WEBVTT - Who Can Say the “N” Word? | MiniPod 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:04.320 Native Lampod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:05.600 Reason Choice Media. 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:09.039 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, welcome. 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:17.520 We Nigus, Nigus. 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:19.520 What is the language of. 0:00:19.520 --> 0:00:27.479 Origin Ethio into Almaharic? What is the definition a king? 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:30.600 It's used as a title of the sovereign of Ethiopia. 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:37.040 Nigas Vegas could use in a sentence the Nigas ruled 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:39.840 Ethiopia until the coup of nineteen seventy four. 0:00:43.479 --> 0:00:47.000 Nigus and who would you say the word loudly for 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:47.600 the judges? 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:50.120 Nigus one more time? 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:58.160 Nigus, Nigus, Jesus, n e g Us, Nigus. 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:05.000 My nigga, my nigga, Hey, what's up? My niggas? We 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:06.480 also will say nigga please. 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:09.000 Sometimes we might say I wish a nigga would and 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:11.319 then sometimes it's just nigga. 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:16.760 And you all guess what we're talking about today? Are 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:20.520 you tying? Cringing? Say what that's please? Because this ain't 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:21.040 just ratchet. 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:24.880 We are also teaching we have all experienced or heard 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:28.720 about those moments where somebody white tries to take it 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:30.480 too far and say the N word. And we're not 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:33.920 talking about like in the spelling bee niggas we're talking 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:37.080 about something like this. One of my favorite bits of 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:40.000 his is that when white people are rich, they're just 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:42.000 rich forever and ever, even though kids are rich. 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:44.759 But when a black guy gets rich, it's count down 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:45.040 to one. 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:51.440 He's poor, he's the blackest white guy, and then all 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:53.920 the negative things we think about black people. 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:58.120 This fucker, you're singing a nigger. Yes, you are the 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:00.200 niggarous fucking. 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:02.720 I have ever. 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:08.519 I don't think he could do that. 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:12.480 So you know, there are some people among us who 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:15.519 even make it okay for white people to say this, 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:18.440 but Oprah believes we shouldn't even say it. 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:22.600 It's impossible for me to do it because I know 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:26.320 the history, and I know that for so many of 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:31.160 my relatives whom I don't know, who I don't know 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:34.440 by name, people who I am connected to my ancestors, 0:02:34.760 --> 0:02:37.280 that was the last word they heard. They were being 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:38.239 strung up by a tree. 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:41.120 And you know, the thing that we have to also 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:46.160 consider is the nation's oldest civil rights organization and the largest, 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:50.320 the NAACP, which I will remind everyone is the National 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:55.079 Association for the Advancement of Colored People, also agrees with 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:57.880 lady Oh and even tried to bury the N word 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:01.000 in two thousand and seven and gave it a whole funeral. 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:04.359 We're not going to do this in workstance anymore. It's 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:08.720 time to stop. And we hope that our rappers, our media, 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:13.440 or the movie theaters, all of that, Hollywood, all of 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:17.160 us see what we're trying to do, and it's time 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:19.120 that we make it change. 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:23.519 It's time that we decide and what we want and 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:26.160 demand it because nothing is going to be given it 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:28.840 to us unless we get out here and let the 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:31.040 world know this is not acceptable. 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:33.680 Well that was in two thousand and seven. 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:35.640 And before we cut to any more sound, I just 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:38.760 want to ask my co host how long they think 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:41.000 the N word stayed dead or did it ever die? 0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:43.800 It never died, They never died. That was kind of 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:47.160 a ridiculous stunt. I think you know it never died. 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:49.160 I think that you do. 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:52.200 I think it was more than a stunt. I think 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:57.760 I think for a certain generation of Black Americans, this 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:03.680 thing cuts really deep. Live at a time where our parents. 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:10.120 Could have, for you know, foreseeably had to exist through. 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:15.040 That term being used as a bludgeon tool right to 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:17.640 level them to make them feel small, to make them 0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:23.200 feel less than. And then comes the advent of you know, 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:27.080 mostly rap hip hop, where it had a renaissance, if 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:29.680 you will, and not just not a renaissance in its 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:33.280 original fashion, but a renaissance in the sense that it was. 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:36.360 This is a word that was used to demean, to hurt, 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:39.480 to cut deep, to the red meat, and we're gonna 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:43.679 take it, reform it, and put it back out there as. 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:46.440 A word of our. 