Words are weapons.

They have the potential to uplift and inspire and they also have the potential to hurt and humiliate. In an even greater sense, words can be as essential to life as water, or as destructive as a nuclear bomb.

Speaking of bombs, the now-infamous verbal blunders of Don Imus and Michael Richards have brought the music industry, mainly rap music, under some scrutiny for its frequent use of derogatory vernacular that is destructive of the image of African-Americans. More specifically, the notorious N-bomb.

It is without a doubt the most controversial word in modern American society, carrying with it a horrific stigma that cannot be erased no matter how the word is interpreted throughout the ages.

In all honesty, debating the use of the N-word is like beating a dead horse. Most people who possess a sound sense of morality are aware that the word is deemed absolutely unacceptable in its original context. However, some people within the African-American community still continue to make use of the word anyway.

It is prevalent in mainstream rap music, which is dominated by African-Americans. The word has appeared in the most ignorant songs, and even the most enlightening.

Despite what some people who are unfamiliar with this issue may think, the open use of the word did not begin with rap music. Nor did it begin within the hip-hop culture.

The use of the N-word has, unfortunately, been a problem in our culture and in music for African-Americans as long as they have been a part of American society.

Is it a matter of cultural ignorance? Or is it truly a tactic of genius in which a word that represents so much pain and awfulness has been shifted into an expression of brotherhood by the same people who it was meant to emotionally and psychologically terrorize?

In the case that the latter theory is correct, the double standard, which much of today’s controversy of the word is based, must come out of the dark to be explored.

People of all races acknowledge the double standard that African-Americans can use the N-word and white people cannot, and many do challenge it. However, one must wonder why there are those who want to dismantle this double standard?

What is the fascination that people outside the African-American community have with the word? Why do they want to know why it is inappropriate for them to use the word?

Sure, American society regards freedom of speech as morally important, and in that respect, they should have absolutely no shame in demanding to know why they are being told they cannot say something.

However, the bigger question is, do they want to do away with the double standard because they wish to use the word? And if so, why? Their cultural expulsion from the word should be proof enough to them that the word is wrong, even if many African-Americans do unjustly retain it in their vocabulary.

Two wrongs don’t make a right.

On the other hand, implying that white people cannot use the word, but African-Americans can is as morally illogical as saying that a man can’t hit a woman, but another woman can.

In reality, no one should ever use violence against anyone, and no one should use the N-word, because whatever way people perceive it does not alter the historical baggage it carries.

The assertion that the spelling of the word changes its context is the most frequent claim used in some African-American’s defense for using the N-word. It has almost become cliché to pronounce that ending the word in “-er” is a derogatory sign of offense, while ending it with a simple “a” makes it a term of endearment.

So does the mere pronunciation of the word discard the context and tone in which it’s used? If that is so, action must be taken quickly.

Though many people, both African-American and white say the N-word the exact same way in the South (with an “-a”), immediate action should be taken to inform the African-American men and women who fought for civil rights roughly over half a century ago that every bigoted person who ever screamed the N-word at them while letting a vicious K-9 loose on them or cranking the pressure of the water hose to blast them with was just saying the N-word with an “-a” at the end to be friendly.

It was all just a big misunderstanding.

Maybe if some of the African-Americans who use the word – more importantly rappers – can bring themselves to dispatch the fallacies and excuses that support the same old arguments they apply to defend it, and make an effort to view it on a simple basis of right and wrong, they can recognize the word is an ugly word that originated from an ugly time in America’s history.

Rap music is supposed to celebrate the progression of creative expression of African-Americans. The ignorance surrounding the use of that word is anything but creative.

To keep the word alive is to make a mockery of progression, compromising every single step on the social hierarchy people like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. have helped African-Americans to climb. Dr. King had a dream.

The N-word wasn’t in it.

Perhaps it’s about time people of all races stop beating around the bush and face the music. When every defense of the N-word has expired, what will people come up with next? African-Americans shouldn’t use it, and others outside the race should question themselves as to why they’re upset that they can’t use it.

At the same time, it’s impractical for African-Americans to dictate the use of a word that no one, not even they themselves, should be using. So they shouldn’t question white people for questioning their use of it.

The more one thinks about the complexity of the issue and all the justifications people create for wanting to use the word, the more the simplest solution of just not using the word at all is unrealized.

In that sense, those who propose the word not be used by anyone, being those who have the highest morality in their interest, may never be heard as they should. That just proves, when it comes to the N-word, everybody loses.