Can Half Black People Say The N Word

OPINION: The "N" discussion

No clear line for who can use the Due north-word and who tin't

Deven Chavannes
October 20, 2018
Opinion

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No clear line for who tin use the N-word and who can't

The Due north-give-and-take is probably the virtually loaded word in the English language today. Generally, it is understood that the employ of the North-word is reserved for people of African-American descent. But there are views on the exceptions, or lack thereof, of the give-and-take'due south usage.

Can Latinx people use it? What about people who are mixed race? And if not, just how blackness do yous need to be for the give-and-take to be deemed acceptable to say?

As someone who is mixed black & white, information technology is something that has always been on my heed. I personally don't employ the discussion, but not because I don't believe I have the right to. I just didn't grow up with information technology beingness used around me. To me, this is i of the biggest factors, other than race, for whether you should be using the discussion or not.

Larry Wilmore, erstwhile host of "The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore," now has a podcast called "Black on the Air."

"White people, just don't say n—-, just don't say it, but don't say it and everything volition be okay, trust me — you shouldn't even want to say it," Wilmore said.

I remember most of u.s. can agree on that. Simply when you're mixed race, similar myself, the rules tin go blurry. I grew up in a relatively well-off community where the Due north-word was never used. It was never role of my environs growing up, and using it at present feels forced and unnecessary.

Latinx people have had to suffer racism in America but like African-Americans accept, only they oasis't experienced the specific form of racism that is anti-blackness. This is where I start to take issue.

The North-word comes from the Latin word "niger"— which means "black." And you probably won't hear someone who is African-American using derogatory terms that are originally intended for a dissimilar race.

I do recall that information technology is great that some black communities have flipped the significant of the N-word from a negative to a positive, merely if they didn't use it at all, then there would exist far less white kids, who love rap, running around and saying the N-word considering they don't know any better.

I also don't call back that other ethnic minorities should get a laissez passer from maxim it because they also experience racism. It's a similar but dissimilar struggle.

When it comes down to it, the word is racist.

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24 Comments

Alaylah Hagler Saturday, December 21, 2019

This still won't aid me can I say it equally half black and half white most blackness tho cause my mom light skin
If your are not blackness, don't say it unless you desire your ass whooped.
- eb Wednesday, June 16, 2021
  
  thank you for proverb that.
Peter Saturday, February 22, 2020

I'm mixed, merely I'm like really pale. So I feel like if I say the n word in public, no one will believe that I'm besides black, and will probably impale me….
Daniel Saturday, March 28, 2020

I am mixed and I don't use it I don't experience information technology fits me and how I grew up.
Pino Monday, July 6, 2020

I feel like if the word has been used against u u can reclaim it. This goes for just people that are mixed (African American and Caucasian.)
- amy Friday, August 28, 2020
  
  not all black people are african american
- girliegirl Thursday, January 27, 2022
  
  i am mixed and i but use information technology if i have to bcause i dont wanna get cancelled T_T
- Alison Tuesday, February 8, 2022
  
  If u ask me, I think that people that's fully blackness (even lite skinned) can only say the word. If ur mixed then information technology'southward okay simply however not okay. You need to be fully black to say it even if ur more blackness than ur mixed race, think about information technology. Imagine being a mix of black and white, then u can both say the due north give-and-take and have white privilege… you need to be fully of something to be able to say it or do it. And if u do say it, and so make sure that it doesn't happen once more.
  And for the Latino people function… they're not from Africa fifty-fifty if their skin is black so the n word pass is a no.
  - RyRy Mon, February 21, 2022
    
    I am mixed with blackness and white, and I expect more black than white, and I don't have an ounce of white privilege. As well, yous don't have to be fully raced to be able to say something, don't know where you learned that. As a mixed person, I think I can say it because I am mixed with black, I have black in me, I look black, one of my parents is fully black, and have black ancestors. I think you should let mixed people and their families, (specifically their black side) decide whether it'due south okay to say it or non. P.S( beingness from Africa doesn't make you automatically black, whatsoever race and be African, information technology'due south a nationality)
Anon Tuesday, August 4, 2020

as an african american/caucasian person, id say that it depends on the style yous use the word.
i mean sometimes people brand mistakes and say it once, simply saying it repeatedly starts to go offensive.
its also virtually the context in which the word is used.
sometimes people of color use information technology as greeting or something similar that. but near of the fourth dimension its used as a racial slur, and is highly offensive.
keep in heed that many people become offended when you say the n-discussion.
(just i mean this is all my stance and many others probably come across information technology another style.)
dicksp1 Thursday, Baronial 6, 2020

