MLK and Racism Continued

After everyone gave their presentations one of our teachers got up and asked what they thought of the presentations. Right away one girl made a comment about my friend’s presentation and how she was mad that my friend would say “nigger”. Our teacher joined in right with the girl and was like oh yeah I heard it too and by this time a few others chimed in with their thoughts about it. All this time my friend was sitting in her seat bawling. My friend told the class that she was saying the word “negro” and not “nigger” and even contemplated on if she should say the word “negro” in the first place. Many others backed my friend up and assured her that we knew she was telling the truth. I will say that the only people who said my friend said the word were black, but there were other black girls who knew my friend and knew she didn’t say it and also knew that my friend would never say it in the first place. We had to leave for our next class so nothing was really done then. My friend did have a meeting with our two teachers but our class never was really able to talk about it. We did discuss the issue in our English class though and it went along the same lines as our English discussions this semester. I found it really ironic that we would be studying MLK’s speeches and saying how far we have come and how everyone is equal but yet we had some people speak out and say this word, “nigger” was found offensive. First off I would not say the word because I do know some people find it offensive but why these girls made such a big deal especially when anyone could tell that my friend did not say it or even if she did that it was not meant in an offensive way astounds me. Would these girls have gotten offended if my friend was black? Black people call one another “nigger” all the time. I do not understand why black people can say it but if a white person says it then it is found offensive? I would never say “nigger” but I personally do not know what to say. It offends some people to say black or some to say African American and many others. Why should I have to question what I say if all feel the same about one another? It goes both ways, I know, with whites and blacks and even other races, but why is that tension still there? I know we have come a long way and this is not as big of a problem in my generation but there still is racism and it is clearly seen from my ACAD experience.