No word in the English language is as divisive and offensive as the N-word.

Bryant Smith, the former director of multicultural and international student services of Millikin University and current motivational speaker, spoke to students at Millikin about how that word is used, in both derogatory and endearing terms, according to who says it.

“Everything that you know about the word [N-word] may not be true,” said Smith.

Smith’s lecture focused upon how the N-word has become a co-operative word, meaning that it’s used in present society as both a word of hate and as a term of endearment. Both Smith and the members of the audience explored how to view the N-Word in this day of age.

Smith provided his own personal examples of the use of the N-word, including how, as a faculty member of Millikin University he, as a social project, supported an intermural basketball team called “The [N-word],” which sparked both amusement and anger by students and faculty members of both races.

In addition to providing various personal and historical instances of how the N-word has entered mainstream society, Smith also engaged the audience in an activity that explored the perception of the N-word.

Smith told the audience to close their eyes while they listened to the song “[N-word] Are Scared of Revolution” by the Last Poets. After listening to the song Smith said, “Did anyone in this room see anything other than a black man as that poem was being recited?”

Members of the audience have varied answers, ranging from visions of African warriors to visions of revolutionaries; however, the most predominate response was that the man speaking was black. This activity was meant to tie in to a larger topic at hand, specifically if there are two different types of African Americans. By closing their eyes, it was meant to describe, according to Smith, that the use of the N-word, as it was used in the song, demonstrates how the N-word cannot be overcome if African Americans are envisioned in that sense. Smith further elaborated by saying “We can no longer pretend that the word [N-word] is no longer connected to black people.”

During the course of the lecture, the audience members were open to comment, which resulted in various opinions of whether or not the N-word is an acceptable term to use.

One audience member said, “I think we should look at the progression of the word. I’m fine with using the word [N-word], I say it a lot actually.”

Other audience members had different opinions over the word, including one audience member who said “I feel saddened, not that people have used the word, but that people seem to not be growing from it.”

To end the speech, Smith discussed how by opening up and discussing the issue with other students, specifically students of varying races, we can learn more about the use of the N-word and why it should not be prevalent in today’s society.