No matter how you say it or spell it, It's the Same THING!

This blog post today is going to be a little different from my normal ones.

I need to address the way that “we” as black people use the term “NIGGA” too loosely.

I’m sure by now everyone knows what the word means…if you don’t… this was taken from dictionary.com.

The term nigger is now probably the most offensive word inEnglish. Its degree of offensiveness has increased markedly in recent years, although it has been used in a derogatory manner since at least the Revolutionary War. Definitions 1a, 1b, and 2represent meanings that are deeply disparaging and are used whenthe speaker deliberately wishes to cause great offense. Definition1a, however, is sometimes used among African-Americans in aneutral or familiar way. Definition 3 is not normally considereddisparaging—as in “The Irish are the niggers of Europe” from RoddyDoyle's The Commitments —but the other uses are consideredcontemptuous and hostile. 

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noun

1.Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive .

a.a black person.

b.a member of any dark-skinned people.

2.Slang: Extremely Disparaging and Offensive . a person of any race or origin regarded as contemptible, inferior, ignorant,etc.

3.a victim of prejudice similar to that suffered by blacks; aperson who is economically, politically, or socially disenfranchised.

Why do we continue to use this word when addressing each other?

I had this discussion with my children the other day…

My oldest son got detention for telling the following joke in class:

Question: Why are black men so good at basketball?

Answer: Because they can run, steal, and shoot.

Run: from the police

Steal: That explains itself

Shoot: each other

First off, there is a time and place for everything. Second… we as adults must begin to teach our kids to stop letting people DISRESPECT US! He heard this joke from another student that just so happened to be white. These children really need to be taught better. This is a blatant action of disrespect and we are continuing to allow it to go on.

But wait a minute… how can we stop something that we endorse ourselves as a race of people?

First you have to educate yourself, then you have to learn to love yourself as a person, and then as a race. Then you have to start respecting each other within our race because we can’t demand respect from any other race if we aren’t showing it to one another ourselves.

This world is hard enough, and going to be hard enough for us and our children, and all the disrespect isn’t going to help it get any better.