The Diversity Peer Educators, a new organization on campus focused on diversity and inclusion education, held a discussion on Feb. 26 about the ‘N’ word. The panel leading the discussion consisted of five students within the organization who gave their view of the word and when it is is appropriate to use the term. They were lead by Sherell Fuller, an education professor with a doctorate in elementary education, who shared personal experiences, asked questions and answered questions from the audience members.
Kalea Young-Gibson, a junior political science and psychology major, was one of the panelists for this event and describes the effort it took into putting this event together. Young-Gibson praised assistant dean for diversity, engagement and inclusive excellence, Kinyata Adams-Brown, and DPE student coordinator, Jon’Paul Montgomery, for being the main organizers of the event.
“The rest of the Diversity Peer Educators, myself included, either served on the panel or provided behind the scenes support for the event. It was a team effort directed by Mr. Montgomery and Dean Adams-Brown,” Young-Gibson said.
Young-Gibson also goes into why this specific organization was made and some of the things they have done since beginning this year.
“Dean Adams-Brown brought this idea to Winthrop and along with Jon’Paul Montgomery; they executed a plan to get [this] program on our campus. Dean Adams-Brown saw the need for a traveling group that could back up Winthrop’s mission for diversity and inclusive excellence, so she implemented it. We’ve done a number of programs for various groups on-campus, and with this being our first full academic year for the program we’ve gotten off to a fantastic start,” Young-GIbson said.
One of those programs includes the ‘N’ word event. In essence, the event explained how the word evolved through history from a term of description into a derogatory term. Though throughout history the term was viewed as a negative connotation, the black community is reclaiming this word as their own and as a term of endearment for one another.
The panel made it be known that only people of African American ethnicity should be allowed to use the term; because otherwise it can be offensive and taken in a hateful way, even if it is sung in a song it should not be repeated. This was related to the treatment of other slurs, like the “R” word.
Audience member Shaniya Simmons, a freshman political science major, thought the event was “extremely empowering.”
“Back in older generations, we would have never heard about an event [like this] but now that we are actually giving this word a platform. We are giving a platform for people to talk about the word, how they use it, why they use it and why they should maybe stop using it,” Simmons said.
