Ignorance is bliss, until the person who is blissful is no longer ignorant. Many people in our generation, including me, say things that are inappropriate and often offensive when we speak. We have learned to take the meaning from the word and transform it. We add it into a part of our vocabulary, when just a few years ago we were signing petitions to “Spread the Word to End the Word.”
It happened to me the other day, when my boyfriend and I were walking the streets of downtown Ypsilanti headed for the library. We do this almost every day so we can do our homework in a quiet place.
As we were crossing the street a man told my boyfriend to “stay with your own kind, or just flush your DNA.” We were both stunned! Interracial marriage was legalized by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967, so why did this man have such a problem with two people being happy together? It shouldn’t matter if we are black and white, black and black, or white and white; love is love, and this is the free world.
When confronted with how our words may affect other people, we often retreat to telling someone that they are being too sensitive, that it is their fault that we hurt them. We deflect their feelings and go on with our lives. When people I know say the N-word, I openly express to and try to explain to them how them saying that word makes me feel as a black person. I also try to explain how that word was reclaimed by black people and how disrespectful it is when a non-black person says it. I get mixed responses but if someone won’t respect my request, that is not someone I will associate myself with again because of its harmful nature.
I have been on both sides. I have said things that are derogatory, like the R-word, even if I didn’t mean it that way. I have also had people use hate speech against me, both by people who meant every syllable and people who never meant to hurt me. I encourage everyone to speak up when someone says something that makes you uncomfortable.
Just recently, a student in our school got a video leaked on Snapchat of them saying the N-word. This student was Arab and not black. This deeply offended me and many other students. When I confronted the student, they refused to talk to me and went on to tell others that they would beat me up. By ignoring the problem, I felt this asserted racist culture through the power of the N-word, and its effects when used by a non-black individual to a black individual.
There’s a certain power dynamic when a person who is not black says the N-word. When a non-black person says the N-word or another racial slur, it feels outdated, like we’ve taken more steps back than we have taken steps forward as a society. We, as a society, have to come together to recognize the effects of hate language of all kinds. There is an illusion that hate speech is taboo, but some people are comfortable with using it. It makes others uneasy in certain circumstances, and we need to make sure we understand everyone’s perspective. We as a society must be more empathetic to other people’s feelings towards hate speech and recognize that the connotations surrounding it, to get a better look on how our words matter. We as a school can promote the effects of hate speech on us as a generation, as to influence the generation after us.