GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — Painful terms are part of our history.
But it is history we shouldn't gloss over.
That includes the N word. From Chaska to Burnsville, to college campuses around the Twin Cities, the word has shown up on buildings, gym shirts and social media posts.
Monday, Owatonna High School went into lockdown during an incident spurred by social media comments using the N word, according to the district superintendent.
If you dig deep, you’ll discover the N word appeared in children's nursery rhymes.
One example: Eeny-meeny-miney-mo! Catch a N-word by its toe.
Later, Tiger replaced the N word.
From nursery rhymes to schools across the Twin Cities, the word is still causing pain.
“Every black person has their own N word story. They remember the first time they were called that by somebody white,” Mayes said. “I was 14 years old. In Cairo, Egypt. We were in the pool. The young white guy used the word toward me.”
Mayes says the N word is an alternative to what some people won't say.
“Judge Lance Ito, to his credit or discredit didn’t want that word used in his courtroom,” Mayes said.
Ito was the judge presiding over the OJ Simpson Murder trial in the '90s.
The racial slur appeared in court transcripts documenting officer comments concerning Simpson’s apprehension.
The Simpson trial birthed the term, N word, which has led to what Mayes calls historical amnesia.
“Racial hatred which has manifested in black folks dying and being killed at the hands of white mobs,” Mayes said.
But before the Simpson case, the word was used without hesitation. The original spelling of the Latin word, Niger, meant black.
Later, it took on a derogatory connotation and was used to describe African slaves.
“Lynchings. This is what you do to black people if they step out of place. You can't detach the N word from that horrid historic legacy of white mob violence. It is impossible to do so,” he said. “That word is associated with hundreds of years of not only racial abuse, racial oppression.”
Mayes, a professor of African and African American studies at the University of Minnesota, says to understand present headlines with Virginia's governor linked to blackface, we must revisit the past.
When teaching the history of the N word, Mayes uses the book "N-----: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word" by Randall Kennedy to help high school students understand the history of the word. Mayes explains how the slur was used as an attempt to scare Hank Aaron, a black baseball player, from breaking Babe Ruth's home run record. Aaron received threatening letters from white people addressing him as an N word.
“Dear Mr. N word, I hope you don't break the babes record. I can I tell my kids that ____ did it,” one person wrote.
Another says, “Dear N, you can hit all of them home runs over them short fences but you can't take that black off your face.”
“See, that ties into black face minstrel theme. It is all related and it overlaps,” Mayes said.
Over the years, many have asked why do rappers get a pass and other blacks when using that word linked to so much trauma.
“White people invented the word, to abuse and to kill black people. African Americans are duty bound within the context of long freedom struggle to take something that white people created to hurt them and to kill them and remake it,” Mayes said. “It is used to diffuse the power that the word has historically had over them. It has inhibited, to some degree, white people from using the word. That is the power black and brown people should never give up. Just like the Jews should never give up the power to reach the boundaries of anti-Semitic behavior. You fought so long to achieve a certain end. If we give people passes to use it what are we saying to our ancestors? Black folks who are alive today. What are we saying to our history?”
Meanwhile, for our series, we asked viewers to share their thoughts about the N word. Here's what some said.
Grace Johnson, teen: The N word. It has a deep history. It has a lot of power when people say it in derogatory ways. It makes me feel sad that people have come this far to bring other people down.
Don Scott, adult: My dad used that as well as other derogatory terms toward people of the black race. That is just how he talked. Dad didn't like black people. He didn't like the idea that he had to do business with them. Negro was what blacks, and everyone said at the time I was learning this stuff in the '60s. The N word itself is a variation of that. In the locker room, I was blown away how the N word was used so commonly. Not just by the black athletes but by some of their white friends. I never did feel comfortable going down that road. I am bothered by the fact that some words have become "unusable" by certain groups while acceptable by others.
Destiny Burch, teen: I don’t even like using the word N because I am older now, but we are immune to it because we do use it. In all reality, it is a stereotype to make us look like fools.
Ty’ Lequia Brooks, teen: We use the word to uplift us. We took the word back. With the R at the end, that is more of like you are trying to come at me.
Alissa Daire Nelson, adult: Do I think the word should be abolished? I kind of do. I also think there is such power behind connotations of words. I associate that word with slavery. I don’t know exactly where the word originated.
Michael Seye, teen: The N word with an “a” at the end is a word that black people can use to greet each other. When my black friends use it, I am not offended.
Duck Washington, adult: Whenever I hear that word, I never forget the trauma that is associated with it. I recall the first time somebody called me that word. It is something that takes you off guard and knocks your barriers down. Makes you feel helpless.