We Still "Niggas"?

The issue over use of the "N" word has been ongoing for a while.  It is not a new idea nor is it a new issue.  Just a couple of years ago, the NAACP had a funeral for the word in a ceremonious, public display to do away with the word as such and to encourage every individual, including African Americans, from using the word. 

Some popular celebrities such as Jay-Z, have said use of the word is acceptable, as "we have taken the word back and made it something we say between friends."  However, those who remember the the bitter and cruel days of segregation in the United States, especially find it to be appalling and harsh to hear.  

It was the recent words of Dr. Maya Angelou in her adept and concise explanation of why the word should not be used anyone that prompted me to add this discussion.  Dr. Angelou said this, " if  I took something with skull and bones labeled 'poison' and served it in Bavarian Crystal, would it be less poisonous?"

WOW! SO simple yet so profound, and so many of us miss this as the truth of the word that keeps circulating in culture and communities while we allow ourselves to become numb to the fact that it is a poison that is tacitly denigrating our souls.  We must do better, and educate ourselves and the coming generations of the sacrifices that were made and the pains that came with the hearing of that word.  Especially this the hour of the 50th Anniversary of the historic speech from President John F. Kennedy after the acts of the Governor of the state of Alabama.  George Wallace, the then governor of the state of Alabama, on June 11, 1963, Wallace stood in the doorway of the University of Alabama's Foster Auditorium to keep Vivian Malone Jones and James Hood from enrolling for classes.

The students were escorted into the building past Wallace by federal officials and eventually enrolled. 

Hours after this event President Kennedy made is his speech on Civil Rights.  And just a few hours after President Kennedy's speech aired, Civil Rights Activist Medgar Evers was assassinated in his driveway in Mississippi. 

So it would seem as a dishonorable to consider these brazen individuals who faced such overt disrespect and abuse with tireless intrepidation to continue to pretend that poison by any other presentation is not poison.  Poison in Bavarian crystal is as lethal as poison from a flask properly labeled. 

Procession of Medgar Evers funeral.

Medgar Evers Protesting InEquality.

Myrlie Evers, Medgar's widow at his funeral.