This letter is in response to a friend who submitted a great video to our site. However, the powerful message, lyrics and images were set against the constant use of the word "Niggah" at the end of most of the verses and for the reasons given below, in our letter we therefore declined to show it on our site. Let us know your feelings on this matter!.........


Thanks for the video, which in truth is awesome in parts. However, the injudicious use of the word "Niggah" is out of place in a video eschewing peace. There seems to be a growing misuse of this word and it's seemingly justified because it's now black people using it instead of white. But it means it's creeping back into white vocabulary too and it does nothing to harmonise race relations in our humble opinion. We have imported a lot of USA black and white ghetto speak and bling philosophy, mostly to the detriment of our inner cities, where previously, better role models were in place. Now we have virtual police no go areas in some parts and more unlicensed guns than ever amongst a growing gang community whose role models are the rappers and R&B exponents from USA and now our own emergent "ghetto" culture.

The other sadness is that this lack of respect and recognition of a fellow Spirit, black or white, with terminology that should be consigned to history, actually demeans our service to each other and thereby our ability to recognise each other as fellow travellers in light. What inspiration or dignity do the words "niggah", ""motherf#####", "honky", "bitch", "ho" and other such ill considered terms bring to the human condition? (Although, I must stress only the word "niggah" was used in this particular video). And therein lies the answer...

If I used any of those terms in reference to you, would you be offended? We have friends from all over the world and we can't speak for them all, but I'm sure there are enough who resonate to our thinking on this, that's why they linked to us in many cases. And finally, at least half of our friends are women and we have great difficulty in balancing equal rights for all when women are being referenced in this manner via other "ghetto" music, which to our thinking is demeaning and disrespectful.

With that in mind, please accept our blessings dear lady!
And thank you for engendering this debate, which is always a good way to agitate for change...

Love and Light to you,

CHI-QI crew