When Did It Become OK To Use "The N-Word?"

Forty-two years after the fight for civil rights ended, some old habits have surfaced.

Hip-hop music and even TV shows are glorifying the use of "the n-word." It's being used by young people between the ages of 16 and 34 -- and crossing all racial lines.

NBC 4's Candice Lee said she discovered the issue when she caught her 15-year-old son using "the n-word" while talking to his friends.

In Central Ohio, there have been recent incidents of racial slurs and other vulgar language used in schools. In February, a girl in Marysville said she was called "the n-word" by some of her classmates.

Candice asks, "When did it become OK to use 'the n-word'?"

Love him or hate him, Power 107.5's City gets his listeners thinking and talking every night with his Question of the Day.

On one recent Friday evening, City was upfront about what is arguably the most vulgar and racially-charged word in the English language.

"The n-word" gets its roots in early American history, when it was used for centuries by white people as a derogatory reference to black people during and after slavery.

While comedians like Richard Pryor used "the n-word" in their standup routines, it didn't become mainstream until the late 1980's and early 1990's -- thanks to West-Coast rap artists like NWA.

Today, whites, blacks, Hispanics and Asians are using "the n-word" as a form of empowerment and endearment.

"The reality is you can't isolate out or separate its usage in public from its larger context. So whether you feel it is … personally, a term of endearment and you mean it as a term of affection, it's derived from a word that has such negative, demeaning, derogatory intent," said Dr. Hasan Kwame Jeffries, professor of History at The Ohio State University.

It's become so acceptable to use "the n-word" that it shows up in various TV shows -- old and new.

"What's amazing is that people recognize on some TV shows, they'll play the reruns of shows that have cussing in it. They'll bleep out cussing, but they'll let 'the n-word' stay," City said.

"It's a reflection of people being able to say, 'Well, if African-Americans feel comfortable using it, then we don't see a reason to stop it or to bleep it or to censor it,'" Jeffries said.

Does "the n-word" have any place in our day-to-day conversations? Callers to City's radio show responded along racial lines.

"I'm white and whenever I hear any of my black friends say that, I think they just disrespect each other. It just sounds stupid and you get mad at white people and I would never, ever call one of my black friends that. So I think it's just stupid," a caller said.

"Mentally, I think the reason that we use it a lot is because we came to terms that we can accept it. We came to terms that we are comfortable with who we are. We're comfortable with the color that we are. But some people do become a hypocrite when they do get upset when they hear other people say it," another caller said.

In 2007, the NAACP held a public funeral for "the n-word," hoping to discourage its use.

Dr. Jeffries said that won't happen until a frank and honest discussion on race takes place in America.

"It's not just the word. It's how the word plays out. It's what the word says about contemporary culture and past culture. It's what the usage of the word says about our understanding of race relations and the color line throughout American history," Jeffries said.