Didn’t read all the comments. Skimmed through a few, chuckled at some, liked the ones I knew I was going to like anyways.
The enigma of the N-word baffled me as a kid growing up in a 98% white rural population. I thought it was wrong for one group of people to be able to say it while others cannot. Of course, everyone is allowed to say it, legally speaking, but it is not socially acceptable to do so.
Probably more than a decade later, I was curious why black people were so adamant about using it nearly every other word though. The most articulate answer I ever heard was “to regain our power over the word that was once used to oppress us”. While I appreciate the sentiment, it just seems painfully short-sighted. Why? Well because you’re going to have ignorant white kids like me growing up in the sticks who go and say it to be edgy kids - and cause someone else to be hurt.
Anecdote aside, I now think the word has been used as a means of gaining power over others, and it has not been to gain power over the word in quite some time. Maybe the reasons are the same, or maybe they are different - I couldn’t tell you.
What I do know, is that this word is now used as a shield to shut down debate.
Morgan Wallen was unquestionably the best artist and was refused the CMA because of a 10 year old video where he referred to his best friend as “my nigga”.
The dude from Papa Johns pizza was fired for quoting a time when Colonel Sanders said “Niggers”.
Matt Rife had to un-cancel himself from saying the N-Word (assumed soft-R) to his best friends - all of whom were black.
It seems that any and all continued use of this word - by any party - does nothing but hurt those who have no ill intentions towards those whom it supposedly hurts. But it’s still intertwined within almost every R&B and rap song that’s out there.
There is a harsh double-standard out there, and I do wish for it to go away. Not so that people who look like me could say demeaning and offensive words without reprocussion, but so that it was demeaning and offensive no matter who said it.
But my opinion on this doesn’t matter. At all. I won’t stand up for how wrong it is to say, or my right to say it. I’m a neck tattoo and a close(r) cropped haircut away from being an honorary aryan brotherhood inductee - and I like money too much to fight for this. I just wish the term would go away, honestly.