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:49.840 Own choosing, with a meaning of our own choosing, and 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:51.480 the rest would be history. And I think we now 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:54.920 find ourselves at a place where there's generational device between 0:04:55.680 --> 0:05:00.160 how people walk away with a sentiment after they hear 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:04.000 that word my mother, my mother in law, my aunt's 0:05:04.160 --> 0:05:06.120 uncles is not a word you want to say around 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:06.640 any of them. 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:10.039 There there was also this debate around I'm gonna come 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:11.960 to you tube, But there's also been a long standing 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:14.080 debate around if there's a difference between the E R 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:17.720 and the A of course right, And I just I 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:20.840 think that's another thing, like which word, which version of 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:23.039 the word did we actually bury in two thousand and seven. 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:25.520 I think that's also a distinction word noting. But I 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:26.279 want to hear it, you guy. 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:29.080 Say geographically though, you can be in the South and 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:31.880 here a white person say nikkir yeah, and it be 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:35.279 intended with the same venom. 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:37.680 I don't care. 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:38.799 I'm just saying. 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:44.640 Any vow they ended with, they can't say it. 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:47.920 But well, I completely disagree with you about the generational thing. 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:50.920 I think, you know, we maybe look outside of our 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:55.000 own immediate experience in family members. My every generation, I know, 0:05:55.080 --> 0:05:58.360 and my my parents said the word. My grandparents said 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:00.960 the word, you know, So it's not necessary generational. Even now, 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:02.680 there are people who say the word and people who don't. 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:05.320 People have strong opinions about it. I also kind of 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:08.120 take issue with this idea that is rooted in white supremacy. 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:12.080 The word originated from the Spanish word, you know, and 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:16.000 the Spaniards that's how they describe black people. It wasn't 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:18.200 even meant to be a slur at that point. It 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:20.880 was just this is what we no more than you 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:23.840 would call the Japanese. They called them Japanese, you know, 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:28.039 when the Portuguese and the European set sell to Japan. 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:31.919 So what white people then co opted the word. They 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:34.760 didn't even invent it. They co opted the word and 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:37.360 along with many other things, they used it as a 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:40.680 slur at that point. And so I don't choose my 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:43.000 I don't center them in any point in my life. 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:45.040 I don't center them in the language I use. I 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:46.680 don't center them in when I say it, how I 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:48.920 say it. I do think it is a word meant 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:51.840 to be said privately. I am uncomfortable. We have some 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:54.280 mutual friends who will say it in front of non 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:56.239 black people, and I do think this is a family 0:06:56.320 --> 0:06:59.560 conversation and family talks. I don't like for myself and 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:02.800 personally for us to say it in mixed company. But 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:05.200 in terms of it being a word that said in 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:08.200 gin pop and the population, I say say it if 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:09.880 you want to, and I don't. I don't mean to 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:11.920 be dismissive of bearing the word, but I think I 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:13.360 think that was like in the early two thousands, that 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:15.600 or late ninety yeah, two thousand and seven when that happened, 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:17.880 Of all the things that was going on during that time, 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:21.000 I don't think that bearing the in word and imposing 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:24.440 your you know, narrow view on it was the most 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:29.640 the best use of time and resources, but that you use. 0:07:29.560 --> 0:07:33.360 The word your narrow view, which I received as a pejorative, 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:36.600 not your narrow no no, no no, but your narrow 0:07:36.720 --> 0:07:39.280 view being the people who wanted to bury it had 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:42.680 had a definition of what it meant to them. And 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:49.559 I have to say that the majority understanding of that word, 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:53.200 regardless regardless of his Spanish origin, which has to do 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:55.200 with the fact that that's the color, right. 0:07:56.720 --> 0:07:59.560 So, but nowhere. 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:05.239 Did nigger get its definition from. 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:07.720 Simply the color black? 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:11.960 That it was always from its very beginnings, from its origins, 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:15.800 as it relates to its application to us used as 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:18.920 a pejorative, as an insult, as a weapon as well. 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:22.320 It wasn't by white people, and it wasn't the Spanish, yes, 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:24.640 but it was actually the Latin word, not negatal, but niger. 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:29.000 It wasn't even a patrol like the people who made 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:33.319 it one were white people here in America. They made 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:36.080 it one, right, so they sole the word and turned 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:37.280 it into something ugly. 0:08:37.240 --> 0:08:38.079 They bastardized it. 