Ok so I grew up in a small suburb outside of Washington, DC in Virginia. Growing up the population was mostly white, black, latino, and others fast forward about 8 years and the biggest population in my high school was Korean/Asian, white, black, latino, and others. Now like people in your town hip-hop has become a bigger, more mainstream, and more diverse by the second. More and more hip-hop artist and groups have come out since the beginning of hip-hop 30 years ago. That being said there is this one problem I have with the way hip-hop & some pop these days has gone. No its not the betrayal of violence, money & sex (although I hate that). It’s the increasing use of the N word. Now I know that even back in the day rappers where using the word and of course I think it was wrong back then too. I just think it puts the wrong message out there for our youth. I mean now people are even saying the word as a term of interment to their friends. As much as our generation tries to act like civil rights, slavery and racism is done and the world is all smiles that is sadly being inerant. To our grandparents and even our parents who had to live in fear for a large part of their life this whole thing hasn’t gone far. Of course black people are not the only victims of this there are words to describe different cultures that where used to put a sour taste in your mouth but are now slang on the tip of some young bucks mouth. When the Travon Martin case happened they had a special on CNN on the N word (notice I don’t even say the word). They took from many different races and ages to talk about this word. Now one example they gave was Jay-Z. He is among others one of the biggest promoters and says it frequently in his music. Now I know that he is trying to prove a point but there are other words you could use to get your point across. Another thing I have noticed is that if the word is in a hip-hop song and you are a white person and your black friend says it you are not able to say the word back without fear of the black person getting in your face about it. Because its ok for a black person to say it but not a white person. What since does that make? The black person is saying that because of back in the day if a white perosn says it they become rasist. But if a black person says it, it just a greeting. I feel that no matter your color no one should be saying this word. If back in the day slave masters and racist people in the south took so much pride in looking down on us and saying the word to hurt us then how has it become a term you take lightly. My parents would say Negro before they would ever say that word because that word still stings for the older generation. This word to me is just not a term I feel should be so widely used or used at all. We need to hang this word up to dry. Your grandmother will thank you for it 🙂 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/01/cnn-n-word-don-lemon_n_3529803.html