I hated the word the first time I heard it. I never see a black person when I think of the word. I see a white person saying it. He’s a semi literate Peckerwood with more guns than teeth who probably fucks his sister. I don’t say the word because I don’t wanna be that guy.

I don’t like hearing Black people say it either. That’s one of the reasons I don’t listen to most rap. But I would never deny the right to any black person who wants to use it. I don’t think it’s my place to make that decision.

if I wanted to be a real pain, I would point out that you are in fact using the word in this article, when you say that you don’t use it. This would give us a chance to discuss the difference between using a word and mentioning it. It looks to me like your decision has been to mention the word but never use it. However, we white people we’ll get into trouble even if we mention the word without using it. There are several articles on Medium by black writers who felt betrayed when a white friend said something like “I would never use the word {N-word}.” before I read those articles, I wouldn’t have seen anything wrong with mentioning the word and not using it. (I don’t think I ever actually did, but that was really just dumb luck). I would never mention or use the word now. You live and learn.