I agree. But Ill get this out the way first, im dominican born and raised in NYC. I grew up naturally saying it and no not because i "wanted to be down
", its just the way me, my friends, and family that were close in age spoke. My neighborhood is a mix of dominican, rican, black, and a bit of mexican. We all grew up on hip hop in the hood and it just was what it was. There was no racial undertone behind it, we can be referring to the chinese delivery boy n be like " can you believe this nikka asked for a bigger tip
". But never once in my life did i, or did anyone else i know get "checked" for it because no one blinked twice or think about it. It was a afterthought, growing up in the 90s in nyc it was just part of the vocabulary . Espcially if you were dominican, we come in every single color the majority of us darkskin. I do have vague memories of mexicans and super light skin puerto ricans getting checked for it though, its something i barely recall but i feel like definitely happened
Now as 30 + year old, i am 100% more consious of saying it. I see more people being offended by it than ever before and the word isnt that important to me to beef with somebody for it. Does it come out naturally for me sometimes? Absolutely it does and it probably always will. But ive noticed ive switched that word for "dude" since it has the same meaning in that context. "My dude", "that dude over there.." etc
it ain't workin my flip flopped friend.
