Topic : Talk About the Show

I watched your show today and was intrigued by the subject.  I want to thank you for the diverse panel as well as the diverse participants in the audience.  I, too, have an opinion about the "n" word.  I am African American and I lived through the late 50s and the early 60s in Little Rock, AR.  I remember a lot of stuff that went on during the Central High Crisis.  I went to all-black grade schools and didn't really experience "integration" until I went to college.  Well, I prefaced this to say that those experiences dictate how I feel about white people calling me the "n" word.  Our children, and grandchildren, white and black, don't have the same harsh experiences to identify with and may have less of a problem with the"n" word.  I believe that as we older folk die off with our feelings it will become a word that nobody hates and everybody will be called.  It aint going to die.  Too many black folk like it.  Too many folk use it.  It'll become like "Methodist" as well as it should.  "Methodist" was used in a derrogative way when it was first used to identify that group.  They refused to allow it to be negative for them and today we are called Methodists.  We have got to get over the word.  We have got to give it the intimate meaning it has for so many of us.  I believe that time will heal the word.  Now, I say I've earned the right to be called "N" by my people, Empress "N" if you must is what I say, but only black folk can say that to me. We wear the word together.  However, to see the young lawyer sister say she calls all her friends that made me realize that that's probably what will happen as the races mix more and more.  Take the sting out of the word.  Just because it was bad once doesn't make it bad forever.  Just like "bad" became good during the slang of the late sixties, so will the "n" word go.  Once the negative is taken away, it'll be an okay word. 

To the young lady who thought the gentleman had a chip.  She's right.  We of my age group got big chips.  She's never been where we've been.  She's never had to feel what we've had to feel.  Sure our great grand parents were the slaves, but Jim Crow lasted forever.  We were not treated any better than our fore parents for a long, long, time.  And, there are still instances when we feel the sting of that old mentality.  I understood everything and every word said on that stage by the black panelists.  I also appreciate the concern of the white panelist.  (Glad you didn't have a proclaimed racist up there.  Might have been a real fight.)

Now, to the young lady in the audience who said she was afraid and apprehensive about black guys who have that  (I'll call it) gangsta look.  Don't worry.  I am just as apprehensive when I walk pass some white guys who look like what I call the KKK and skin heads and I have far more reason to fear than she does.  When I see that Confederate flag and army fatigues together I get down right scared.  Historically, these are the emblems of white supremists. I've experienced first hand what can happen when some white folk get that crazy stuff going on and I don't ever want to experience it again.  Fortunately for my friend and I, a kind white gentleman helped us.  I was nine and she was eight.  They were teen aged boys up to no good.  My friend saw the gentleman sitting on the porch and ran to him.  Fortunately, these were days when the young still respected the elderly and he made them leave us alone.  I will never forget the fear.  They were chasing us with a switch blade knife.  Thank God for that old gentleman.  I don't know what would have happened because you could feel the electricity in the atmosphere. 

I I am so sorry that your daughter received such a horrible email.  No child should ever be subject to such disgusting comments.  But what I do want to say as a white woman is this:  Yes you have a history story but you also have a new story-a far more exciting and better story to come.  Slavery is over thank God.  It is in the past.  What the Mexican lady of decent was trying to say is get over the past and move on.  The jewish people are a wonderful example of this.  They never forgot but they have moved on. They have forgiven.   I felt Paul Mooney was an embarrassment  and was not helpful at all.  If he wants people to treat him with dignity and respect, he needs to do the same.  Also, I feel the N-Word should never be used by anyone.  It is a negative disgusting word that has a horrific history attached to it.