I’ve been creating this project for almost a year now, and yet it still doesn’t seem as if it is even close to being complete, because I’ve decided to cover a topic that has been debated several times over – without any form of resolution.  I’ve decided to tackle the over usage of the word “nigger”, because of the overwhelming number of African Americans who find the need to promote this word as a form of identification for themselves, and the culture that they belong to.  So many movies produced by African Americans have been riddled with the word.  So many rappers have done the same, and it’s all done under the idea that it is a term that is an acceptable way that our culture interacts.  I set off to prove them wrong, but at the same time I found that as diverse as the outward appearances are of the culture, so are the opinions about this term, and its existence in the American language.

I didn’t want my project to be about me, and my opinions.  As tempting as it was to take this topic, and create work that criticized others for making use of it I just couldn’t do it, because this word that was created long ago for the culture as a whole still exist to represent that same culture, and not an individual. What I chose to do for this project was to gather a diverse number of blacks as representatives of the culture.  I needed the diversity, and the portraits are to represent that diversity.  The text represents the diversity of the culture as well.  It was created to be viewed as a portrait, and like the portraits they were designed to allow viewers the opportunity to accept the images that are given without providing information that would allow one to stereotype ones opinion based on the environment that they live.

While gathering all elements I quickly realized that this wasn’t going to be the easiest project to create.  Even though I was creating simple photographic and textual images many people were apprehensive about discussing the word. I believe that in many cases it was because it put many African Americans in the forefront to be judged, and scrutinized for continuing to make use of a racial epithet.  There were quite a few who did participate by either lending me their faces, their words, or both.  I decided that no matter what someone was willing to give that diversity, and cultural connection would still be beneficial to the project.  The fact that anyone was willing to sit down with me, and participate in a project that discussed an issue such as this was greatly appreciated, because there were many times when some weren’t willing, and then there were those who just simply walked away. 

All the elements that make up "Lets Discuss the Word "Nigger"" were created as a way to form a discussion.