White people want to pretend that racism no longer exists, so we should all be able to do and say whatever we want if someone else can. It is not dead, and as long as it is alive and the history exists, there will be double standards. Most white people have never experienced being racially oppressed because white people are in control of just about everything - so how would they know what it feels like to be discriminated against? People of color still go through this struggle every day. Just about everyone I know that is black has had an experience of being called an N word from some screaming white kid in a car passing by (sometimes even threatening their lives) AT LEAST once, or an incredibly unfair run in with the police (Ive witnessed these first hand). It is not my place to tell the black community how they can or cant use a word with so much racial connotation as the N word. I CAN, however, speak to white folks and inform them that word was used by white slave owners to demean black slaves - it was a way to call them something below human. Black people were raped, hanged, whipped, enslaved and tortured all behind the power of that word. It really wasnt that long ago. Many people in the black community made the decision to flip the word and take away its meaning by using it themselves. It became a term of endearment in the black community. It became a way to say - You cant hurt me anymore. I will call myself that. Now what are you going to call me? However, when used by a white person, even if it is INTENDED as a term of endearment, it is simply NOT THE SAME THING. It means something completely different, because no matter WHAT happens - the word will always be RACIAL TERM and associated with the color of a persons skin. It refers specifically to one race and group of people by definition and was intended to demean that group of people - therefore only THEY should have the right to use it how they see fit. When a white person uses it, even if it is intended to be used as a term of endearment - it can be EASILY misconstrued as the racial slur it was originally used as - further more, a good majority of white people grew up and spend their time around mostly other white people (this is pretty common knowledge) and simply CANNOT have the full perspective on racism and its impact on the black community. It comes off as ignorant that a word that has SO much ugly history would be used at all by a person who is likely directly related to those people who perpetuated its use in the first place as the ammo in one of the most horrible attacks in human history. It was a word developed by the white man to demean the black man. If you are white, DONT USE IT. That simple. Allow the black community to decide how and if they should continue to use it. Think before you go out screaming ITS JUST AS RACIST IF I CANT SAY IT. No. Its really not. I dont know in what better way I can explain it.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 00:15:59 +0000
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