#5: "The 'N' Word"

Having recently watched Tedd Nelson's documentary concerning the N word in today's society, I became aware of how he framed it in order to reinforce the message and give it validity. It was definitely able to shed light on the reality of the situation for those that may be naive to the fact that the word has been used for centuries and continues to be used today. However, while it was used in the past to degrade African-Americans, word variations are used in both positive and negative ways currently.

In  the documentary, Nelson interviews people in a very open and candid setting. The older people can remember the times when the word was used in an extremely derogatory manner, and do not believe the same way about the word as younger people do. We as a society have come a long way since slavery, but many people -white and black- still have memories of different times and different ways of life. These instilled values and traditions have been passed down for generations, and white and black tension has lingered even until this very day.

Historically, black people can associate a lot of negative things with the N word. Slavery, lynchings, the KKK, racism, discrimination, segregation, etc. And all of these oppressions being caused by white people. White kids were being raised to call black kids the N word, and did so even at school. Black people fought for their right's until 1964, only 48 years ago.

Decades ago, black people started using the word in variations amongst each other, in a non-negative way. This led to a movement of taking importance of and sensitivity to the word away. Younger black people picked it up as apart of their lingo, while many older black people still had resentment for the word and did not want the word used in any context. Many white young people use the word, some with their black friends and sometimes with other white people. The word has many usages in today's society. It can still be used in a degrading manner, or it can be used to demonstrate the closeness of a friendship. It has a wide range of meaning.

Nelson used mostly black people in his documentary, to help give it a more realistic view of how actual black people felt about the issue. There were also white people offering their opinion, but almost everyone shown was a celebrity. This gave the documentary more star power and made it more interesting to the audience.