Blacks using the N-word is still racist

For a short while in high school, I was forced to ride the bus. One day while boarding, I was addressed by a boy two years my junior as, “Lexi, what’s goin’ on, my nigga?”

When we got off the bus, I kicked him in the crotch.

To set the record straight, this wasn’t punishment for a white boy overstepping his boundaries.

This boy was black.

He and his friends almost exclusively referred to one another as “niggas,” and it drove me crazy.

It’s not OK   to use racial slurs. Ever. Even if it’s someone of the same race.

And limiting the usage of a word to only one race is racist.

I’d like to know when it was decided that “nigger” should become a term of endearment.

What group of African-Americans got together one night and thought, “Hey, bestie, I’m gonna start calling you ‘nigga.’ But I mean it in a totally friendly, non-demeaning, brotherly way?”

Here’s my first problem with the word: the pronunciation.

There’s a theory that pronouncing “nigger” as “nigga” gives the word a different meaning. It goes from being a slave-shaming slur to a perfectly acceptable greeting for a close friend.

Choosing to pronounce a word like an illiterate child with a speech impediment does not change the meaning of a word.

Some black folks believe that, by using the word, they’ve reclaimed the power behind it from those who once used it as an insult, namely white people. Jay-Z has been a major advocate of that belief.

Rappers like Jay-Z and Kanye West have found themselves in hot water repeatedly for their use of the N-word.

In an interview with Oprah back in 2009, Jay-Z said, “I believe that a speaker’s intention is what gives a word its power.”

In some ways this statement is fair.

Take “bitch,” for example. Nowadays, when we hear a girl call someone a “bitch,” we don’t ogle, expecting earrings and hair to start flying in a cat fight. By the tone of voice, we can tell if it’s being used to mean friend or foe.

So if we can call our best friend a “bitch,” why can’t we call a black person “nigger”?

Because the privilege to say the N-word comes with a condition: You have to be black to say it.

That exclusivity of who is and is not allowed to say the N-word makes it racist.

Forbidding people of another race from saying a word is discrimination. It’s not too different from saying, “You can’t sit here b ecause you’re not white.”

What makes it worse is that, while black people have copyrighted “nigger,” some feel free to use other racial slurs against people of different racial backgrounds.

If you don’t want to be offended by the word, then don’t be.

We, as individuals, choose which words affect us and which ones don’t. But using the word doesn’t change its meaning, and it doesn’t change the past.

And reserving the word for only one race isn’t the equality people have fought and died for. I’m not saying that everyone should start using it, but it’s time to let the double standard go.

Stop slurring people, period. We’ve come way too far to be held back by words.
     
­— lnbanks@indiana.edu
Follow columnist Lexia Banks on Twitter @LexiaBanks.