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:40.160 Is what your argument is, and my argument is is 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:46.040 that regardless of its little known, little regarded origins, except 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:49.280 for a particular country and maybe region of the world, 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:54.640 by and large, the definition under which we understand it 0:08:55.200 --> 0:09:01.000 has a pejorative meaning and a diminutive one toward us, 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:06.079 toward toward black folk people of color, and if I 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:08.600 ever understood it being spoken by them as a term 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:11.559 of endearment toward me, I can't think of them. 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:12.840 No, I can't. No, I don't think. 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:15.520 I don't think anybody's arguing that at all. I actually 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:19.880 think that that you all aren't saying something too different. 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:25.880 I think she's saying the Latin term. Yeah, it was 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:29.920 one meaning, and then when white folks enslaved us, stole us, 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:33.440 brought us here, they took it to mean something completely 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:36.439 horrible and awful, like brute and wench. 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:39.959 I think that before we get to be adopted across 0:09:40.120 --> 0:09:44.280 the globe, French parliamentarians began to use. 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:48.480 The words as it relates to what happened here and 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:53.400 along the Transatlantic slave trade to define and talk about 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:56.199 black people. But when we bring it up to modern times, 0:09:56.280 --> 0:10:00.800 I do think it's important, whether it's a bad experience 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:04.120 or a positive experience. What you all's earliest memories of 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:05.840 the N word were or memory? 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:09.880 Hmmm, I didn't know, if y'all need to think. 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:16.840 I'm pretty sure it was comedy, probably SNL I remember 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:18.760 on because it didn't used to be a word that 0:10:18.760 --> 0:10:21.439 you couldn't say on TV. The Jeffersons, you know, I 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:25.040 actually do remember The Jefferson's, an episode of The Jefferson's 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:27.160 because it was something that was said on television. That's 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:29.000 how common the word was. So it wasn't hip hop 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:31.400 that resurfaced it like it was. It's always been here, 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:35.640 even in music. Andrew, you know, like the war and 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:38.120 you think of, you know, Mom's Maybley, fact check me 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:41.040 on Mom's Maybley. But Millie Jackson, you know, like there's 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:44.800 always every generation. I think I remember there was an 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:47.960 episode of The Jeffersons. It was a rerun and they 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:53.240 George Jefferson was it was the overlap between them and 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:56.040 Archie Bunker, and George Jefferson was saying, you know, they 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:57.760 wanted him to hire Edith to work at his dry 0:10:57.800 --> 0:10:59.160 cleaning business, and he said. 0:10:59.000 --> 0:10:59.440 If we do. 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:05.280 Something like the niggas that think she uh, the white 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:07.079 folks that think she a nigga, and the niggas that 0:11:07.120 --> 0:11:08.000 think we bleeds. 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:10.240 The help, Oh my god. 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:14.080 But this was the thing with the dialogue with George Jefferson, 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:16.520 and he used to also when he you know, they 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:19.679 became they were spin off and when they had their own. 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:23.240 He used to always call the guy was her name's husband. 0:11:23.240 --> 0:11:25.200 He's called him Hounky all the time. And the white 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:26.679 man was a backlom Were you call me that? What 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:28.200 if I called you nigga? And it's like I wish 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:28.600 you would? 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:31.000 And they blew up when he said that in the show, right, 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:33.560 like the responses from the audience. 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:35.240 It wasn't though the thing. 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:37.040 It was so because they said it all the time. 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:40.400 So I take a slight exception with the familiarity and 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:42.680 the usage of the word in the in the late 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:47.000 seventies early eighties, those were shows done by Norman Lear, 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:52.480 and Norman was credited across, you know, really across platforms, 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:56.120 regardless of who the critic is, as using humor as 0:11:56.200 --> 0:11:59.240 a way to put a mirror up to the American people. Yeah, 0:11:59.280 --> 0:12:02.640 into Archie Bunker, sitting on the couch and and and 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:09.559 and using terminology that everyone could laugh with because it 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:14.719 was such an obvious characteristic of who he was, and 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:20.559 therefore who somebody's who one person's grandfather, you know, he 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:24.600 reminded him of about his grandfather, George Jefferson reminded us 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:27.040 at least of an aspirational view of what we might 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:29.200 do or be like if we were ever to. 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:30.439 Come into wealth. 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:33.920 And I didn't know anybody who had moved on up 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:36.280 and that and and and and that way, and so 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:39.520 it was in many ways aspirational, but it wasn't ubiquitous 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:42.839 across television the usage of it. That's what made his 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:47.360 work so noteworthy and exceptional, is that it was so 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:52.360 rare and he used so this is mirroring technique as 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:55.559 a way to to ease the conversation and make it 0:12:56.240 --> 0:12:58.520 more comfortable and not a third rail. 0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:01.000 So but I'm this and I do want you to 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:03.439 reflect on your earliest memory of this, But I just 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:07.640 mine kind of dovetails with tiff. I remember my parents 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:11.480 listening to Richard Pryor records and he said it all 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:14.480 the time, and he said it with they are all 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:17.640 the time, and my parents like, I'm gonna get in trouble, Mom, 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:18.400 don't get mad. 