The N-word. We’ve heard it in songs. We’ve read it in books. Some of us have even referred to friends as it.
Historically, the n-word’s negative connotations started around the early 1800s when it was firmly established as a derogatory name for slaves in the US. Meant to dehumanize black people, the n-word and other racial slurs have victimized and advanced the notion of anti-black prejudice.
Black culture has taken this word back as a cultural sense of brotherhood. By dropping the -er and adding an -a at the end of the n-word, they acknowledge their shared traumatic historical background.
Due to racism and ignorance, other races think they are allowed to use the n-word. The fact that others use it is indicative of the systemic racism the word was born from. Anyone who is not black who uses this word condones the overall hateful connotations this word. So no, it is not ok to say it, ever.
Americans created a racial hierarchy with whites at the top and blacks at the bottom and was set up to keep blacks “in their place.” Any other race who uses this word furthers this idea.
Understanding why anyone other than black people are allowed to use the n-word in songs, poems, books, and speaking to each other as a term of endearment should not be hard.
Everyone knows the n-word is a no-no word. Therefore if it is used, it produces hate and racism. The n-word is not difficult to hum over in a song or even not speak at all.
In a May 2018 article for Variety, Jeremy Helligar wrote, “There’s no getting past the destructive power of the N-word.” He further noted that rappers should rethink how they deliver their message.
Kendrick Lamar called a white woman on stage at an Alabama concert and invited her to rap along to “m.A.A.d city.” When she proceeded to say the n-word, Lamar interrupted her among boos from the crowd. This white woman thought it was ok to sing the word when it isn’t.
A Rapper’s use of the n-word in a song is debated by those of all races. In an October New York Times article, Gary Suarez wrote, “Given that the word’s appearance in songs serves as part of a reclamation of the word by black artists and isn’t intended to be used maliciously, many young people, regardless of skin color and including Latinx people, don’t see repeating the word in rap lyrics as problematic.”
On Oct. 14, Gina Rodriguez, star of “Jane the Virgin,” posted a video of her rapping along to a song using the n-word on her Instagram story. As a Latina, she has no claim to this word despite being a minority herself. She later issued a passive aggressive apology that was more “sorry if you were offended” than actually saying she was sorry for using it.
In an April article for The Undefeated magazine, Brando Simeo Starkey wrote, “Blacks who use the n-word or its variants argue that it has to be understood in its situation; repeated use of the word by Blacks will make it less offensive.” He notes it’s not the same word when whites are saying the -er and continued to say, “Blacks should not be prisoners of the past or the ugly words that originated in the past.”
The decision for black people to use the n-word in their vocabulary is a personal choice, reflecting on the horrifying history, which some white people are ignorant enough to believe is erased from history. The n-word should not be in anyone else’s vocabulary.
In a May 2018 article for The Root, Michael Harriot wrote white people are always going to want to use the n-word.
“There isn’t a white person in America who doesn’t know that the n-word is the most derogatory and racist term anyone can use,” Harriot wrote. “Therefore, anyone who uses the word is aware of its racist implications.”
The use of the n-word is used is a conscious decision. The n-word’s place in rap music is indicident of the torture black people have endured for centuries. Its place in anyone else’s vocabulary is of racist and hateful intent, whether it be ignorance or malice.
