"At that point it signified just that - people of color that our race of people can't afford."
I just cant abide by the idea that there are people among us that our community cant "afford" and i cant abide by a definition that is offered by a nazi as if it is somehow more true than the sentiments that Blacks have charged that word with.
It bothers me that we're so against the word and what it has meant but we're not willing to honor the changes that blacks have brought to the meaning- we only conclude that we shouldnt say it anymore based on evidence that it somehow damages us even further even though nobody ever tells us how.
If you stop using it on the grounds that it means what they say and not what we say are we actually demonstrating that we're more than the word prescribes or not intelligent enough to provide that it means something else.