The N-Word
BlackOutLDN has been working hard to help eradicate racism and discrimination, and one topic we think needs to be talked about is non-black people using the n-word. We all know that the n-word began as a disgusting tool of oppression, but what people do not seem to understand nowadays is that it still is and always will be a disgusting tool of oppression, and its usage by non-black people is racist, ignorant, and disrespectful to the black experience.
No, the n-word does not mean ‘friend’ and it does not mean ‘brother’ – yet non-black people do use it to refer to their friends whatever race they may be. Using the n-word is not cool, and if you think it is, you should look at black history and then ask yourself if you still feel the same way. There is no difference between it ending in an –er or an –a. Rappers and fans of rap do not have an automatic pass to use it, nor do people who have black friends or even black partners. In December Dappy from N-Dubz used the n-word in a song and defended himself against the backlash he received by tweeting that he and people he grew up with reclaimed the word and “made it [their] own”. He said: “If the word N**** means black to you then your Racist [sic]”.
But it does mean black – it is fundamentally a racial slur to refer to black people, and forgetting that does not diminish the meaning of the word but instead undermines the reality of black oppression. Because the n-word is certainly still used to racially attack black people nowadays; it is as powerful a racial slur as it always has been. Those who believe differently, as well as those who use the n-word while claiming not to be racist, are wildly ignorant of black history and race relations – they simply do not know they weight of what they are dealing with.
I personally asked a white girl on Twitter to stop using the n-word, to which she replied that her black boyfriend did not mind her using it, and that I should stop getting offended. That I should hold back from being offended by a blatant racial slur was shocking, and showed how much the n-word has been perceived to have overturned its meaning somehow. Meanwhile, racists incidentally use the exact same word to abuse black men and women on the same social networking site.
Is this then one form of cultural appropriation of black culture? Black people reclaimed the n-word and redefined it to signify something unique to the black community, but appropriation of the word led it to become a ‘cool’ marker of brotherhood and kinship in wider society. The reason why black people use it is because they have reclaimed it to mean something specific to them – and why can’t they transform the meaning of a word that has historically been used to oppress them?
This is why people may (and they do) then wonder why black people use the n-word but non-black people cannot. Those who have not experienced the n-word being used against them as a tool of oppression have no reason to reclaim it. It was not for society’s benefit that black people reclaimed the word and so it is not for public ownership.
But you should ask yourself exactly why you want to say the n-word in the first place. You know why it exists and therefore you know why it is offensive. To claim not to be using in a racist way disrespects all of the black people who have ever been on the receiving end of hate-filled racist abuse. Those truly willing to eradicate racism should be disgusted by the racist connotations and should want nothing to do with it.
This is why BlackOutLDN is working to see racist discourse and attitudes eliminated and we hope you will support us in this by sharing our articles and and spreading the message!
