The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) hosted an event headlined, "What's up my ‘N' Word," in which students and a panel that consisted of six members had an open discussion involving several derogatory words and their uses on Wednesday, April 6 in the Student Union Theater at 6 p.m.

"Last year's event was only about the n-word, how it was used and who has the right to use it," said Justin Roberson, a senior art education major. "This year we're doing it on any derogatory words against anyone's sexual orientation, women, men, race or anybody in general."

Members of the panel included several well-versed students and teachers of the community including Sociology Instructor Rebecca Hensley, alumni and teacher at Amite High School Willy Williams, NAACP member Jacy Carpenter, SGA Chief Justice William Takewell, senior political science major Evan Buck and senior speech communication major Mellisa Talamo. Music videos were displayed before the open discussions developed between panel members and the audience.

These videos highlighted ideas or words for discussion, allowing members of the audience to use them as references. Elizabeth Davis, chairwoman of the NAACP, acknowledged it took hard work and effort to create a theme for "What's up my ‘N' Word 2," but was surprised how freely the audience spoke.

"I really liked the audience's participation," said Davis. "I felt like people were afraid to speak, up until like the third video maybe, everybody started to warm up."  

Patricia Morris of the NAACP, summarized the event by asking the audience to learn from the past. "Young people, love one another, don't make the same mistakes we did," said Morris, referencing her generation as a teen. She further addressed a member of the audience by saying, "Young lady, you asked what to call them, call them people."

The first video was a performance by Nas, a rapper from Queensbridge Housing Projects in New York. The lyrics of Nas's video stressed the use of the word in multiple contexts, ultimately mitigating the harshness of its meaning.

"You have to fight ignorance with knowledge," said Carpenter. "Whatever it means, it means different things to different people." Buck later stated he was not comfortable using the word because of influences deriving from the comedian Richard Pryor.

The following music video featured Marsha Ambrosius's song "Far Away." This video addressed American society's take on homosexuality, especially young men who harm themselves because of the constant bigotry they face. Carpenter explained that she saw this brutality firsthand and noted sexuality should not determine one's character.

"I'm extremely successful and my sexuality doesn't determine that," said Carpenter.

Takewell also commented on the matter explaining sexuality should not define who we are.

"What I mean by that is people often get brought down by what label they have," said Takewell. "I'd rather be known for excelling in leadership, known for someone who works hard for his fellow students. You should be known for what you do, not who you do."

The last video of the night was Queen Latifah's music video, "Unity." This segment addressed derogatory words aimed at women.

"I also feel like this word has a community and if you aren't in the community, don't use it," said Talamo.

According to Takewell, people should question these words and question how society chooses to categorize words. "It's up to us to not let the word define our culture, but us to define the word," Takewell said.

Williams addressed the audience as a whole asking them to "speak with knowledge," and "listen with caution."

"When I say speak with knowledge, listen with caution; I want people to study several things," said Williams. "As a teacher it's my job to encourage people to be exquisite and then I say listen, question what I say and go investigate that."

Students who attended the event were able to better educate themselves and felt that it is necessary to have a forum addressing topics such as word usage, racism and sexual bigotry.

"I thought it was very necessary, especially to the n-word there is a degree of racism and bad negative connotation," " said Ryan Deep, a freshman political science major from Lebanon. "But I think there is also an equally strong positive and people need to learn about it.