Just when Bill Cosby writes off America's youth and the counter-productive parents who lavish them with worldly goods instead of raising them. Here comes Jonathan E. McCoy.

I first need to say I haven't said the 'N Word' since 2006, maybe earlier. I get into frequent debates with peers, hood scholars, Afrocentric slam poets and professors about the appropriateness of the racial slur and it's modern day implementation. Personally, I have no interest uttering an epithet that was the last likely word heard before 14 year old Emmett Till was brutally slain. It's the last word heard before men were hanged like so much strange fruit leaving the stench of death and injustice throughout the south. Its the words heard as black women who bore the children of their slave owners heard; shortly before the master's wife ordered her punished with a cat o' nine rending her back flesh in twine. It's the likely words which crossed the lips of the man who struck the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or the assassin who took his life on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.



Why would I want to use the same word used to paint African American's as ignorant, lazy, shiftless, worthless and inhuman...as a term of endearment for my friends, family or loved-ones?

Unfortunately, this argument has won over a few, and only served as fuel to the fire for others who see my stance as nothing more than empowerment of a word many blacks take ownership of almost as if to say "we take back the pain and the hurt it's caused and it's ours now, and if anyone but us uses it to inflict injury, we reserve the right to be hostile."

I never advocate violence, but I know many people who would jump at the opportunity to defend the hypocrisy should an overzealous white male or female utter the five or six letter version of the dreaded 'N'.

Nas wanted to title his last LP N*****. Damon Wayans of "My Wife & Kids" and the same Wayans family that revolutionized the sketch comedy genre in the 90's with "In Living Color", actually attempted to purchase the right to the word to use as the title of a clothing line.


...seriously...


This is off topic, barely, but could you imagine people walking around with N***** (minus the asterisks) in the mall and in gymnasiums or on street corners? Talk about perpetuating a stereotype by dressing the part *smh*

...Anyway, thank god for Jonathan McCoy. Although his open petition to physically 'DELETE' the 'N-Word' from our vocabulary. I support him wholeheartedly. I agree, words do have power. We don't take power from them by giving use to some but not to others, because we can't enforce it's privileged use and the ignorance continues in circles regardless of our watchful eye.

Why not eradicate the word to keep future generations from using it or knowing of it's existence? It's not exactly an element of black history we should fight to remember. Honestly, in a world where people know no significance to March 5th and Crispus Attucks, no clue who or how anyone other than Rosa, Martin and Malcolm contributed to Black History; and have very little concept of black history whatsoever except the trilogy of "we were in Africa, we were slaves, now we're free".

Hooray, we can drink from the same water fountain...

Meanwhile, one of the most deleterious words in the English language is being debated as to whether or not it's existence should be permitted...BY THE VERY PEOPLE IT CONTINUOUSLY INJURED FOR 439 YEARS OF CAPTIVITY, JIM CROW AND BEYOND!!!!


For those of you whom argue that the word's origin in Africa and had much more positive and princely associations...

I would argue that those of us who use it here, especially who are melanin challenged, aren't using the African dictionary version. Not to mention, that this is not Africa. The history of the word here, has always been negative. No matter how much we've tried to spin it, minority management of the word has not eradicated the hurt it can and has caused.

Tupac Shakur attempted to make N.I.G.G.A.Z. stand for "Never Ignorant Getting Goals Achieved", yet it somehow failed to live as a viable explanation despite his mythic legacy.

NWA perhaps made the word more popular than any other rap act in history between 1985 and 1998. With their second album "Straight Outta Compton" and it's social and political commentary reminiscent of the Hip Hop classic, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five's "The Message", NWA turned the world on it's ear with a pronounced middle finger pointed at the police and an establishment that ignores the societal ills of ghetto life.

However, revolutionary intent or not, what people fail to realize is that the demographic purchasing and listening to Rap & Hip Hop music most is not African American, but White. The very same group Blacks try so desperately to keep from uttering the 'N' through fear, intimidation and the promise of a very serious ass whipping.


When will we learn? 10 year old Jonathan McCoy has it right. He's got his head on straight years ahead of many of us. But why stop there?

(read this sentence with caution, abusive language within:)

Let's get rid of Chink, Wet-Back, Wigger, Honkey, Gook, Beaner, Spook, Queer, Fag, Cunt, Slut and Whore in addition to the 'N'.

I'm sure someone is reading this thinking "People will just come up with something else to call people. Deleting these words isn't going to make a difference in people's opinions/fears/insecurities about difference."

You may be right. But in order to achieve something you've never had before, you have to do something you've never done before.


Let's join Jonathan in pressing a collective backspace on expressions of hate. Unless you like maintaining the status quo that is...