Vanderbilt students filled Flynn Auditorium on Thursday afternoon to take part in "The ‘N-Word' Discussion Panel,' an open forum on topics concerning the use of the word "nigger" in today's society.

The event, which was sponsored by the Black Law Students Association, the Organization of Black Graduate and Professional Students and the Thurgood Marshall Legal Activist Society, featured Vice Chancellor David Williams, Director of the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center Dr. Frank Dobson and law professor Robert Belton.

According to Candice Smith, a third-year law student and moderator of the discussion, the BLSA decided to hold the event in light of Michael Richardson's use of racial epithets in his act at a Los Angeles comedy club last November and a recent issue of Ebony magazine in which celebrities revealed their feelings about the word.

Much of the discussion dealt with the legality of the word.

"I would say basically that the mere ‘I feel uncomfortable with you using it,' I don't think trumps the First Amendment," Williams said.

"I think the First Amendment, whether one likes it or not, sort of protects the fact that I can say things to you that are uncomfortable to you," Williams said. "But the question is do they bring me to the point or should they bring me to the point of some degree of violence. That's my legal analysis."

Williams added that while he did not agree with the use of the word, he does not see banning it as a practical solution.

The panelists also addressed the various contexts in which the word is popularly used.

Williams said the fact that some groups of people are allowed to say the word and others are not sends a confusing message out to the public.

"Its (appropriateness) depends unfortunately in our country on the company in which it is used and who it is used by," Williams said. "So to the degree that you might say to another African-American, and I'm going to use the word, ‘You my nigga,' we don't seem to have a problem with that.
But on the other hand, if I were to walk into my office in Kirkland and the chancellor, who I work for, would have come in and said, ‘Dave, how's my nigga doing today?' we're gonna have a problem."

Belton said he thought an underlying question ran through the entire panel discussion.

"Can you defang this word?" Belton asked. "Some say yes, some say no, and I think that's inherent ... in the discussion here now."

While some students were uncomfortable using the word, others felt it important to use it in the context of the conversation.

"I think that since we all came here for the purpose of discussing this particular word, I think it is appropriate to use the word itself rather than referring to it as ‘that word' or ‘the n-word,'" said Renauld Clarke, a first-year law student.

Toward the end of the discussion, Dobson presented the audience with a blank contract he found on a Web site called abolishthenword.com. The contract was one that challenges potential signers to stop using the word.

"Ironically, this notion, this movement to abolish the word, I think would be derailed by black people," Dobson said. "That there are so many blacks that would not be able to sign this contract even though this would be out there. I think that ultimately we would be the reason that the word would not be banned. And that may be tragic."