Captured from Dr. Drew’s show on the HLN network, this picture shows Dr. Drew Pinsky’s discussion with Don Lemon of CNN.  They, Dr. Drew’s panel, and audience guests discussed Race In America, and especially the N- word.  I think this was a rerun of an earlier show.

I figured this is in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Day, and continuing his legacy.  As a white person I am hoping to honor his legacy by relaying the information below.

There was a lot of discussion of who can say this word.  Some takeaways were:

• White people cannot say this word to anybody.
• Black people can say this word to each other.
• Saying it may be very pejorative.
• Saying  it may be a term of  “endearment”.
• If it is said to some black people, they may fight the person who says it.
• It was the last word that many lynched individuals heard before they died.
• It is included in rap compositions.

The effects of the use of this word were discussed, as a means of communicating generational trauma.  Don Lemon mentioned a writing entitled Post Traumatic Slave Disorder, which some writer coined, and these two figured that this word could be a mechanism of this trauma.

One of the audience guests said that if black people use this word among themselves, this entitles non-black people to use this word.  I cannot say the N-word!