Words carry great weight and hold stories that span many people and many generations. No word has been more well known in American culture than the word nigger. The word was first introduced in 1442 when the Portuguese arrived in sub-Saharan Africa and referred to the people as “Negros”. This simple thought experiment might bring to light the effect this word has had: Take the amount of people this word has affected in a negative way and multiply it by the amount of time they have lived. The product will be the total number of years this word has had a collective negative effect on society. Let's look at the period of the transatlantic slave trade where people were kidnapped from their homes and taken to another continent simply because they were classified as “negros” due to the color of their skin. The transatlantic slave trade lasted from the 16th to the 19th century and displaced 11 million people, according to a database compiled in the late 1990s. The average lifespan of a person during this period was 40 years; that means this simple word has caused 440 million years of pain in 3 centuries. But this is not the extent of his story. It affected many more people in the years to come. The word has had a history of transformation. The word nigger was first used to describe people's skin color out of ignorance of any other description or identity and soon became a noun in English. The French word niger became negre and negress and also played a role in shaping the word negro. Some speculate that the word nigger comes from the mispronunciation of these words by southern whites. Regardless of its history, the word established itself as a derogatory name in the early 1800s. Even though many ethnic groups... middle of paper... pushed them underground, they no longer have any influence on them. They use it to show that it has no influence on them and that it actually means a good thing. But those who understand the weight this word has had in the world and how many people have been degraded and even died because of this word, know that under no circumstances will this word ever be acceptable in society and that people of color now feel their own oppression with its use. The word nigger has rationalized many abuses and misstreaments. It is a means of humiliating black people and its shameful availability in today's language of black people is very disappointing. This word captures so much hatred and racism more than any other. People of color who use this word are giving in to what it was created to do and perpetuating institutionalized racism and are giving in to what the white man has always wanted.