Nigger. Over the years, this word has been an assault -- scathingly dehumanizing -- against a race of people in America. Meanwhile, those very people have been trying to settle on a term that really describes who they are: black, Afro-American, African-American, people of color....

However, a resurgence of what many now refer to, with reticence and distaste, as the "N- word" has been ushered in with the new millennium. Newly coined as "nigga," it has been revived, so to speak, by a contingent of its targets: rap and hip-hop musicians, a contemporary substream of black culture. Emanating from this source, the N-word has circulated incessantly, and very publicly, among black youth and young adults.

What has all of this got to do with adult basic education? Some of us "people of color," staff and students at WAITT House, a multi-cultural, diverse ABE school in Roxbury, have obtained a special grant to investigate the possibilities of the N-word as a focus of unity, rather than the prong of division it has become among black generations. We hope to bring together a representative group -- youth, parents, rap and hip hop professionals, veterans of the Civil Rights era and seniors -- to explore: what differences, overt and subtle, should we perceive between "a nigger" and "a nigga," and through this approach, what possibilities might there be for bringing about more intra-racial compatibility. Watch for research results in future issues of Field Notes.

Louis Marbre-Cargill has taught for several years in Massachusetts public schools and now teaches ABE at WAITT House.