Many of you responded to an earlier posting about the 'N Word' Buzz this Black History month, with letters of comment. It has had an emotional impact with most of you and, some of you wrote to me your own thoughts on it. So, I published your comments just because of the buzz the symbolic call to ban the use of word had created. As I had originally thought, the controversy, locally and nationally, has NOT gone away. And sooooooooooooo...........

The 'N Word' fight continues this day, coming several days after the Grammy Awards were televisied nationally and around the world. What is new about this is Leroy Comrie, New York City Councilman (D-Queens) has stepped-up the fight as we are now in the middle of Black History month.

On the 1st of February, I was among dozens of reporters who had covered the Comrie news conference. I had also interviewed the New York lawmaker prior to his formal announcement. Below, are two views on the 'N' word that need to be shared here as well. The first is a release issued by Comrie which, with his staff's permission, I have re-published here. The second is from a rising reporter and commentator from a tradional Black College in the Deep South. So again, with the Grammy Award ceremonies now past, Comrie fired-off the following release that I share with you here.....



Comrie Calls On Grammys To Cease Nominating & Honoring The 'N-Word'


NEW YORK, NY- Councilmember Leroy Comrie (D-Queens) called upon the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS) to consider refraining from honoring artists who use the “N-word” in their songs. On Sunday, February 11, NARAS held their annual Grammy awards ceremony, in which several of the award winners and nominees had lyrics using the term.

“I am asking the governance board of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences to join me in sending a message to the music industry that hate shouldn’t be tolerated nor celebrated,” stated Councilmember Comrie. “The Grammy Awards are essentially a peer honor and its my hope that the board will use peer pressure to reject any future nominations that include the use of the N-word. This hate term carries so much historical pain for a great majority of the African American community and I can’t imagine that the Academy would honor artists or music that contained other racial slurs.”

This year’s Grammy winner in the category of “Best Rap Solo Performance” was Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. (best known by the stage name T.I.) for his song “What You Know,” which is featured on his Atlantic Records-distributed album “King”. The song features the following lyric:

“Give every ho a hug; (N-word) don’t show me mugs; cause you don’t know me cuz…”

This year’s Grammy winner in the category of “Best Rap Performance By A Duo or Group” was the song “Ridin” by Hakeem Seriki (best known by the stage name Krayzie Bone), which is featured on the Universal Records-distributed album “The Sound of Revenge”.

The song features the following lyrics:

“(N-word) see if they can see me lean; I’m tint so it ain’t easy to be seen…..(N-word) like who is datproducing; that’s the play n skillz when we out and cruising…..(n-word) been sippin on that hennessy and that gin again…”

“I want to be clear that it is my belief that these artists are merely pawns of the music companies that encourages them to use the n-word,” stated Councilmember Comrie. “If these record companies decided tomorrow they were no longer going to produce and distribute songs using the n-word, then clearly these artists would cease using it in their lyrics.