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Why do we still use the N-word?

So I really like the radio version of Jay-Z’s D.O.A., Death of Auto-Tune. And his and Alicia Keys' performance of Empire State of Mind at the VMA’s blew me away. I’m thinking of purchasing The Blueprint 3 CD. But what’s giving me pause is that when I listen to the album on his MySpace page, I just can’t get past all of his references to the N-word. I mean I thought we were finally growing past this destructive behavior. A few weeks ago I saw Jay-Z on Real Time with Bill Maher. A great interview there. I remember Jay-Z explained the difference in his music today versus his earlier recordings. His “experiences are broader”, and because of that he says his music has a “wider appeal”. He’s grown tremendously and it reflects that in his lyrics. Great for him. But I don’t understand why his music continues to be laced with the N-word. He says he’s the N-word and so is everyone else. I believe he is a lyrical genius, so I’m sure Jay-Z could get a little more creative when describing someone hardcore.

I remember staying with my father when I was about 13 or 14-years old and one day riding my bike down the street, minding my own business when out of nowhere, I heard a male voice shout down at me from a second story window…

“N*gger get off my street!”

I was so caught off guard by this unexpected display of hate that I rode my bike a little further, and then turned around and decided to head back home. I don’t think I rode my bike too much more after that. I didn’t feel comfortable in that neighborhood. My father moved there just a few years before, and it was a predominately white neighborhood. I don’t recall feeling my minority status any other time before that. Before my parents got a divorce and before Dad moved to Lima, Ohio and us down to Lexington, KY, I used to attend a private Catholic School called Saint Mary’s in Lorain, Ohio. From Kindergarten through 6th grade, I was one of three black girls in the entire school building. I didn’t have a problem with that at all. I don’t even think I noticed that I was one of three for all of my grade school years. But that day riding my bike down my father’s street in Lima, Ohio, I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb.

I hate the N-word. I don’t care who says it, but whenever I hear it, it makes me cringe. In the interview with Bill Maher, Jay-Z says he has evolved. I can’t wait till he moves a little further and gets past the N-word. I can’t wait till we all as a nation grow and see the power in that. What I mean is people from the streets can’t keep using that word to describe a homie or even a hater and then turn around in anger when a person of a different hue denounces them with that word. That’s hypocritical. It’s time for everyone to step up and grow up and as Spike Lee proclaimed in School Daze and Do The Right Thing… Wake Up!

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