Everybody knows what this word is, and the term or phrase “the N-word” is now the generally accepted substitute for that word itself. Serious attempts have been made to incorporate it into the vernacular by both black and white people of generally good intentions but it never worked and it never will because it carries a huge amount of shock value whenever it is used in any language in the world and if nothing else, it always showers the person using it with questions of distrust and suspicion.
As a kid growing up in Mississippi in the 1930’s and 40’s, I knew that the “N-word” carried three connotations with it: 1) A person with black skin. 2) A person who was lazy, shiftless, good for nothing, superstitious, and didn’t want to work. 3) A person who was protected by the government.
Today, people of black skin are OK. Well - theoretically anyway - and no one is going to denounce them for “being black” - not in so many words, at least. The “lazy, shiftless” stuff is now recognized as being a generalization and we don’t use that for black people anymore, we reserve that for people who are “protected by the government”.
So the “N-word” is now left flapping out in its own limbo, currently relegated to less acceptable usage than any of the other combinations of a capital letter, a dash and the word “word”.
Where do we go from here? We have a lot of serious problems in the world. Most of them were made to hurt someone else. Whenever we can find any success created by people working together in good will then there is still hope. What we have done with this troublesome word is not perfect but it is a result of people working together to find an acceptable solution. It is a step in the right direction.
