I find it funny that people are like "yeah if you say n***** expect to get your *** beat" etc etc.
Doesn't that just enforce the stereotype that black people are mindless, uneducated thugs that have no better reaction to a slur than violent retaliation?
Just a thought.
It really comes down to why it's being said.
Case in point: me and my gf at the time are out in a parking lot stuck behind some drunk dude, and she's driving and honking at him to get him to move. Finally he does, and we park. Dude circles around so as we're leaving the car he's rolling his window down "you all need to learn to go around." *sigh* now ME I just keep walking. That's me. But she, no. She's all up in the dude's car window "what you say to me? what?" Now ... she should have known better than to call him a N.
Next thing you know, the car's stopping, dude's getting out, 6 foot tall, "oh someone's gonna get slapped now, mutha-Fka" paces up quickly behind her, and just nicks her HAIR, not her body, just the back of her hair near the base of her neck... I'm literally standing to the side, a good bit away... and watching, thinking ... 'oh my' .... she turns and starts wailing on him, throwing fists, kicks, this insane barrage of physical strikes, none of which do anything but make the guy go o.O; and then :BOOM: one punch to her mouth, she's flat on her backside.
"Get him!" she says, blood trickling, her front top teeth pushed in.
I'm like, u-mad? seriously?? really, though? REALLY?
SO... *big sigh* FINE. I toe up, and think to myself, this guy was in the right! who am I to defend my racist girlfriend? I raise my fists as does he, then I do what no fighter should ever do (unless you mean to), I take my eyes off his. BOOM lighter smack, upper cheek, glasses flying, I don't go down, I take the blow, nod my head, "can we go, now?" I ask my gf. She's on the phone to the police. He realizes he's drunk, driving, assaulted and bloodied a white women, in the deep south.
He gets back in his car, and we never see him again. Police report is filed, but no assault charges pressed, because I just wanna go home, and fix my glasses.
I let him hit me, see, cause she was in the wrong, and me by her side, turned the other cheek, the christian thing to do... it's funny now that I think of it, there were witnesses who came flocking to us after it happened "I saw that big black guy, he hit you, he hit both of you." ... and the whole time, it was he that was the real victim, or her poor word choice, and attitude.
Thankfully I was able to turn that around in her, she's not as near sighted. Also there's lots of mental issues, not Tourette's, but **** near, lol flights of fancy, purposefully putting yourself in life threatening situations, having no self control, having break downs in the fight/flight center, etc. heavy on the meds, heavy on the patience and love. But that day, was a day where it was obvious someone needed a lesson taught, and it wasn't him, it was her.
So yes, the N word is a bad word, and should not be used, especially as a word of hate, but the real point is, there's no other way to use it, so it just shouldn't be used at all.
This can be applied to any other slur, but black folks in america especially over the age of 30 have a STRONG sense of entitlement when it comes to retaliation for that word being used against them as if it were a weapon. And I can't... fault them for it. I am not black, but more so I am not oppressed, nor have I ever been. My people, sure, the Chinese didn't have it so well back in the rail road days, the old west, and whatnot. Or during WWII, heh No Dogs or Chinese. But whatever, I just don't act that way, I'm very passive in nature, preferring to out-reason, out-logic people I encounter than to rely on fisticuffs.
Hopefully in 30 more years the word will be as meaningless as the phrase son-of-a-***** is now. Seriously, them used to be fighting words, but it's not been for a long time. That's all this N word needs, Time. Remember Segregation JUST ended like, 30 years ago in a lot of places. My grandma in law can remember "white only" and "black only" parking spaces, you can still almost see it, but for the layers of paint covering it, but she remembers which ones were which. It's sick and scary and a most dark chapter in our history but time will heal it, as it heals all things.