It appears that the Tories indifference to racial epithets has encouraged open season on black people. David Lammy MP posted a tweet saying “Another racist calling me a N*****.” @IjonesIjones14 responded saying “If he can get away with it then here we go @DavidLammy you are the NIGGER in the wood pile is that ok?” Hmmm, it seems some white people are still confused about using the derogative term. Let me help. It is never okay to use the word N*****. The fact that some black individuals and rappers use it is not a license. Black people have a different case to answer. The white man’s evil degradation of African peoples is rooted in the N-Word. That is why white folk should never say N*****. Simples.
Racism
The N-Word is rooted in 400 years of slavery and the inhuman treatment of black people following its abolition. I am always uncomfortable with its use. Even at the theatre, I feel some white actors are getting far too much pleasure out of saying N*****. That is because racism is alive and well and racial aggression is a regular occurrence for black people.
Some white people believe that black people are also racist. They are so keen to justify their discrimination that they miss the point that racism is a system of oppression. Black people do not control employment, housing, education, wages, and laws. Without power, black people cannot oppress white people.
Therefore, a black person calling a white person a ‘Cracker,’ which I do not condone, does not even begin to convey the utter dehumanisation of the N-Word. In fact, it is so ridiculous it only shows the disparity in racial power.
The N-Word
For white people, N***** is the ultimate curse. It encompasses all the user’s hate and belief that black folks are an inferior species.
I know that some black people use it. They have outlandish notions that it is reclaiming the Ethiopia word, Negus (pronounce, nuh-goose). It is not. Others feel that by claiming the N-Word, they can change its meaning. Try as they might, they cannot change its bitter history.
The N-word derived from a European language. White slavers used it during slavery and for a significant time afterward. It was a term used against black people while white men raped and lynched black women and girls even while pregnant. White people experimented with black babies stabbing them in the brain with sharp instruments, and they rolled children down hills in barrels spiked with nails So, When a white person says the N-Word, it evokes those ugly haunting universal images of white peoples lack of compassion and humanity.
So, who says it matters because of the history and the relative power status between the races. When a black person says it, it is different. We know our pain.
If you are white and you care, be like the rapper Eminem, and forget the N-Word.
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