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:20.959 It's the truth. My mom and my dad, sisters she 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:23.320 didn't like you would go him that like. 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:26.440 I don't, I mean, or even if they were joking, 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:28.760 like she would be like listen and they would fall 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:33.120 out laughing. So like I associated the N word for 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:37.120 a long time just with comedic moments like I didn't 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:40.240 know that you couldn't say it. For example, on my 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:43.320 first Communion day because I was I was baptized Catholic hair. 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:46.600 First Communia had first repentance or whatever it's called. Ain't 0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:48.040 called first repents now I'm pentecosta. 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:49.360 I don't know what the other world was called. 0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:51.040 Anyway, we had to go see the priests and you 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:53.559 tell them what you did wrong. Anyway, Yes, whatever it is, 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:55.800 but it was, it's a name for it, first reconciliation. 0:13:55.880 --> 0:14:00.640 That's the first Communion day. I had a cat. We 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:02.280 had all the family over the house. 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:05.079 This is my dad's fault. Yeah, all the family over 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:07.559 the house and I couldn't get to the cat. We 0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:09.720 had the elders at the house too, and I said, 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:12.719 come here, you little bastard. I did not know, just 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:15.160 like with the N word, that bastard was a bad word. 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:17.439 My dad said it all the time. And this is 0:14:17.520 --> 0:14:19.240 my point. I was My dad and my mom was 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:21.240 were mortified, but like I was, like, how was I 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:22.760 supposed to know? You guys said all the time. Then 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:23.680 they were more mortified. 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:26.400 But my point is, I feel like it's not that 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:29.640 different with the inWORD for me from my experience growing up, 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:32.120 of course, with the black history parents I got. 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:34.480 You learn quickly after that, right. 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:36.560 That I think, you know, I'm thinking, I'm thinking about it. 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:39.080 I grew up a lot of my younger years in 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:42.440 my grandmother's household, and they were much older than my 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:44.920 dad's grandparents, my grandparents when I was growing up. My 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:48.640 mom's parents were in their seventies eighties, but a very 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:53.600 religious Pentecostal household, and my memory I have very clearly 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:57.800 as my grandmother, I mean just backhanding one of my brothers, 0:14:57.880 --> 0:14:59.800 my second oldest brother, who used the word in the 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:03.080 house house and it was as it was as close 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:05.920 to blasphemy as you could come like, and my grandmother's 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:09.560 as we couldn't play I declare war because cards were 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:10.080 of the devil. 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:11.800 They were not supposed to be in the house. 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:15.280 So I think in some ways we do have slightly 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:18.680 different experiences because of in the ways in which we 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:20.800 were reared and where and so on and so forth. 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:23.480 So I do in some ways think there's a generational element. 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:25.600 But I also think there has always been, at least 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:29.840 amongst us, a familiarity with the word in some sub 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:30.760 ownership of it. 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:33.240 Yeah, that didn't mean. 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:37.880 What the pejorative intended, right, Sure, the pejorative definition of 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:41.760 it was. But my honest thought is that I have 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:45.840 used it and use it with friends and close company, 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:52.000 and we almost never have necessarily positive you know. It's 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:54.800 like you did something, you know, messed up, and now 0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:58.720 you or you've done so. But it's in love, it's 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:00.240 in care of each other. 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:05.280 But said, it's an accountability where all right, y'all, we're 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:07.560 going to take a quick break and we'll be right back. 0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:18.280 I'm about to mess all up a little bit. And 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:22.200 that is growing up in Seattle. It's very multicultural, and 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:26.880 there's some constituencies in Seattle, like at least high school, 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:30.120 middle school for me, that grew up so closely with us, 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:33.520 particularly a lot of Filipino kids who said the N 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:35.840 word and we didn't think anything of it. In New York, 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:39.400 you'll see a lot of times Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, and 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:41.800 of course we know that slave ship stopped in different. 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:44.320 Period. 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:46.480 They could be, but they also might not be. They 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:47.920 could be indigenous, right or. 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:48.920 Have someone in there. 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:51.040 There's a distinction, right right, But. 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:53.760 I'm saying like there's some of that and people are 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:56.400 coming and I'm like, you're right, I'm a whole hypocrite there. 