Believe information technology or non, at the risk of getting my skull fractured, at that place are actually extremely rare instances, in which it is actually necessary for a white person to utilise the n-word. Suppose, for example, a white police force enforcement officeholder is working undercover and investigating a white supremacist organization. In lodge for the officer to blend and preserve their comprehend, it may exist essential to speak the language of the group. In fact, failure to practise so can be disastrous. Of class, this is a very rare exception applicable nether very limited circumstances.
Daliubys Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Can Cuban people say the due north give-and-take ??
I'thou 25% black and 75% white my mom is blackness and she is from Johannesburg Urban center South Africa and my dad is white and he is from Los Angeles California and I go to Desert Edge High School and all my friends call me the N-word and i say it back to and so with a text because i don't desire to say it. Because it hurt me to say it out loud
Hannah Monday, January 4, 2021

Honestly? If you accept to question whether or not you tin can say information technology simply don't say it at all. It already has bad origin so honestly merely done say it if yous have to question it.
The word should be banned. It is analogous to being called a "slave". How is information technology a term of endearment to black people? Are you telling me that they like being called a "slave"? It makes no sense that a group of people are allowed to utilise it and other groups are not.
kai Wednesday, January 27, 2021

I'yard black and hispanic, I've grown up around the discussion and the discussion has been used against me multiple times, Am i allowed to say information technology?
Theo Tuesday, April xiii, 2021

My situation is similar to that of rapper Logic, as I am biracial. My male parent is light brown and my mother is somewhere betwixt light dark-brown and white. And so my question is, if Logic can use that give-and-take, am I allowed to use it too?
Elsie Thursday, April 22, 2021

Can we say the n-word if you have black family and black generation?
Jerichiah harris Midweek, Apr 28, 2021

I have used the give-and-take multiple times and take non got smacked for using it plus I am biracial it depends in general try not to use information technology only if you are mixed with black back in the 24-hour interval or even today you volition be posed every bit a black man not a white man so apply your color wisely because there are supremacists that don't intendance if you lot take a hint of white if you are not fully white society looks at y'all as colored love to my black brothers/sisters.
Sil Friday, April 30, 2021

Well, I am latin and I've never been in U.S. I read this mail service for curiosity and also because I love to sing and I love rap, either our native brazillian rap songs and the rap songs from U.Southward. When information technology'due south in english and I'm singing forth, I change the n discussion for another one, but my origin is also black, and altough I am lite skin, I can't say I'm exactly white. White people in my country don't come across me like an equal and I was born and raised among black culture – brazillian black culture.
As latin and African-Brazillian, I'd like but to brand a point about your post and retrieve that "latin" is non a race. Latin America is a huge continent and, although our countries have lots in common, nosotros are non all the same thing. Furthermore, in Latin America in that location are white people, there are black people, at that place are indigenous people (and they also aren't all the same culture, each village is totally diferent from the other), at that place are asian people, we are too diverse.
African-Brazillian people besides experience racism really hard – anti-blackness racism. Brazillian black people get killed every day, brazillian blackness kids get killed every day from police bullets. We are discriminated at school, at piece of work, in the streets and everywhere else.
I understand your point. I sympathise that in your country we are read in a different mode than in our homeland, that may be true for someone like me. But I don't think a dark skinned brazillian walking in U.S. streets, someone like my mother or my uncle, is gonna be free from anti-blackness racism. On the contrary, I think people like them are gonna endure both, anti-latin and anti-blackness racism.
And I'grand not even trying to defend my correct to utilise the due north word lol. I'm just trying to show you that latin blackness people be and that latin is non a race or an ethnicity, Latin America has many ones and information technology's beautiful and it's also problematic and complicated, only like it is in U.S.
I learned a lot today with your experience and I would exist really glad if I could aid you with mine somehow. Bye.
elijahhhh Sunday, Feb half-dozen, 2022

I dont wanna go told i can say it and so say it one twenty-four hour period (not against anyone, im not like that.) then get called racist. Some other mixed person or blackness person please tell me whether or not its ok. I dont wanna say it but i wanna make sure its ok if i do ever cease up proverb information technology.
- RyRy Monday, February 21, 2022
  
  If your not black, don't say it, flow. The words non for you, it was never used against you.
A D Wednesday, February 23, 2022

There's no such affair as pure blackness, all African Americans are "mixed race" and so are ALL white people and all Hispanics. Our ancestors all traveled from somewhere else and mixed races with other peoples. If having black ancestors is the requirement for the word well-nigh all of u.s.a. have dark ancestors from the cradle of life in Africa if you lot go back far plenty. How much pigment someone has in their skin is a ridiculous measurement of qualification. We are all homosapien