A couple years ago an acquaintance was explaining to me that they had gotten into a heated argument that day with someone. The acquaintance explained that they themself used the n word towards this person who they claimed was being rude, claiming they deserved it for their behavior. This acquaintance of mine happened to be Caucasian and of course the other person was black.
Looking back I’m blown that this acquaintance was boldly telling this incident to me- an African American, a person with dark skin. Second, I’m blown that they said this other individual deserved the word thrown at them. Was I supposed to sympathize with them because I was their acquaintance? Should I have not felt offended because the word was not said to me? If me another black person isn’t reacting angrily to the word, does that make such language okay to use towards any other person of color?
What certain individuals fail to understand is that these racial words are not just geared towards one person but towards an entire group of people. Obviously, there are many individuals in the world who are dark skinned and of African descent, so anyone of them would be offended by such words.
It is completely normal to want to defend yourself when you feel verbally threatened, but why use a word that would offend a group of people when it is just an individual you are angry at? Oh but they deserved to be called that because they were being rude to me, you say. Then the issue is the individual’s behavior not the skin color. Also, if you claim not to be a racist, using such language does not help your case at all. Basically a situation like this says you’re not going to be prejudiced towards different people, just as long as there is no disagreement and everything is running smoothly
If I ever get into an argument with a person of a different race or ethnicity I would hope that I never resort to racial words ,because my gripe is with the one person not an entire race.
Thank you for reading. God Bless.
DavidSpeaks 