By CHRIS ECHEGARAY The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - It’s defended as a term of endearment, a greeting that goes with clasping hands and a quick, one-armed hug. It’s pop culture, as much a part of rap as expensive clothes and flashy jewelry.

But to a different group, those who heard it shouted angrily by mobs and saw it scrawled on churches, it’s about lynchings and discrimination.

It’s the “n word,” the only racial slur universally known by its first letter.

And now a new, national movement powered by intense images is demanding that everyone drop it from the lexicon. Abolishthenword.com starts with a nearly two-minute slide show of graphic lynching and beating photos set to the song “Strange Fruit,” sung by Billie Holiday, about hangings of black men.

The site has garnered international attention, with visitors supporting the effort, according to creators Kovon Flowers and Jill Merritt of New York City’s Brooklyn. Visitors can order 10 wallet-size cards with the history of the “n word” for $7.50 - an option so popular the stock of cards is out until Tuesday, the site said. Visitors can print out and sign a pledge to stop using the word.

The site urges record labels and hip-hop artists to stop using the slur and to sell edited versions of their work. The next step is to send record labels a link to an online petition, said Flowers, 36.

Radio Show Inspired Him

The site was started in late April after Flowers heard a discussion on a local radio station.

“I listened to them talk about how the ‘n word’ was used way too much,” he said. “I’ve used it a couple of times. I took a step back, looked from the outside. There’s too many kids using it. It’s out of control.”

Similar past efforts, called Ban the N Word and Renounce the N Word, created small stirs and disappeared. This one is getting national media coverage and gaining traction in large part, organizers say, because of educator interest.

Teachers buy T-shirts and download personal contracts to show their students, Flowers said. Teachers in Miami and Orlando have contacted the creators, backing their efforts, he said.

There is support in Tampa, too. During the school year, Tampa police Officer Susan Bowers, the Middleton High School resource officer, hears students greet each other with the “n word.”

The 10-year Tampa Police Department veteran gives them a brief lesson in black-American history before they head to class or home.

“I’ve heard it used 25 times in an hour,” Bowers said. “They need to abolish it. They need to be educated in what the word really means. The kids tell me all the time that it’s all right when they say it to each other.”

The word started as a neutral noun in the 17th century, experts say, but by 1830 was a harsh insult.

The word’s crossover into pop culture stems from the racist entertainment of years past, said David Pilgrim, a sociology professor at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Mich.

Games, toys and poems that made fun of blacks also increased the use of the “n word,” said Pilgrim, also the curator of the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia on the university’s campus.

“A negative black image grew, and so did that word,” he said. “Certainly in the 1800s it was so common and again in pop culture with mass entertainment. It became bigger since blaxploitation, ghetto exploitation and gangster rap.”

‘A Touchy Situation’

Some young people were thinking about it even before the site.

Saraya Tobler, 19, refuses to use the “n word” as part of today’s vernacular.

“I hear it a lot in groups, and when there’s different races hanging out and a black person uses it, the white person will wonder why they can’t say it,” she said. “It’s a touchy situation.”

Fifteen-year-old Jordan White, who works with Tobler at University Park as a camp counselor, said he uses the word to greet friends.

“I mean no disrespect by it,” he said. “That’s how some people talk to their homies, friends. It’s ‘What’s up,’ and you add an extra word.”

The creators of the movement said they have been criticized by blacks for paying attention to a word and not the issues that plague black communities.

“I know there are deeper ills than the ‘n word,’” Flowers said. “It’s not going away right away. Maybe this will set the tone. It’s a building block.”

Contact Chris Echegaray at

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Link to the group’s web site: AbolishTheNWord.com (GRAPHIC CONTENT)