Over a relatively short amount of time the N-word has evolved from a bit of Latin to one of the most controversial words in the English language, enough so that some college professor had an entire course on that one word (they probably didn’t use many asterisks). People have lost their jobs over that one word. And now Lin-Manuel Miranda is in sort-of trouble for usage of that one word.
To clarify: Lin used the N-word while reading an audiobook. He was reading a line spoken by his sufficiently black friend, who probably gave him permission to repeat it for the audiobook. I am not completely familiar with audiobook procedure, but I believe it involves reading the book aloud. All of it. As is. And while a word may be censored in the text, it’s hard to properly censor a word in an audiobook. Yes, the word could have been bleeped, but you don’t bleep in audiobooks (unless the text calls for it).
General consensus seems to be that context is of the essence when using the N-word. Non-black person tossing it carelessly about in conversation? No. Academic paper, in academic context? Yes. Non-black person using it in a book/play/script? Every case is separate. For instance, while one might feel uncomfortable hearing Underground character Suzanna Macon use the word, it’s the right one to use, because an 18th century lady wouldn’t talk about her “African-American” slaves. South Park had an episode specifically about the N-word, and “With Apologies to Jesse Jackson” was generally lauded, and the conversation at the end bears repeating:
Stan: “Wait a minute. That’s it. I don’t get it.”
Stan: “Don’t you see, Kyle? I don’t get it! Token, I get it now. I don’t get it. I’ve been trying to say that I understand how you feel, but I’ll never understand. I’ll never really get how it feels for a black person to have somebody use the “N” word. I don’t get it.”
Token: “Now you get it, Stan.”
Stan: “Yeah, I totally don’t get it.”
I definitely learned something that day.
tl;dr: Use of the N-bomb depends heavily on context, and IMO this case is acceptable. If other people disagree, then they are welcome to. Nobody should be afraid to have an opinion.
By the way, has anyone actually bothered to confront Lin about this, or did they all go straight to the comments? I believe this is a valid question.
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