"The N-word on the 4th of July"

Through her article, "The N-word on the 4th of July," Brittney Cooper explains to her readers the pain, humiliation, embarrassment, and anger that she endured through her experiences with racial slurs. She speaks of two particular instances in which she was put down and called the N-word by those of opposite races. The first time she was ever called this hateful word was when she was just a little girl, then again while she was onboard a plane heading home on the 4th of July. After overseeing a text message being sent by her neighbor on the plane regarding her as a "fat nigger," Cooper was distraught. The woman sending the text message was a middle-aged white woman with a family, whom Cooper had never met nor spoke with. After seeing the message, Cooper's past emotions emerged and in her article she writes about feelings that she was once again experiencing, "...the foreboding sense that something was wrong not with anything I had said or done, but simply with me. Immediately I was hyper-aware – looking around, feeling marked, wondering if others find my large, dark-skinned body as distasteful as my seatmate did". 

The main purpose of this article was to address the issue of racism and how hurtful such words can be to those of any age or size. Cooper knew she had to speak out, not only for her own sake, but in order for others (the woman's children included) to recognize how ignorant it is to use racial slurs. She then took action into her own hands and confronted the woman by telling her how cruel her words were. We can only hope, after reading this article, that individuals will be given insight into the lives of others and become more respectful and courteous of those around them.