Panel Discusses Evolution of N-Word in NYC

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

When Ozzie Wiggan first moved to a new high school in suburban New York, the black teenager would sometimes get into fights with white classmates over their casual use of the N-word. But the 17-year-old soon came to the sad realization that hip-hop culture had made it popular _ if not acceptable _ for people of all races to use the epithet, often in a way they considered harmless.

"I think people have forgotten what the N-word truly means," said Wiggan, who added that he doesn't use it. "When I hear that word, it hurts me so much inside."

Click here for the rest.

The N-word is both taboo and fascinating to me, and also problematic. Clearly, the word is often derogatory, especially when used by whites. However, unlike many liberals and anti-racists I know, I don't accept that the word by itself is bad or evil or necessarily meaning that its user, when white, is racist. I mean, sticks and stones and all that; there's no such thing as a harmful word--it is only context, intention, and reaction that makes the n-word harmful, which is one reason why it's generally regarded as okay for blacks to say it, who often redefine it in a self-empowering way, but not whites. On the other hand, that point of view is ultimately so much theory: whites should be extraordinarily careful when using the word because there is so much potential for causing great pain. The triumph of hip-hop throws all of that into disarray. When I was teaching high school I was continually amazed at how many white kids thought it was just fine to say "hey, nigga, wha's up?" Rappers, unfortunately, usually do not include with their music lectures on the sophisticated subtleties of the n-word, which is clearly sending out the unintended message that it belongs to everybody, which it does not. I feel pretty certain that this, in the grand scheme, only aids in the lingering of racist attitudes and opinions--if little white would-be hip-hop kids can say it, little Bubba, whose daddy is in the Klan, thinks he can say it too. It's all very confusing, I know, but, ultimately, this pop music simplification of complicated racial dynamics can come only to no good end.

I have no idea what to do about it.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$