N - is for Nigger (Gasp! Don't faint, just read.)

My son, Logan, asked me once what was the 'baddest" word.  I remember him asking, "Is it the "F" word, Mom?"  I thought about that a minute and I said, "No, Logan, I think the "N" word is the "baddest" word."

You see, I hate the "N" word.  I do not use it and it was very hard for me to even type it.  To me, the word nigger is probably the most hateful word one can use.  It is a word that brings with it a legacy of hate, degradation, humiliation, shame, and pain.  It is truly an ugly word.

It has not always been such.  The word, nigger, originated as a term used in a neutral context to refer to black people, as a variation of the Spanish/Portuguese noun negro, a descendant of the Latin adjective niger, meaning the color "black". ~~Wikipedia

So, originally it was used as a desciptive word with no demeaning connotations.  It was not until the 1900's that it became a pejorative word.  It all went down hill from there as far as I'm concerned.

I think one of the things that riles me up the most is how young people, in particular African American young people, throw the word around like it's nothing.  I frequently hear them referring to one another in this manner.  The reason it flames me is, I have tremendous respect for how hard their grandparents and great-grandparents fought to rise above such degradation and racial prejudice.  They fought and died for their right to basic human decency.  They fought for their children to have a better life and now those childrens' children toss around the word as though it were a term of endearment.  I just don't get it.

Each to his own I suppose, but in my world the "N" word will always be a bad word.  To me, the word nigger is an ugly word, with an ugly past, and I have no use for it.  I wish others wouldn't either.  There is no love, no respect, no acceptance in that word.  There just isn't.