Does The N-Word Belong In Todays Society

I left Georgia and moved to New York City in early 2004. It was the first time I'd lived in another state in my entire life. There was so much to see. Everything was so different. I started working at an airport in New Jersey shortly after. One of the first things I noticed was how laid back work was there compared to anything I'd experienced in Georgia. But mainly, racial prejudices were not as evident. Blacks, whites and Hispanics worked together and if there was much difference in beliefs or backgrounds, they were hardly ever made known. At least I hadn't seen it. I liked that. In fact, I loved it.

About a month into the job I was walking out with a guy that had trained me and befriended me and to whom I had believed to be a White American. During our conversation he said something like, "Nigga You crazy!" Never being able to hide my emotions, I'm sure my face spoke the anger I felt and before I could say anything he interrupted, "Oh, nah man, I'm Puerto Rican! I'm Spanish!" Now, more than anything, I was caught by surprise. Was it OK to be called a nigger by a Hispanic? Was it okay for them to use the term freely around us? I couldn't even hear the rest of the conversation because I was so puzzled as I struggled with those questions in my mind and he finished talking.

Somewhere along the way, African Americans dropped the ball. Somewhere between the late 60's Civil Rights Movement and the late 80's Gangster Rap era. So basically, if you were an adult in the 70's and 80's and you didn't help teach the younger generation things about being black in America that schools would never teach, YOU were part of us dropping the ball.

We have an entire generation of not only kids but grown men and women that know nothing about African American history of just 30-40 years ago. They have no clue on why we should not only not allow other races, including Caucasians and Hispanics, call us nigger or nigga, but we should also not call each other that.

Jay Z was on Oprah a few months ago and she challenged him about the subject. But of course, being that he has sold millions of records where he used the word hundreds of times, he could not denounce it. So again, he dropped the ball. He made it ok for the millions of Jay Z fans not only in the US but around the world to look at the young Black American male and think, "Nigga," rather they think it's positive or negative.

The African Americans plight is not an easy one. The worse thing about it is half of the African Americans in this country don't think there is one. Meanwhile, we continue to receive the worst educations in our public school systems, we lead the nation in high school drop outs, have more blacks in prison than in college, we brainwash our kids into thinking the only way out of the hood is sports and entertainment, we have totally abandoned the black family and marriage, we don't reach back and teach the youth and we allow the world to treat us like niggers and call us niggers, even to our face sometimes. Is there something wrong with this picture?

A few weeks ago at my job as I sat in the break room, a few younger Hispanics sat at a table. They must have been in their early 20's. Every other word that came out of their mouth was nigga. "Man, niggas over here act like they scared of so and so..." "I'll tell a nigga in a minute blah blah blah..." "yall niggas gonna be surprised when you see a nigga come in the door with blah blah blah..." "A Nigga about to come up! I'm gonna make so and so on my next check," I was ticked off. There was one other black in the break room. I figured I would ask him because I thought I might go over there and act a fool and end up fired. So I asked the brother, "Don't that bother you?" He said, "Heck Yeah, but what can we do? We brought it on ourselves!" At that point a younger black came in and sat with them. They all sat and tossed the N-word around like a Frisbee. Later that evening I talked to a couple of the guys, mostly younger blacks. None of them had a problem with it. But one guy told me a story that I'll never forget.

He said that one of the supervisors, a white man, was also irritated with it. He had talked to the guys and said if he heard anyone use the word, they would be suspended for three days. I said, "Well has he got anyone yet?" He responded, "yep." He went on to say that 3 or 4 guys had been suspended. I thought to myself, "You know, that's good. They'll learn one way or another." Then he added. "They were all black." We must be nuts! The sad thing about it is, they probably still don't get it.

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