#dont say it
Id probably cry myself to sleep for a few days if this was said to me :(
Why do white people want to say the n-word so bad? Why do they act like they didn’t use it to put down and degrade black lives and dehumanize black people? Why do they still call it a “double standard”? Why can they still not understand the concept of reclaiming a word?
Reappropriation:
“Linguistic reappropriation, reclamation, or resignification is the cultural process by which a group reclaims words or artifacts that were previously used in a way disparaging of that group. It is a specific form of a semantic change (change in a word’s meaning). Linguistic reclamation can have wider implications in the fields of discourse and has been described in terms of personal or sociopolitical empowerment.”
The whole point is that the marginalized group takes back the power they were deprived from for all these years. When black people choose to use it, it’s to turn it’s meaning around, use something that was used to oppress them to elevate each others. When white people say it, all the power that they initially had comes right back. The word gets all it’s primary hatred and it’s no longer the subject of anything else than discriminatory language.
It’s not a slur because it offends people all of a sudden, it’s a slur because it was used against a community for hundreds of years. You don’t get to decide when it will stop being a vicious word, you don’t get to criticize and say that we’re giving too much power to a word. White people were always the oppressors, and WE live in a society where YOU will never experience racial discrimination, the color of your skin will never disadvantage you. So please for the love of god, shut the fuck up.
Not in a song. Not for a joke. Not to insult. Not to greet. It’s not dark humour, you’re just very unfunny.
If you’re a non-black person, don’t say it, it’s really easy to do it. Educate yourself.
Food for thought?
Yes. This!!!
