Uh..I'm sure I agree completely. I would hope we have more in common (I'm a Blackman) with one another after 500 years in North America than a derogatory name. The widespread use of "that word" displays a lack of self respect, or a kind of ambivalence about our status in Amerikkka.

It is not okay for people, black or white, to call me Nigger/Nigga'/Nigguh or any variation thereof. I realize some of my brethren can't help it becuase it's taken so casually by most; to me this means that we dis one another without even thinking. It's like Carter G. Woodson said in "Miseducation of The Negro"; if you train a man properly to think of himself as low, even if there is no back door, he will demand one. There is no need for others to plot our demise, we are on AUTO PILOT most of the time. Our education has prepared us for nothing else.

So, while I agree that the legacy associated with NIGGER gives us a sense of connectedness, I'm not sure it's the word. I think it's the experience and the history.

Good way to stir up the debate though.