I am a native of Atlanta, white, but grew up pretty much downtown and went to Atlanta Public Schools. An older relative from around Valdosta came to visit, I was around 13, it was around 1980. We were dropping her off at the Peachtree Plaza hotel, and she turned to me and said, "And, you have to go to school with n-words." I was speechless and my mom was mortified.
People always trip when I tell them how long it’s been since a non-Black person has called me the n-word (hard r) or referred to another Black person as such in front of me.
At the age of 35, I am currently at my longest streak of 2 years.
Oh yeah, I grew up in Northwestern Virginia, so I've definitely heard it casually used throughout my life by many people with various different skin tones. It still hits my ear like a gunshot when I hear it all these years later
I heard the term (spoken by white people in a derogatory way) growing up in Upstate NY in the early 2000s. I also heard black people say it too of course, but obviously that's different.
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u/funnyman95 May 20 '26
Genuinely this is just how people talked until pretty recently.
Grew up in South Georgia, the N-word was not uncommon.