The Non-Exclusive "N-Word" in 2022?
Updated: Dec 7, 2022
“The meaning behind the words, the feeling is more significant than the words themselves, so listen.” -Anonymous
It's unquestionable, the evil history and pain behind the usage of the infamous N-word and how the very sound of the word being fired from the lips of its creators pierced our very souls. But in 2022, we hear the argument of semantics being tossed around on whether the endings of -er or -ga make a difference as to the meaning, and who's allowed to use it. Black or not.
If you're paying attention, you'll catch more than just white people getting "a pass" and feeling like they're justified in being able to use it now. It's not a slip and no longer even seems taboo, as it once was. Other races are heard using the word, too. I, recently watched a video online of a fight on an airplane between a woman and her husband/partner. A slew of profanity-laced yelling could be heard, in which the N-word was used at least 10 times. From the woman, against her man. The voice of another passenger asking her to stop, as there were small children on the plane listening.
Hands start flying, as the woman now starts physically attacking her man. To your surprise, the responsible parties were NOT Black. I, clutched my pearls in disbelief like most others! Gasp.
At first, you feel a bit relieved that these weren't Black folks showing their arses on an airplane, but then....WAIT! Did this non-melanated woman really just fire off the N-word, like fiddy 'leven times? Of course, the comments on the video were long.
So, how did we get here...this new trend of using the N-word as part of the new passive dialect?
It was inevitable, wasn't it? Was it the music, that lends the excuse of "I'm just singing the words to the song." ? Are the other forms of media making it easier, such as movies and radio? Or another way of assimilating into the Black culture, and thinking it shouldn't be such a big deal anymore after more than 400 years?
Does the word lose any of it's negative power, if it becomes a part of the lexicon for non-whites and not used exclusively against Blacks? There are so many questions that we can ask about many things that we're now experiencing in this day and age, when we're being made to buy into and accept the 'new norm'. This is an observation, not a position. What are your thoughts?
