Op-Ed: I’m Puerto Rican And I By no means Say The N-Phrase
I’m Puerto Rican. If we’re getting technical, I wish to say I am Nuyorican—of Puerto Rican heritage, however born and raised in New York. I don’t communicate Spanish, a casualty of being a 3rd technology Boricua rising up on the mainland. I didn’t go to the island until I used to be a junior in highschool when my grandparents retired and determined to return to their childhood dwelling. I additionally grew up consuming relleno de papas and alcapurrias from the cuchifrito spot close to me in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and carrying my PR flag proudly annually on the annual Puerto Rican Day Parade in NYC with my household.
I say all this as a result of that is my story; who I’m. My environment have been all the time various and wealthy with all varieties of tradition from my early childhood in Brooklyn to my adolescent years in Staten Island, residing across the nook the place the Wu-Tang Clan bought their begin. However once I began working at BET, practically seven years in the past now, I didn’t use it as a chance to say the N-word, just because it’s not a part of my story. Though, I’ve all the time acknowledged my African descent (by default you’ve got African roots being Puerto Rican, or any sort of LatinX, until you’re purely Spaniard), the circumstances that include being Black should not one thing I’ve personally ever needed to cope with. Being Brown, sure. However Black, though I do know is true of my family tree, will not be how the world views me.
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The dialogue of who has the precise to make use of the N-word all the time appears to circle round, and most lately within the media we’ve seen Puerto Rican stars Gina Rodriguez and Evelyn Lozada come beneath hearth for his or her utilization of the phrase. Now, of us on the web are divided on whether or not these Puerto Rican ladies have the precise to say “n—-“. However let’s not overlook Tekashi 69 and Fats Joe, plus your complete Terror Squad have been throwing the N-word round left and proper with out fear of being canceled. Clearly, there’s a disconnect on who has the precise to make use of it. And but, folks proceed to offer them a cross.
As a result of the N-word carries a lot historical past and harm, I’ve by no means been snug with saying it. Interval. I don’t really feel that being a lady of coloration mechanically grants me a cross, both, even with an acute consciousness of my distant African heritage. And simply because I’m Latina doesn’t imply I can simply slap “Afro” forward of that. Because the writers of Black-ish put it, I skew extra Jennifer Lopez than Rosie Perez once I stroll right into a room. Being Afro-Latina is simply not my plight, and I’m very conscious of that.
Do you establish as Black? Or Afro-LatinX? Have you ever ever as soon as acknowledged your African heritage? Have you ever handled all that being Black comes with? Or did you conveniently “change into” Black when it suited you? I do not presume to cross judgment on anybody, and whereas this can be a difficult subject, I really feel genuinely compelled to elucidate why I might by no means use the N-word and that I feel it has been abused by different racial and ethnic identities for a very long time.
These are the questions that I feel anybody ought to ask themselves the subsequent time they open up their mouth to say the N-word. Language and our selection of phrases are illustration of who we’re. Select your phrases properly.
