Answer: What I have mentioned above is mostly a collection of my personal opinions; each of us has our own style and these vary widely, so no one can answer for you.
It’s all about personal preference!
In the current situation, things are very different.
What I had mentioned above was a more personal discussion for myself, to try and determine whether the language did have a certain power that made it right for me. In other words, it was a discovery process.
Now that we have agreed that we are going to put a lot more effort into this project, I’ve been getting into your website and learning the language from a lot of the articles you have on your site. The problem I’ve found is that a lot of the discussion seems to be about a completely different topic (which I will not name, as the blog’s topic seems to be expanding too much) and all that has grabbed my attention is the use of the “n” word and the subsequent “n**ger” (as if the two terms are somehow mutually exclusive, something I’ve found to be a completely false representation of what you are trying to convey in your articles).
Many people talk of a total revamp, or a total overhaul (even just removing the whole language) which I am more in favor of; I am even more in favor of just cleaning up the grammar and removing the “flavor” from the “language”. I’ve had a lot of other fellow “immersionists” as you put it, try to get me to join their camp, claiming that it’s okay to use the word “n**ger” even if it does make sense, as long as it’s with a big context, like having a conversation about race relations. The thing is, I have a hard time justifying that. I see no connection between those two things at all, other than a very personal situation, and perhaps that one word serves a useful purpose in that context. So even if I am of appropriate social place and the word comes from some place of understanding and thought, why would I want to use it if I can not use the same words with a different but equally profound meaning?
And if it is completely abhorrent and offensive to use the word when it doesn’t serve that purpose, it is just as abhorrent and offensive to not use the word when it does. The issue I am having with people I regard as strong proponents of the language is that they are doing it in a way that feels pretty hostile to me (as a speaker), and I’m not sure what the reason is. My gut is telling me to just put up my hand and say “I’m gonna take the first step and say this. My reason for rejecting the use of the word ‘n**ger’ is exactly that: it’s a bigoted thing to do, it’s a symbol of prejudice, it’s inhumane, and I have no place using it at all. I cannot even be sensitive towards the situation, because I don’t use that word to make myself feel better about anything. There is no meaning in that word for me.