White people have taken the power for black people to do this away from them, so now there is this never-ending power struggle over the use of the word. It’s kind of like (and forgive me because I know this is a very loose analogy) a younger sibling who constantly gets hand-me-downs—the older sibling has everything they want already and has the power to give it to them, but that younger sibling just wants something to call their own. I wish it were something different that black people could call their own—something without such a stigma attached to it, but it seems to be all blacks have to hold on to in terms of having some sort of power over whites.
As far as where I stand personally on the issue—I’m indifferent because I can understand both sides of why people use the word and why people don’t use the word. Anderson Cooper interviewed Al Sharpton on July 17, 2008 about the issue, and I believe he brought up a very valid point. He in essence said—and I’m paraphrasing here—people cannot preach one thing publicly and not practice it privately. He added that there are no double meanings of hateful terms used against any other groups, and that for some reason, those hateful terms are clearly defined for them [non-blacks] but not for us [blacks].
I personally believe as Americans, we’ve been taught that we have a right to choose the type of language we use, and we don’t like being told what we can or cannot say. Regardless of how we choose to speak, we must realize how what we say affects other the people and accept whatever consequences come along with it.
