I can't tell which is worse: "I hate black people," or "I love niggers." I am quite aware I'm using the hard 'er' and not the 'a'. The 'a' has been discussed to death already. We get it, you can only say that if you're black and you're saying it to your black friends or pals or homies, which is stupid and everybody secretly knows it is but that's for a different time. It's bad when someone who's not black uses it. Although I've heard some Indigenous people use it but that's for a different time. I'm not just saying 'nigger' or 'nigga' to provoke or offend. I'm saying this from an educational standpoint. We know derogatory words like 'nigger' should not be used. It's bad. You hear awful racists say things like "I hate niggers," but you have these white, drunk, club going girls in their early twenties saying stuff like "I love black men." Is it really better than saying "I love niggers"? Maybe we get shocked the moment we hear 'hate'. We're setting ourselves up for disgust and anger. We hope to hear something that we can all agree to scoff or spit at. Something truly awful. But to follow it up with 'black people'. Awful. It's putting a color before 'people'. We are all one. Is that not what we're being taught? To love thy neighbors? White, black, brown, yellow. They're all just colors, and people are people. To generalize a single group into one and say you hate them all? Because of a color? Sometimes I wish we were all colorblind.

But 'nigger' or nigger. That's not a color. That's trying to say someone is below human which I'm sure we all know isn't true. But to say "I love niggers" is like saying you love people below you. Forget the connotation with 'nigger'. Imagine being in a medieval setting where the king ruled all and the peasant folks struggled to live. Imagine if there was a king who would say "I love peasants." That king might turn out to be a cool king. Someone who would say such a thing may be more likely to help his people. He would help and try to do good for the peasants if he truly were to love them. So if someone were to say "I love niggers," wouldn't them make them an honorable person? Someone who truly is loving to those he sees below them? Surely if they were to love people below them, they would find it easier than to help those who are equal or certainly those above them? Now it starts sounding like "I love niggers, spics, chinks and Jews" is actually a very wonderful thing. Love is a powerful word but so is hate.

Perhaps it's the tone. Imagine someone who could be your friend in a very good mood, talking about all the people they love: family, friends, the pet dog, the nigger down the road. "Marcus from down the road? I love that nigger." Like with music, having the tone, whether it's C major or D minor, can change what you hear quite drastically. It's not just words and the meanings behind them but how it's presented. We hear this so often with 'fuck'. "I fucking hate you," "I fucking love you," "fuck this," "fuck that," "fuck you," "fuckin' A." So with this, we should note that the definition behind words aren't always as powerful as we think. Should this not apply to 'nigger'?

So next time, maybe we shouldn't worry too much about certain words. Maybe we should appreciate strong words such as 'love'. Maybe we need to give thanks to the existence of tone. And maybe we should be okay to say that we love a nigger or niggers.