Dear Wordy Madam,

Words have a lot of power. The pen is mightier than the sword and this has never been more true because the pen has further reach than ever before because of technology and the keyboard!

That said, it is important to be very careful with your words. It’s very easy to communicate now. The message becomes more important than ever. The N word originally used as a slur on African Americans, meant to demean them. Over time, many African Americans, mostly artists, have taken back the power of the word by re-claiming it. By calling each other the N word, they diluted the power of the word that was once only uttered by people who meant to separate out African Americans by their skin color, and demean them. By using the words themselves, they’ve taken the exclusivity away from non-African Americans who were using the word as a hurtful slur. By using the word as an affectionate or common term among themselves, African Americans furthered diluted the negative power of the word. In fact, they gave it their own special power as a word that they could use among themselves with a positive effect, as opposed to a negative effect.

However … the word still carries some negativity because of it’s origin. Many ethnic groups and religious groups as well as women, at one time also considered property, have similar words that were originated to keep them as lower class. The words have been taken over by many of the groups once meant to be the victims of the words, but the origins still sting, and these words should not be used lightly or casually. In fact, I would recommend not using words that historically held people down. There are so many other adjectives and nouns that are positive, it is much more productive to choose something that has only positive meaning.