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If this makes folks mad, sorry. It’s been bugging me since there was a conversation about it…

Someone wanted to know why, since some black people use the "n-word", everyone can’t without being identified as a racist. The short answer is easy: racists are [b]still[/b] using it.

But I don’t understand why anyone who isn’t black and doesn’t see him or herself as a racist would [b]want[/b] to use a word with such an ugly history attached to it ?

As to why some black people use it among themselves (I don’t), I know the reasoning. I don’t [b]agree[/b] with it, but I know what it is: supposedly using the word takes the "power" out of it. Newsflash: it [b]doesn’t[/b]. And that’s why the popular wisdom is, you can’t use it if you’ve never been [b]called[/b] it (in a disparaging way) yourself.

Personally, I [b]hate[/b] the word, and I wish everyone would delete it from their vocabularies. It will never mean what some people want to make it mean—not [b]any[/b] form of it.
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Zaphod42 · 46-50, M
I’d love the word to simply vanish from the world’s collective consciousness. The most uncomfortable moment of my life was when my black/Filipina GF asked me what the N-word actually was. After dancing around saying it by trying to get her to realize what it was for herself, I finally had to to just say it. Talk about awkward and cringy 😣
@Zaphod42 Amazing that she honestly didn’t know. She’s been protected. My 21 year old niece, whose father is Irish & Inuit, got called that (as an insult) by someone after they’d asked her what she [b]was[/b]. She was about 7.
Zaphod42 · 46-50, M
@bijouxbroussard Oof! People can be so horrible.
My GF was born and raised in the Philippines and has only been in the US for 11 years now. While racism is definitely a thing there, apparently that particular word isn’t used 🤷‍♂️
@Zaphod42 It makes a big difference. I grew up hearing it directed at me a lot, even from adults. Just how things were then. I think it’s why I hate the word so deeply. It broke my heart when my niece first asked me about it.