Great post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Speaking from a "white" perspective, I think that it may be a result of being plucked from your home land in such a primitive time. By that I mean record keeping was not really what it is today, and if you've ever needed some records from a hospital or city hall, you know things get lost all the time. Here's the segue. For the melanin impaired, the stereotypes and slurs have usually been about where their ancestors could be found, ie Polack, Mick, Dego, etc.(spelling?-who really cares though) Since the national identity of the African brothers and sisters is not as readily available or known, due to things such as the slave trade, actual naionality is unknown in most cases. I think that NIGGER/NIGGA is sort of a default title. Whether or not it's a positive or negative word at this point in history, in my opinion is based on the context it's being used. That's my take, at least for now. I'll have to give it some more thought. 1nce again, beautiful incite.