferior to whites just because of our skin color. Don't let that slide and then rap about revolution when you allow other races to verbally spit in your face and you take it because it doesnt mean anything to you. Ever called a hispanic a spic? An arab an A-Rab? The N-Word has no power? What do you mean? So I guess we should let whites call us n****r then. How about we let them burn crosses on our lawns,hang our heads on ropes, and rape our women while they are at it.

Its easier to say that as black people we should be the ones to stop saying the word n***a, but what I don't understand is why? Why should we be the ones to stop saying n***a when they gave us the name? And no I don't think it's ok for other people to fall in line and call us "n*****s" that's not acceptable by any means. We called them "crakers" but they aren't calling all white people "crackers" so why is it that just because black people call each other "n****s" everyone has to call everyone a "n***a"? I thought the whole purpose of blacks being slaves is so that we a lesser of people so why follow our lead? But now everyone has do be like us and do and say whatever we say? But yet when we try and conform to other races "way of living, thinking, speaking, and breathing" they pick and pick until they can find the "ghetto" in us just so they can say we don't belong. We get blamed for so much whether it's music, what we say, how we dress, or where we live and now it's the word "n***a" what's next? Maybe we should just stop having kids maybe they will be happy then. Point being its not our fault that they want to fall in line like some drones. There are lines that shouldn't be crossed and you would think that after hundreds of year of them being wrong they would finally get it.

~theta

Recently a white man posted a poem called, "n****r" on site here. In it he says that the word has no power and then talks about his "black friends" calling him white n****r and then he uses some quotes from black people like Dick Gregory to maintain his argument.

I'm writing this not because I expect everyone to run over there in droves and respond, because clearly he wrote it to get attention, so why give him more? But perhaps some of us can think of ways to write about this subject from our point of view. Maybe I'm wrong about this, but I am so offended that a white man has taken it upon himself to tell us how we should feel about a word that has been made for us. As Roy Pickering Jr. said in his review of this poem, this man has no historical perspective on this word and it's not his right to make decisions about it.

Just adding my two cents to this debate which will probably continue to polarize our community for many years to come.

take care all

peace :)

Words have the spirit we give them and if we give them negative spirits then it will be a negative sway to the way you use it. We cant outlaw any word because people have the freedom of speech to express themselves and sometimes things we say meay be offensive so who are we to judge? The best thing is to say what you mean and mean what you say. Forget everything else.