Originally Posted by Zee

I'm not saying anything about it being fair or unfair, I'm saying that the word has not been disarmed because it hasn't been. Not all black people are comfortable with using the word because, just like when white people use it, the word conjures up historical grievances that the world has slowly started to move on from. Throwing the word around now without really doing anything to change its meaning to something positive is stalling progress, in my opinion. All it would take is a popular movement to take off to redefine the word, officially, to mean 'friend', a positive campaign that takes the edge off the word. But really, I think the word should be laid to rest. That won't happen of course, it's entered the vernacular of several music genres which ensures the word isn't going anywhere any time soon, but I think that constantly using it without really defining what it means and continuing to have an us vs them attitude with regards to the word is just prolonging the problem when the guilty party has tried its best to make the word taboo and drum it into people that it is no longer okay to use the word. If there is no context and there are no parameters over what the word means, it ensures that the problem continues to exist.