According to the dictionary, a “fix” can be either a problem or a solution. To “cleave” sometimes means to separate and sometimes means to draw together. Those words belong to an unusual group of words called contranyms or Janus words. Perhaps the most provocative, most powerful, most historically relevant of all such words is the “N” word.

Like it or not, for better or for worse, the word “nigger” is a part of the American experience, arguably on par with other Americanesque  words like “freedom”, “individualism”, “patriotism” and “democracy”, vis-à-vis their importance in defining the American ethos. This doesn’t mean that the word should be viewed as being “holy”. It does mean that the word should be treated as powerful and only used by those who know how to handle it. Part of the reason for this is that more than any other word in the English lexicon, the word “nigger” embodies and personifies the inherent duplicity in our culture: the outward facade of freedom, liberty, pursuit of happiness, etc versus the internal subjugation, disenfranchisement and marginalization of minorities. 

Intuitively, Americans know this double standard exists; it’s so commonplace in fact that it’s just a normal part of the background - a single leaf in a forest of ten thousand trees. When Thomas Jefferson wrote that “All men are created equal … unalienable rights … life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness …” did he not own slaves? The Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves that were in areas which were not under control of the Union Army (which effectively meant that not a single slave had actually been freed!) This pattern of projecting one idea while protecting its opposite is (shamefully) a modus operandi in American history.

Is it any wonder, then, that the “N”word has evolved into a word that is the ultimate racial insult and a term of genuine endearment? The word is used by both white and black Americans in both contexts. Even white Americans use it in reference to other white Americans.

Yet, in the year 2014 there is a genuine attempt to sanitize our language and to remove anything that might be offensive to anyone (which invariably offends someone), and that means to remove the word nigger from our books and vocabulary if not from our history proper. What would such literary classics, like “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn” be without the “N”word? Uncle Tom’s Cabin would not be the soul-stirring, thought-provoking work  it is if you remove the word nigger from its pages. Lincoln allegedly said to its author, “So, you’re the little woman who started the war?”

In spite of that, words do come and go in English. (Some people feel that the end of slavery should have been the end of racial problems in America. No, the end of slavery was in many ways the beginning of racial problems, but that’s too off topic) Perhaps, as society is still working through the aftermath of chattel slavery the one word that reminds us all of that horror should be eliminated, if not by deliberate extermination then through linguistic evolution. The word “nigger” might go the way of the dinosaurs one day. And why not? Aren’t there lots of other words that can be used as terms of endearment? Why choose that word, the most inflammatory in American history, to indicate a friend or loved one?

Yes, no, and maybe we should bury the “N”word. The important thing to remember is that, no matter what happens, Americans love America, tattered, battered and bruised, warts and all. Its history isn’t perfect or pristine but it’s all ours.