N Word: Being Black in the South

When people hear the word "nigga" it can have a wide range of meanings to many different people. To most black people it's just a word that we call other black people, it basically means someone you're cool with or just a form of greeting. White people are hesitant to say it because they're afraid of what could happen to them. I honestly don't care who says it because it is what it is nowadays. I know a lot of black people who hate for a white person to say and I don't understand why that is. Not every person who says it is racist. I grew up in a small town in Georgia and most of my friends are white and they say it to me and I don't care in the least bit. Now let's get one thing straight about Georgia, it's one of the most racist states in this country, it's been like that since colonial days. Hatred is not something you're born with, it's something that you're taught. For someone to flat out call me a nigga and mean it is rare back where I'm from but it does happen. Let me tell you a little story, I used to work at a Southern comfort store called Belk and one day I was at work and a customer approached me, an old white man probably in his early 70's, and I asked if he needed any help and he said "no, I don't want help from a nigga (he actually said it with an -er at the end)." So instead of me getting upset and making a big deal out of it I went and got another coworker to help him and he got what he wanted and left. Now you're thinking to yourself, why didn't he flip out on this old man? The reason behind it is that he's an OLD man, he's set in his ways and me making a big fuss about it is not gonna change him. I've been called anything you can think of, from a porch monkey to a spear chucker to a cotton picker, and in as I got older I learned it's best to just walk away from those situations before things got out of hand. Don't get me wrong, I've knocked more than fair share of people out for calling me those things but I've progressed since then. Georgia, from what I've experienced, is not as racist as it used to be, there's still that 1% of bad apples trying to spoil the bunch but you just gotta look pass that. All of the friends I've made back home are wonderful people, very polite and very understanding of certain situations that occur around me. I was home on leave from the Navy for about a week before I went to California and I was visiting my friend at work and it was just me and her in the store and a customer came in and got what they needed but before they left they asked my friend if she was comfortable being alone with me. Being the great person that she is, she told her yes she was and the customer left. I'm glad she didn't try to stand up for me, first, she was at work and she didn't want to cause a scene and I would feel especially bad if she did and she got in trouble for defending me and second, I can stand up for myself and if the customer didn't want me to be alone with her I would've just left and waited until she left the store and went back and avoided the situation. Let's go back to me being in the Navy, you'd think that all military personnel would be respectful of everyone no matter what their race is but that's not the case as we've all seen in the news for years, whether it was a black on white crime or a white on black crime or any race on any race crime. When I was in California I stayed on a Marine base and I met a bunch of awesome Marines. We would go out into the courtyard and have parties and getting drunk and sing and dance but one day this one Marine got drunk and walked up to me and called me a nigg** and I turned to my friend and I told her the situation and I then I told her I was going inside before I did something to jeopardize my career. Then everyone out there found out what he said and just went off on him and then I went back out later after I cooled down and he tried to apologize and save face with me and everyone else but I didn't accept his apologize because a drunk mouth speaks sober truths. I'll leave you with this, there is weight behind every word you say so be mindful of who you say them to.