0:16:56.480 --> 0:16:58.360 But there is one thing that I want to point 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:02.000 out here, and that is that some rappers, including Politzer 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:05.280 Prize winning Kendrick Lamar, disagree with Lady Oh, disagree with 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:08.720 Berry in the in word, disagree with your grandma got 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:10.600 black Andrew but white. Andrew at the beginning of the 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:13.960 episode spelled it out, and of course Kendrick is. 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:14.760 On that same thing. 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:16.800 He said with royalty and that's how he would like 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:19.359 to remix and reinterpret the N word. 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:22.040 Yeah, And I think that's why I was saying, it's 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:25.119 a narrow perspective to bury it. I think if you 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:27.879 choose not to say it, then don't say it. But 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:30.640 it's just a crazy thing to me that somebody within 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:33.480 community would tell. I mean, I'm a big live and 0:17:33.560 --> 0:17:35.280 let live person. It's like, but it offend you, then 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:37.639 don't say it? Yeah, you know, but don't tell me 0:17:38.280 --> 0:17:41.480 because we're in the same community. So within our community, 0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:45.240 I respect your understanding of the word and how it 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:49.359 impacts you, but respect mine. And I think that's the 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:52.159 what we have to to show up as I think 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:55.040 the question of who gets to say it. You know, 0:17:55.840 --> 0:17:58.000 j Lo got in a lot of trouble when she 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:01.320 did the song with Jah Rule, and you know, she's 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:03.680 Puerto Rican from the Bronx, and I know people feel 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:05.280 a way about her now. But she had that song 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:07.399 with y'all Rule and she was saying, I tell them 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:09.200 niggas mind their business, but they don't hear me though, 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:10.639 and people outside the. 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:13.440 Tri State were like, whoa what? You don't get to 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:13.760 say that. 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:15.480 So I think the question of who gets to say 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:18.359 it and how it's received even that, I couldn't imagine 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:20.680 telling somebody like you shouldn't be offended, or you should 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:23.200 be offended if you offended didn't say it some people. 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:26.800 I think Mariah Carey was asked about it, like would 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:29.560 she say the word? And Maria Carey identifies herself as black, 0:18:29.720 --> 0:18:31.440 so she feels like, yes, I can say this. She's 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:34.000 white presenting when she first came out and we didn't 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:36.280 know a lot about Mariah Carey, people felt the way 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:39.800 about that answer, So I don't know. I think if 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:42.400 everybody would do what they want to do and mind 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:44.480 your business about what other people want to do and 0:18:44.560 --> 0:18:46.840 get to the real important things that are happening in 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:49.120 our community outside who gets to say the inn word? 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:51.119 I think that's better, But do I get own it? 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:52.359 Conversation own? 0:18:52.880 --> 0:18:55.600 Do we own the in word? Yes, we own nigga. 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:58.680 So when you say get like, mind your business, you're 0:18:58.680 --> 0:18:59.960 talking about mind the community? 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:04.840 These business are you saying mind your business now? But 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:10.359 that's for community people. You're specifying all talking about No, no. 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:12.680 No, no, no, all of this is in community. I 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:16.960 censor us at everything. Can I play the Tanahase? 0:19:18.000 --> 0:19:20.399 I was, yeah, I wanted to say this to Andrew. 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:21.639 I don't know if you wanted to weigh in here, 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:27.440 but I think that there is an intense fascination with 0:19:28.400 --> 0:19:31.120 who can say the in word, and us consistently being 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:34.320 interrogated about who can say the in word? 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:38.359 And yeah, so took that question. 0:19:39.000 --> 0:19:44.400 Tanahase was asked by a student and she was saying, 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:46.560 she doesn't say it, and there are like, you know, 0:19:46.680 --> 0:19:48.480 these hip hop songs and people say it, and she 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:53.240 wanted his opinion on white people saying this word, and 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:56.040 he gave her an answer that I thought was pretty 0:19:56.080 --> 0:19:57.440 brilliant and summed up how I feel. 0:19:58.080 --> 0:20:04.960 Listen, shit, when you're white in this country, you're taught 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:08.200 that everything belongs to you. Do you think you have 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:11.200 a right to everything? You got a right to go 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:13.080 with you? I mean in your condition this way. It's 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:14.639 not you know, because you you know your hair is 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:16.640 a texture or your skin is light. It's the fact 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:18.879 that the laws in the culture tell you this. You 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:20.200 got a right to go where you want to go, 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:22.560 do what you want to do. Be however, and people 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:25.600 just got to accommodate themselves to you. So here comes 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:28.640 this word that you know, you feel like you invented, 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:32.000 and now somebody will tell you how to use a 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:35.920 word that you invented. You know, why can't I use it? 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:39.360 Everyone else gets to use it? You know what. That's 0:20:39.480 --> 0:20:42.359 racism that I don't get to use it. You know 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:46.800 that's racist against me. You know, I have to inconvenience 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:49.160