So, I started my summer reading today with Enough by Juan Williams (written before America elected its first black president), which has a foreword about the famous "Poundcake" Speech by Bill Cosby... you know, the one where he came extra hard at poor black people?

This was not before I woke up and saw a speech on worldstarhiphop.com by an 11 year old boy about why no one should use the "n" word.

I dunno. I must say, between the little boy's speech and Cosby's diatribe, I found myself wondering why I use the word. I have friends that refuse to use it, and even shudder when it is uttered by others. I have other friends that use it here and there when the occasion "calls" for it. There are those I know that use it regularly in their vocabularies without any regard.

There are a wide range of opinions about this issue from the Bill Cosbys of the world to the brotha on the block. Some argue that Nigga is different from Nigger (and invented by Hip Hop), others call it a reclaimed word, but my stand is this:

Freedom of Speech was one of the few things this country (founded on racism) actually got right. Banning a word is silly and a little too Orwellian for my taste. It would not be fair to just ban one. You would need to also ban other historically degrading terms. I won't enumerate on what some of those are, but they are as dehumanizing as the N word. And even if those words could be banned somehow, it would deny agency to such communities that have "taken back" such words. For example, the Dyke March Chicago is a grassroots organization/event where the LGBTQ crowd( several of them being of color) fosters empowerment through activism despite the historically and even still painful words

Furthermore, debates over whether or not people should say the "n" word serve as distractions from the real issues affecting the black community, such as the achievement gap in education, HIV/AIDS rates, Heart Disease and Diabetes (due to poor diet choices), and of course, the disporportionate number of blacks in prison.

Could we do something about these things then start burning scrolls?

Iono... What do YOU think?