This tired debate has been going on for too many years.  I am one of those individuals that hates this word.  I grew up using it too, and once it was funny to me.  I also felt like it was a personal thing when pronounced with “ga” at the end and not “er.”If I slip and use it today, it blatantly flies back in my face as obscene.  Over the summer I accepted a long term substitute teacher position for one of the Juvenile Hall facilities where I live.  With these kids, (all boys and we refer to them as wards), it doesn’t seem to matter what race, all the boys use this word with the “ga” sound at the end.  I see White wards calling other White wards the “N” word, and I see Asian wards calling Black wards the “N” word.  What kills me is that all these kids use it in an appositive way, not reflecting race at all as if they were saying to each other “hey bro” or “dude!”I try over and over again to correct them in class reminding these kids that the use of profanity is against school policy; but there is no stopping them.  It really bothers me to hear that word used at all.  It’s not a personal or affectionate thing for Blacks anymore.  It’s just a part of mainstream society and no matter how much we argue about it…you can’t stop it now.  I still don’t totally agree with how blatantly Whoopi Goldberg used it on The View and I question her response to something Elisabeth Hasselbeck said when she stated “…”We do live in different worlds …It isn’t balanced, and we would like it to be, but you have to understand, you have to listen to the fact that we’re telling you there are issues, there are huge problems that still affect us.”  -(2008, “EURweb.com”)I don’t know where Sherri Sheppard and Whoopi Goldberg get the idea that, that word is a personal thing for Blacks only.  Maybe in their generation, but that has long since changed.  I hear tha...