Is never acceptable under any circumstances by anyone, regardless of your race/nationality....Period.....I'm a brother who organizes among African people so believe me....I've heard all the tired weak kneed arguments.....Its a term of endearment....We mean it differently than other people.....Yeah yeah....I grew up using the word and hearing everyone in my house use it on a regular basis, including my grandmother...My mother, who died in 2009, used the word all the way up to her death at age 80....So, I know all the arguments....Still, all those people who justify using the word cannot refute these facts. Number one, the term has undeniable negative effects on a people who struggle to define themselves in a positive light in a society that negates our history, our culture, and our positive contributions to human civilization. In other words, if there was a strong understanding of African culture, experiences, history, contributions, language, etc., then we could absorb whatever negative impact a word may have, but in the absence of those positive characteristics, a negative definition comes to define who we are and this is why our regular use of the word is accompanied by our continued negative treatment of one another and ourselves and the continued disrespect others have for us. Second, those who use the word haven't demonstrated an understanding and appreciation for the suffering those who experienced the word accompanied by the horror that engulfed its earlier usage have endured. If you haven't had those horrifying experiences then you aren't qualified to use the word and you look stupid trying to argue that "its just a word." Easy for you to say when nobody's calling you the word with a rope around your neck or raping your wife, castrating your husband, or burning your house down. Finally, the n word has always been profitable in America's sick money before people capitalist culture. The word has been used to sell a number of products from nuts to hair creams to skin conditioners for almost 100 years. So it's recent proliferation and profitability in the rap music industry is nothing new and simply reflects the new age transformation of Step in fetchet to modern day hip/hop personalities. Same old process. We use the word, we make some money doing it, but White corporate capitalist America reaps the real profits while the same negative messages are perpetuated to continue to destory our people and our communities. And other people who use the word? My mother said it best. "Who's the biggest fool? The fool, or the fool who follows?" So here's a call for us to just stop using the word. It isn't funny and it isn't fun. It's also a call for us to hold those of us who use the word to make money e.g. musicians accountable by not buying or supporting their products. Then we have to hold other people accountable who use the word. Just this simple act would so so much to improve the mental health of our people and communties that it may help us realize our tremondous potential to achieve even higher achievements towards our liberation.
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