Morehouse College’s Next Step in Eliminating the N-word: As a first-year student at Morehouse College, Alex Bibb, 21, said the N-word every other sentence. Now a graduating senior, the word has nearly disappeared from Bibb’s vocabulary.
Morehouse is hoping to duplicate Bibb’s development from boisterous adolescent to trenchant Morehouse man with its new “Free Zone” campaign, focused on eliminating the use of cursing, sagging pants and the N-word from residence halls. Beginning this semester, every dormitory is a designated “Nigga” Free Zone, No Saggin Zone, and No Cursing Zone.
“We are not making it mandatory that you cannot say the N-word or curse or sag your pants. We want people to have an understanding of how these things affect the community,” says William Tweedle, first-year resident director of Hubert Hall at Morehouse and founder of the “Free Zone” program.
Disturbed by the frequency in which residents used the N-word and other expletives in casual conversation, Tweedle initiated the “N-Free Zone” campaign at Bowie State University in Maryland in 2004. Faculty, parents and administrators extolled the program, Tweedle says.
