I just read an article in a local newspaper whose message was essentially, “The N-word is bad and we should never use it.” The was story centered around a Black History Month assembly at Beechwood High School, and it got me thinking the same thing I’ve always thought about this and similar word controversies: “It’s just a word. How can it be bad?”

The speakers at the assembly apparently argued, as most who argue against this particular combination of consonants and vowels do, that because of its history as a racial slur used to degrade a group of people it is and always will be hurtful. In my studies of popular culture, however, I’ve found that this argument doesn’t hold up. I’ve noticed that black people, especially music artists, often use the word ”nigger” (or “nigga,” which is more phonetically accurate for the modern pronunciation of the word) to refer to anyone who is human, regardless of race, including their friends and themselves. In a skit that exposes DJ-EV (a white dj who is one of the best in the industry) as a Tom Cruise look-alike, Kid Cudi refers to EV as “this nigga” that he felt he’d seen before, despite his failure to meet the melanin requirements that used to exist for such a title. Chip tha Ripper is another Cleveland rapper, and an artist who is always quick to tell listeners how great he is. In his song I’m Fitted, Chip referrs to himself as a “fly young nigga,” an expression which, to one who is familiar with Chip’s high opinion of himself (or at least which he presents as a part of his stage persona), would be completely incomprehensible if we were to accept that the controversial third word in that self-given epithet were truly degrading and insulting.

The use of the word is obviously not confined to rap music, but musicians are a product of and an influence on culture. They put into their music what they’ve taken from the culture of whatever city or neighborhood they grew up in and spread it to their audience. While casual use among white Americans in a non-racist context may be a relatively recent development, the use of the word in music has been going on for much longer. For some perspective, NWA (short for Niggaz With Attitude) was formed in 1986, and Curtis Mayfield in his song Pusherman, which has  released in 1972 as a part of the album Superfly, used the word as a self-reference from the song’s narrator. Because rap music uses the word “nigga” so often and is currently extremely popular with people of all ethnicities, the word has enjoyed an upturn in its casual use. In my own school, one can hear black and white students alike casually use the word as a term of endearment, practically synonymous with “buddy.”

[Some of these students desperately try to identify with rap culture as an attempt to combat the ‘mind numbing tranquility’ of life in a small Midwest town, and have unfortunately picked up along with this word the materialism, frequent drug use, glamorization of violence, and arrogance that is all too common in contemporary rap, but the use of the word is gradually extending beyond the social circles of wannabe gangsters and gaining general acceptance among teenagers.]

What I really don’t understand, and perhaps never will, is why some people want to fight the use of this word. Most argue this point on the grounds that it used to be an insult, but the word has been, or is in the process of being disarmed. What is happening with this word the lingual equivalent of the Toys for Guns program: our society has taken a weapon and turned it into something harmless. At this point I’m forced to quote the author of the Harry Potter series, who once wrote, “Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself.” The people who attempt to put an end to the increasingly common use of this word are, in fact, taking a firm stance against positive progress, and saying loudly that they will not stand to see this word become inoffensive and benign. The only reason I can find for this is that some people just like being offended.