I don’t think Matt Barnes as being malicious when he said this….
But, it is these type of comments that make us our own worst enemy at times.
“If you look at the particular way I said it, kids are seeing that through music, through their favorite artists, and probably some of their favorite movies and even on TV now,” Barnes said. “The word is not necessarily a racial slur. Everyone is trying to paint it like I made some kind of hate crime or something. It’s a word that I guarantee you will be used out here on the court today. It’s a word that I’ve already heard in the locker room. It’s not as big a deal as people are trying to make it.
“My mistake was making it in a social manner in the platform I used it on.”
“This is a new day and age, and for my generation that’s a very common word,” Barnes said. “You hear it on the radio, you hear it in movies, you hear it on TV. It is what it is. It was never intended for any person on the team.”
“I think the way it’s said makes people cringe,” Barnes said. “I think if you put an –er at the end that makes people cringe, but if there’s an –a at the end that’s like people saying, ‘bro.’ That’s just how we address people now. That’s how we address our friends. That’s how we talk. That’s how my wife talks. That’s how my family talks. People talk that way now. I think if you put the –er on it it’s offensive and if you have an –a on it it’s more slang.”
The really sad thing is nothing that Barnes is saying is incorrect, but the fact that it is correct, is sad and quite pathetic to be frank.
Trying to justify such a hateful word by saying if you put an “A” at the end makes it different quite ignorant. You think the people who used that word for centuries to disrespect black people care about the enunciation? I don’t see any other races or ethnicities doing that, only in the black community.
You don’t see Jewish people calling themselves “Kita” or Asian people calling themselves “Chinka”. Until we stop treating each other like second class citizens, how are we going to expect anyone else to do it?
Smarten up….