Public Opinions

The “N� word controversy is one that has no easy answer to it, to sound cliché and for lack of a better way to state the difficult of this discussion. The word started as a derogatory term to beat down the morale and mental health of those of African American who were enslaved in the Americas and other places in the world. Since then it has evolved through time into a word that is used to refer to a person that you are close to or have a well developed relationship with in African American culture. The controversy arose when it was introduced into pop culture and other ethnicities started finding the word okay to use without any knowledge of the repercussions.
For me this is a controversy that I can relate to and I have experienced as I am sure there are many other people who can. For seven years of my life I lived in almost exclusively black neighborhoods and most of my friends were African American. Can you guess how I felt about that as a kid? I didn’t care for me it was no different than any other place I had lived, there was people, there was houses, and there was nothing different from any place to another except the dialects changed from region to region. In this case the “N� word was used on occasion by people I knew and it was even directed at me by some friends that I had because that was just the way it was. Men used to talk to me like I was any other kid, but when that word came out one time they had a talk with me about how I should be discrete about whom I say it too, when, and where. They told me that it wasn’t a word I should use in any instance, but could get away with it with those that I knew were my best friends and saw it as a, well a form of endearment I guess.
I think the word should be eliminated from all languages in time, but right now no one can take that away from African American culture but those that belong to that culture because the pain from indecencies suffered and still suffered are still fresh and festering. This discussion isn’t going to end until there is a balance to be reached like there was talk of on the video clip and the pendulum will continue to swing, but it’s hard to say how these things really should be handled. For now as all I can say is that it truly does need to be removed from the media and pop culture or at the least an understanding driven into the hearts of those that would considering using that word without knowing how the word would be received by those that would hear it from certain lips. The word has no place in the public eyes or ears it is a word that is used by a culture to remind themselves of what they have been through together and to hopefully unify to struggle through till a balance of living is reached. The word though still is used in ways that it should not be in all cultures be it black or another. Because when it is used in anger there is only way for it to be received and that usage can only tear open old wounds to bleed anew. This is a challenge, a demographic and a linguistic challenge that society has never really had to come to grips with on such a scale, but it does need to be handled. The problem doesn’t end with outside cultures cease of using the word as that can clearly be seen. For the problem to finally come to a resolution it would seem that hate would have to be stricken from the hearts that fight to separate races. This discussion could go on forever and the things I have talked about don’t even scratch the surface, but are about as far as I can delve without embarrassing myself to a degree of shame.