<~>28 Aug 2003

what i am telling you is what i have been told. white people aren't allowed to say nigger because they don't carry the stigma of it. in all fairness , i am not trying to be polite or pc, i'm respecting the unwritten rule as given to me by friends i have offended with my too-familiar speech.

apparently it can be a term of endearment, between people who feel they own the word, whether they want to or not. but i'm not in that club, so i don't have all-access passes for it.

my sister's a teacher--it's a hot issue. you can get suspended for saying it in her highschool, regardless of age or skin color. fuck, cunt, etc might not even get you detention, but nigger can get you expelled.

i think it's stupid to give a WORD so much power. but i'm not the one who leveraged it. i hope to take away it's import by letting it fade. 'mick' and 'wop' had that power not 100 years ago. it's faded now. nigger's been around longer, so it'll take longer to fade. so that's how i deal with it--it doesn't deserve to have power, so i'll take it away, one grain of sand at a time. i'm part of the water flowing over that big-ass rock.