Who’s Allowed to Use the N-Word

Is there a double standard on who gets to say it and who doesn’t?

Image: Nomad_Soul/Shutterstock

The answer is a resounding Yes. There’s a double standard on use of the N-word.

So what.

Here’s why that double standard is something we all just need to live with. I can assure you that your white life will be OK if you bury the word like the NAACP tried do in a mock funeral in 2007.

I’ve been asked by white friends on more than one occasion why Black people can throw around the N-word and Black rappers can put it in songs, but the second white people use the word in the same manner, they’re all-of-a-sudden racist.

“It’s not fair,” they say.

As we all know by now, the N-word has been used as one of the most vicious insults against Black people for generations.

Yet it’s the same word that the descendants of slaves now use as a term of endearment, typically to mean “friend” or “bro.”

I’m going to set aside a discussion of use of “n — ger” versus “n — ga” since, while technically different, they aren’t different enough that we’d be OK with either in many contexts.

The history of the N-word dates to the 18th century.

While the word “negro” was a non-insulting descriptor, adapted from the Latin meaning Black, negro was transformed by slave owners to the word “nigger” as a harsh, derogatory term. It’s been used in connection with horrific violence against Black people both physically and mentally for hundreds of years, persisting to this day.

I’m reminded of John Brown, who led a famous fight against slavery. He was arrested, tried and put to death as a result, but even at his trial, prosecutors called Brown’s Black brothers by the N-word.

There simply is no way to ever remove the link to that brutal racist history or to contemporary racists who continue to use the word to insult Black people.

Still, the N-word is a unique word to be sure. It’s the only word in the English language that can be used as a tool of white supremacy and racism, on the one hand, and Black empowerment, love and affection, on the other.