As a white guy, I'm perfectly fine with the fact I can't say N______. Even if black people can.

[pipi_k]

13. As a white

female, I'm also OK with the fact that I can't/wouldn't say the "N" word

however...

It does always make me cringe even to hear black people using it. Rap songs, whatever.

Nobody should be using that word...not even blacks, and here's why...

because there are too many truly clueless and ignorant white people who think that it's "cool" to use that word even if they don't have a racist bone in their bodies.

There ARE people like that out there.

Some years ago I saw a series on TV called "Black/White" where two families agreed to switch races with some very skillful makeup.

They both looked to be upper middle class. The white people were not mean and didn't appear to be bigoted in any way. They were just extremely clueless.

The parents, anyway. For example, the man of the family, while in black makeup, was out sitting with white people in a park and, upon returning back to the house he and his family shared with the (real) black family, insisted that he did not encounter any hostility. This, of course, did not sit well with the (real) black family, who, perhaps because they are more attuned to, and aware of, undercurrents of hostility, were mildly disgusted.

The (real) white guy was just real clueless...duhhhhhhh

There were other examples, too, like when the (real) white woman used the word "bitch" to the (real) black woman under the mistaken impression that it was OK because she had heard black women do it with each other.

Again...totally clueless.

Not everything is about "racism".

Sometimes it's just about being really really stupid.