I grew up in Sacramento (Oak Park) like
@TAYLONDO SAMSWORTHY, so I understood where he was coming from a decade ago, but my stance on the word has shifted significantly. Hmong & Mien friends had very similar upbringings to the black people in the hood - siblings were crippin, saying nikka, impoverished, didn't continue education after high school, etc. In college, I was debating the connotation of nikka with my brehs who grew up outside of NorCal. They had the majority POV - no one should say it besides black people. Us from NorCal, who grew up with non-black saying it, argued that it is a case-by-case and we would let it fly amongst those we shared commonality with - listening to Mac Dre, following the Kings/NBA, buying the new Jordans, fitted caps, etc - all YOUNG black cultural engagement.
However, even in college and now, while I still use it here and there with my brehs, I'm attempting to rid of my vocab. I've come to the belief there is a level of corniness and gross negligence using the word as a self-sufficient adult in this country, no matter the minority. If those same AsianAm friends use it now, I will check them and tell them they shouldn't use it, not only around me but amongst themselves as many of them do. At the same time, I wouldn't check a breh on the word as it belongs to him and I still believe he has the right to use the word to his liking, regardless of my ultra-conservative view on the word.
I associate the use of the word with my youth and even with a history of defending what hip-hop culture attempted to do with reclaiming the word, I've come the conclusion it's not an achievable goal while the AfrAm community is literally a minority in numbers. We aren't in power and until we are, we will waste our energy in a perpetual debate with non-blacks about the social rules of the word. In really finding a strong sense of self in this eurocentric nation, I genuinely believe the AfrAm community requires a massive social reform on finding a new term of endearment. Especially one that is not rooted in a racial slur of a Western Germanic language.
See, I'm from Del Paso Heights but I literally had the reverse awakening as you...
My mom is very pro-black, and growing up I bounced around from Fruitridge to Valley Hi to South Central LA to Virginia to North Carolina to Memphis to Little Rock. I did a lot of bouncing around and that exposure to different cultures shaped me in this sense...
I felt nobody except blacks should use it. The first time a non black called me nikka in "friendliness" was as an 8th grader in Memphis. We got in a fight because I felt disrespected, and I was conditioned to believe it was disrespectful if not coming from the mouth of another black...
I went to prison when I was 17 and in there, I had alot more exposure to people of all races dropping it. I hated it and i was the brother who "checked" non blacks for using it, and brothers for allowing them to use it. Never had to fight behind it because guys would honor my request not to say it around me--->this was the first time i truly realized a lot of blacks were okay with this...
When I was on the streets as a youth, I only hung around blacks, again, you gotta consider I come from a strongly pro-black background (my mom is from Oak Park by the way). Not Panther type shyt, but my family didn't have friends that weren't black. So that influenced who I surrounded myself with...and my justifications for how I felt was along the same reasoning that you have regarding the N word...
I didn't begin challenging my views on the N word until I moved to a small town in Upstate NY (near Syracuse) when I was 21. The entire town was like 80% white, the most white people i ever been around. And the first time an older white (I'm around 22, he was in his 40s) used it in the manner we use it, was in jail up there. Because even though I disagreed with non blacks using it, I had become used to non blacks my age using it. I never saw someone 20 years older than me using it, and that's when I thought, "damn the usage is really ingrained over a generation up here if older whites use it". It started challenging my views...
I later went to jail in Albany when I was 23 and it was like prison all over again, non blacks of all backgrounds using the shyt...
I probably spoke my peace on my discomfort with non blacks using it until I was around 24 or so before my opinion began shifting. I did a lot of extensive research on the word and some serious self-examination on why I so strongly opposed others using it, and felt it belonged to us at blacks. And by the time I hit my mid-20s I'd been exposed to cultures across the country and in literally every one of them, I saw acceptance of non blacks saying nikka, I saw non blacks saying nikka when it was no blacks around period (Indians calling each other nikkas, Latinos calling each other nikkas, whites calling each other nikkas).
This is without fail...I've seen this everywhere I've lived...
After a couple years the comple self education brought me to a different view. I don't think your view is wrong. But I do think we owe it to our culture to question why we're possessive of terminology that was ascribed to us as a pejorative, a term that
white people invented and it NEVER left their usage. It isn't like we created the term...
And we gotta stop blaming hip hop culture for non blacks using it. Non blacks used it, especially whites anyway, before hip hop was even a thing. Our blaxploitation movies and our comedians in the 70s allowed non blacks into our world of speech, and they became okay talking to us the way we spoke to each other. And pre-Civil Rights era, there wasn't a mass calling to stop whites from calling us nikka anyway. We've BEEN comfortable with non blacks calling us nikka. In the last 65 years or so is when there's been a debate about its usage, that isn't a long time...
And we can't expect non blacks to know how to use it when there are differing views coming from us as a community. This def applies to today, but predates our generation and hip hop....
As it is, I'm live and let live. The word itself has a power beyond any persons control, though I 100% support anyone black speaking up if they don't like anyone using it. It began as a slur and is now mostly slang. I do think that if we as a community made a coordinated effort to stop saying nikka, that would have an impact. Our arr and culture is the most popular art in America and if we stop putting it in our movies, our novels, our music, our murals/graffiti, our speech, etc, it would take some time, but everyone else would eventually follow us...
When will that happen, though? Even to this day, I censor myself around non blacks (especially whites), and I've softened my usage since I was younger, but I still use it. And I'm okay with others using it, though from time to time I might tell someone they're wearing it out...
what kinda 16 year old child Donald Trump shyt is this? 
so basically yall letting ****** fly when yall safe in yall wack ass hoods but when you get around a afro american who respects his/her history in the states and what theyre great grandparents may have survived its 
FOH
