The trade-off of use the N word

If was a teacher in The United States and if i taught a class in which I treated the theme or the topic of African Americans, being a Caucasian teacher, I wouldn’t use the N word. I don’t think it is a bad word or it has a bad meaning, referring to the debate of the last class, my position or my way to see that word is not respectful, depending to the context. I would use it only if I have confidence with the person I would say to.

Anyway, I wouldn’t use the N word in the class, teaching “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” because of the context. First of all, is an academic context in which you probably won’t have the confidence with your students to call them “N**s”. And second, I prefer to use “African American” to refer to them.

I would continue teaching the class without skip the important topic, the deep of that book, or of the literature. I mean, I if would use “African American” I didn’t change the meaning of the story and I could continue with the class.

According to the debate between Ann Silvio and Byron Pitts, I think that even nowadays the word is controversial for the American society, and it don’t depends of the context or on the confidence you have to say it, but it depends on the people whether is he/she agreed to the use of the N word or not, whether he/she find it offensive, not respectful, violent or anything.