The Elephant in the Room: Dispatches to the N-Word Wars

At some point, you will be thrust into the politics of the N-Word; it’s one of the universal narratives of Black people and just because it’s in a Kanye lyric, does that mean you should say it?

This is when you will be stared at, as if your skin colour makes you a leading authority on everything Black was, is and will be. This is when the elephant sounds its trumpet, songs sliding out of mouths — the word that can’t be spoken — the word that was used to draw a thick red line between slave and master — the word used in Jim Crow America on the streets of Detroit and Los Angeles when arresting Black men — the word used in England by bullies to my aunties, uncles and even my own mother — the word I have heard used with an argued difference between the “er” and just “a.” They notice the severity of this word at the same time they notice me, the elephant in the room.

At most affairs, with my generation, it will be Kanye or Jay-Z or most recently, Migos and Lil Wayne — and everyone is looking at me. If I say it, that gives them the green light. If I say the word it will be a public cry of blackness, implying…