Nigga Please!

I'm sorry, did that title offend you? Probably not, since I'm just a tad bit more old fashioned than most.

Nigga, Nigger, Niqqa, Nicca, Niggaz, Negro (not as bad)....blah blah blah. You get the point. I hear this word and its variations all the time, and I'm so tired of it. It's literally a turn-off if I hear a guy use it. Like why??

I know, I know...it means something different now.  You call your friends and your boys that.  However, I think Martin Luther King Jr. would turn over in his grave if he knew that this word was so widely used, especially by black people to black people. I mean helloooo...do the marches, sit-ins, beatings, hangings mean anything to this generation now?? People would demean our fellow ancestors with nigga and nigger and beat them senseless just because they were born having a darker shade of skin. It's such a derogatory term, and I literally cringe inside each time I hear it...The other day at work, one of my white co-workers jokingly called me nigga and I don't know why, but I just felt like slapping him lol

Chelsea, my parents, and I went up to D.C. last weekend to see the Martin Luther King memorial.  I hadn't been to D.C. since 5th grade, so I was very excited to see the sights and sounds, even if only for a couple of hours.  History was never really my strongest subject, but I always loved learning about what civil rights leaders did for our country.  I mean, think about it.  If it wasn't for these fighters answering their call, where would we be?  Still sipping water from a COLORED ONLY fountain,

dining and working in restricted places, living in fear of the KKK or other hate groups, being hosed down and/or having the dogs sent out on us, not being able to vote...

PAUSE.

Are you even registered to vote? No? I'm gonna need you to get on that ASAP. People went all out back in the day just so we could have this privilege. We take so much stuff for granted nowadays. That's why it's not a bad idea to visit museums and historical landmarks occasionally, or even read books or watch footage of time periods before you. It will help you to be more appreciative and humbled by the choices of true leaders from the past, who fought relentlessly for a better equalized world.

If you use the N-word, I wanna challenge you to remove that from your vocabulary. It's not necessary. Come up with an alternative...new words are constantly being added to the dictionary. Gain some respect for the past.

Oh, also add the MLK Memorial to your "Places To Visit" list. And be inspired to leave your own legacy.