My name is Matthew Enfinger and I am the Editor-in-Chief of The George-Anne student newspaper. Today I’d like to introduce and share information on one of our latest projects. 

Over this past summer The George-Anne covered an issue that drew national attention to the Georgia Southern University’s campus, the “triggerish” incident. 

For those of you who may not know this incident occurred this past summer when two future GS roommates exchanged messages between each other. One roommate sent a message not meant for the other roommate that included a racial slur. If you’d like to read more about this incident click here. 

Since that day, The George-Anne has written articles regarding that incident and we have observed an underlying issue with a binary view on the usage of the racial slur, the n-word. 

Over the next four days, not counting Saturday and Sunday, from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m., The George-Anne will be conducting a tabling project that we hope will encourage polite and meaningful conversations about the usage of the n-word. 

Contrary to what this title may imply this will not be us speaking about the derogatory word but rather the opposite. We want to hear from you. 

Our plan for this project is to present a group of thought provoking questions about the term that faculty, staff and students can write down their thoughts on a blank flashcard. The cards will be anonymous and placed into a box.

The George-Anne’s video division, The George-Anne Studio, will be present as well if anyone would be willing to share there thoughts openly on camera. 

After the four days, we will collect all of the cards and will publish them on our website, thegeorgeanne.com, and on the next week’s paper. We hope that this project will paint a picture of what our campus community’s thoughts are regarding this term. 

This will not be an opportunity for anyone to use the word. In fact, we ask that you refrain from using the term in spoken word and when writing your thoughts on a flashcard. 

Diverse members of The George-Anne Media Group’s staff will be stationed at a table near the William’s Center on the Pedestrium. Again, all answers written on cards will remain anonymous. 

We encourage and invite the entire campus to take part in this project and hope to be apart of this important discussion for our campus community.

Matthew Enfinger, The George-Anne Editor-in-Chief, gaeditor@georgiasouthern.edu.