Marcell Lockett
“Well, first of all I don’t respond, because I know I am not a nigger, or the N-word, as you said. I don’t respond because a nigger is a person with low self-esteem, so I don’t pay it any attention.”
Margie Mitchell
“Yes, I’ve been called the N-word, and I respond like this. First of all that word, nigger, means to be ignorant. I don’t consider myself that, and the people that use it, I consider them being ignorant. It means nothing to me, so I basically ignored it.”
Anthony Mabry
“It depends on who’s calling me the N-word. If it’s with my guys, it’s kind of normal; then you don’t pay any attention to it. But if it’s someone from another race or ethnicity saying it, if the content is offensive and they are saying it to get under your skin, then it’s going to be some problems.”
Ricky Brown
“Basically, it’s never acceptable. It’s a derogatory term and it’s never acceptable, not even with our young people saying it. We as Africans in America are the architects of civilization. Nowhere in the European or Swahili languages does that word exist. It’s used by an ignorant race of people that are white. I respond by letting them know how ignorant it is when they use that word.”
Otha Brown
“I’ve been called the N-word and I was a little upset. I was at the job set in a predominately white community, and a little white kid with his parents called me a nigger. His parents said, ‘You know we don’t talk like that,’ but I knew they were trying to cover it up, because he got it from them. So I just said, ‘Hey, I’m not a nigger, I’m African American,’ and I was basically talking to his parents.”
Trivale Cross
“I was on the bus one day going to North Riverside Mall. I sat by a white person and, as I’m sitting, I can see they thought all black people like to steal. This man moved his bag, and the lady I was sitting next to moved her purse and they had a conversation with the person next to them. One of them said, ‘That’s why I don’t trust niggers.’ So, I smiled and said, ‘We don’t call y’all rednecks. That nigger word is hurtful and our ancestors fought against that. For y’all to still use and pass it around is hurtful.’ They got up and off the bus and everybody else starting clapping their hands.”
