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sharing an experience from this evening feeling proud of myself while playing pickup basketball today, one of my teammates was disrespectful towards me. i told them to chill and expressed my thoughts on the benefits of being supportive of one another, especially considering we’re on the same team things escalated and they continued trying to put me down i was mostly ignoring it but when i heard them say the ‘n’ word multiple times, i shouted back a few times “i don’t appreciate u using the ‘n’ word” that, as well as the game starting back up, seemed to de-escalate the situation and we mostly moved on proud of myself for having the courage to voice criticism of their choice of words even tho it was scary for context: they said that word in the past on two other occasions — same environment, during pickup basketball games — and i felt regret and guilt for not expressing criticism on those occasions; also, this person is not black, and thus, does not experience racism, discrimination, and hardship based on that identity, and therefore is not entitled to use that word, especially considering its history and impact sharing to encourage others to express themselves and to speak out against injustice and wrongdoing, even when it’s hard it was hard for me because i don’t like to engage in conflict w people who are behaving unreasonably, and because i occasionally hold back due to fear of how ppl might respond to the way i talk (stuttering) let’s keep rising y’all 📶🤞