Listen as a grandmother and her grandson discuss uses of the n-word and how they to use it or not. The grandmother shares her experiences with the n-word and describes it as something that has been used to demean and degrade. This history and those experiences have meant that she never uses the n-word because she doesn’t want to perpetuate that history or degradation. Her grandson, on the other hand, has a completely different association with the n-word and describes that he often uses it as a pronoun in casual conversation with his friends. Unlike his grandmother’s experiences, it hasn’t been used to degrade and he doesn’t use it to demean.
It is a word that seems to have a lot of power and takes a lot of power.
