Words carry great weight and contain 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 people as "Negroes." This simple thought experiment might shed light on the effect this word has had: take the number of people this word has negatively affected and multiply it by the length of their lives. The product will be the total number of years that this word has had a collective negative effect on society. Let's just 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 "negro" based on the color of their skin. The transatlantic slave trade lasted from the 16th to the 19th centuries and, according to a database compiled in the late 1990s, resulted in the displacement of 11 million people. The average lifespan of a person at that time was 40 years; this means that this single word caused 440 million years of pain over 3 centuries. But that is not the limit of his story. This affected many more people in the years to come. The word has had a history of transformation. The word negro was first used to describe the color of people's skin out of ignorance of any other description or identity and quickly became a noun in English. The French word niger became nègre and negresse and also played a role in the formation of the word nègre. Some believe that the word negro comes from a mispronunciation of these words by Southern whites. Whatever its history, the word emerged as a derogatory name in the early 1800s. Although many ethnic groups...... middle of paper......t and pushed them into the ground 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 for those who understand the weight that this word has had on 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 are now arguing over their own oppression with its use. The word negro has rationalized so many abuses and misappropriations. It is a way to demean black people and its shameful presence in the current language of people of color is very disappointing. This word reflects 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 giving in to what the white man always wanted..