I found your article thought provoking and challenging. I realize that there isn’t an official criteria list for what does or does not qualify someone to be another person’s n…., though I think your list is a pretty good one.

I have two quick thoughts that I can’t seem to reconcile and maybe you could add insight. I understand and can totally see the argument that Obama lends African Americans respect and credibility, but that’s more of a feeling. Where I am having trouble is on the more objective parts of your definitional argument. Maybe I am splitting hairs here, but how much does it matter in this arguemnt that someone has your back? You bring up the Trayvon tragedy as if Obama did something to bring George Zimmerman to justice, and there wasn’t much else to go on but feeling again. I could point out several instances where looking objectively I don’t think Obama has had the backs of African Americans exactly, but maybe you see it differently. Or does it even matter to your argument?

Secondly, I realize that the N word has too much power, history and brutality written into its lexicon to ever have an equivalent for any other ethnicity, but we are living in the 21st century and the word is taking hold in very diverse ethnic pockets the world over. If one considers some teens and 20 somethings to be more and more like global citizens and rap music to be a serious part of their culture and language instruction than why can’t they use the N word in the same connotation as any African American? I have several 8th grade students who saturate themselves in explicit rap music nearly 24/7, 2 are hispanic, 2 are mixed (white and hispanic) and 1 is white. They all refer to themselves and sometimes me using the N word, in spite of my protests to the contrary. They know they are not black, and the person they are referring to is not black, but they believe the word carries the sentiment they wish to convey at the moment they are using it. My question is: do the people who are 30 and older (the generation past the youngest one) see this cultural appropriation as taboo and therefore wrong when maybe the younger generation is able to transcend the racial divide in a way we cannot yet conceive?