It’s safe to say that racism and the near 300 years of strife and conflict it caused our nation has been the most detrimental force in American history. In fact, any instance of one human oppressing another (for any reason) has the tendency to negatively effect whole countries. Discrimination stunts the growth of nations as well as individuals.

That’s probably why I enjoyed Django Unchained so much. In the Quentin Tarantino film, a freed-slave in antebellum America seeks vengeance on his wife’s white captors in spectacular, macabre fashion. I couldn’t help but be delighted at the sight of an oppressed individual filling his oppressors with lead.

I’ve seen most of Tarantino’s films, and the typical, over-the-top violence in this one was a little more than I could handle. But as I left the theater, other patrons seemed to be concerned with another aspect of the film.

The phrase: “the n-word” seemed to be the phrase on the lips of the primarily white audience (that would never dare say the word.) I soon came to find that they weren’t the only ones concerned with the 109 uses of the most abhorred word in America today.

The film’s content drew controversy when legendary black filmmaker Spike Lee publicly stated that he would not see the film and instigated a national conversation on the n-word.

So should I be worried when the word didn’t seem to bother me? Of course I recognized its excessive usage, but I wasn’t particularly vexed by it. So why am I so jaded to the n-word?

I believe the answer can be found in the halls of Grady, where a word once used to subjugate a race is now thrown around, echoing through the hallways.

Oprah wouldn’t be happy. In an interview with rapper Jay-Z, the female black icon famously stated that: “When I hear the n-word, I still think about every black man who was lynched … and the n-word was the last thing he heard.”

So I guess no one should say the n-word. Under any circumstance… ever.

But through its notoriety, has the word gained more power? In a stand-up special, outspoken Atlanta comedian Donald Glover argues that everyone (including white people) should start using the n-word.

“Like, everybody’s got to start saying it. Everyone, like, white people, you guys have got to start saying the “n” word. You guys got to start saying it,” Glover quipped. “We will lose some of you in the process. Not all of you will make it home. But you’ll be dying for a good cause. It’ll be great.”

Though he’s most likely just being facetious, it’s a legitimate idea. I’d call it the “Voldemort Logic,” the more tabooed the word, the more powerful and hateful in nature it becomes.

So simultaneously, everyone should say the n-word and no one should say it… But that doesn’t quite work.

So what now?

The manner in which the “n-word conundrum” can be solved is similar to that of how the issue of race in America should be handled. The double-standard of “whom can say that word” must be abolished. The presence of the disgusting word must of course be acknowledged (in the manner Oprah described) but for an entirely different reason.

Words assigned to different groups of people, particularly slurs, must be removed from modern language. But not because they offend people. The true consequence of their use is in their ability to naturally segregate and this is the essence of racial prejudice.

There can be no separation intentional or unintentional, good-natured or bad.

As long as there is controversy over a film using a word in historical context (no matter how despised), there will be racism.

But hell, I’m a middle-class white kid. What do I know about race relations? It’s a tough sell.

At this point in our history, if all people regardless of status or race can’t have a discussion on a word that has effected the course of our nation, then what can we do?