About the "N" Word...

Conversations about the 'N-word' with 'C' age six...

C: Mama what does N-word mean?

Me: Well Buddy, it is a word that people who have learned to hate use to make people of color feel bad. It's their attempt at trying to say the meanest thing they can think of. Interesting fact though, that is the not the proper definition of the word. It means to move slowly or lazily...

C: Well people don't say that to me...

Me: And I hope you never have that experience Buddy, but if you do you could say... (Insert an entire treatise on dismantling internalized bias and the characteristics of bullying)

C: Mama, well, I'm not going to remember that. So I'll probably just say, ' I am not slow or lazy actually. I do great things every day. And my skin changes colors just like everyones so saying that word to me doesn't even make sense.' And then I would just walk away...

Me: Buddy, I think that'll work just fine... (secretly thinking I wish I had said that the first time I was called the N-word when I was eight.)