No, Nonblack People Saying The N Word Doesn’t Bother Me

It was a chilly late night in Manhattan. I left the office and joined the crowd of New Yorkers who were also on their way to the subway. While I was lost in my thoughts I overheard the conversation belonging to a group of young Asian men walking beside me, each of them no older than 17 years old. They were caught up in a riveting discussion and kept calling each other “nigga.” But once the high schoolers noticed me, a black woman, to the left of them fear crossed their faces and they immediately shut up. I pursed my lips together, trying to hold myself back from laughing.

The uniformed terror across their young faces probably stemmed from the thought that I was going to stop to lecture them on their use of the N word. But I really didn’t care. It was a cold evening and I just wanted to get home and eat dinner. And even under better circumstances I still wouldn’t scrutinize the slang that came out of their mouths.

What these Asian young men didn’t know was that I have a few friends spanning from all backgrounds who use the N word, whether to repeat an interesting conversation they overheard verbatim or for other reasons they feel compelled to use it, like singing a song that has “nigga” conveniently placed in the chorus. Is this something I take offense to? Nope. I think it’s beneath me to monitor the language of my grown…