I admit to knowing very little about shanties. And I think this music genre is much more widely known among White Americans and than Black Americans {and I wonder if this is also true about White British people and Black British people}.

Furthermore, I believe that if African Americans have even heard the term "shanties", we don't realize that at least some of these songs could be considered part of our roots music.

However, even if African Americans become familiar with shanties, if these songs contain the "N-word" ,then I believe that will be a definite turn off from the specific songs and the song genre for many of us. I also believe that the use of the N-word in rap music can't be used as an reasons to condone that word in contemporary performances of shanties since one reason why many African Americans dislike rap is because of the use of that term.

With that introductory comment, I'll start off with a link this website http://www.aandc.org/research/shanties.html that provides this information about the origin of the word "shanty":

Sea Chanties

Shanties are work songs with oft-repeated refrains sung to a rhythm that would coordinate the job at hand, heaving, hauling, pushing or turning. They must not be confused with ballads - many of which were sung at sea or by sailors in harbour - nor even with other fo'c'sle songs; unless they were shipboard work songs, they are not sea shanties

To recap the theories on the origins of the word:
1. French "chantez" - either Norman French, Modern or 'Gumbo' dialect of New Orleans.

2. English "chant" or Old English "chaunt"

3. The drinking Shanties of the Gulf ports (Mobile in particular) where black and white would congregate. Note that this is slightly less tenuous than 6. below, as, despite the non "musical" origin of the word, many coloured sailors went to sea from this area during the C19th and made reputations as singers of work songs.

4. Much the same as 3. - in Australia a "shanty" is a public-house, especially an unlicensed one (1864) and to shanty is to carouse or get drunk. Again, during the C19th, many seagoing shanteymen came from Australia and few people are likely to deny that drinking and singing (and sailors!) often go together.

5. Boat songs of the old French voyageurs of the New World, known as chansons (L.A. Smith, C.F. Smith)

6. The lumbermen's songs which often start with "Come all ye brave shanty-boys" a shantyman here being a lumberman or a backwoodsman. However, it must be noted here that the derivation is systematically given as from the French, via French-Canadian, "chantier" - a work site or workshop, and not from "chanter" - to sing. I therefore find the extension "worshop/lumberman" to "deep sea shipboard songs" quite tenuous.

7. West Indian Negroes used to move their shanties (huts built on stilts) by gangs pulling with a singing leader perched on the roof - he was the shanty man.

8. Finally, one that can be laid to rest: it does not come from the "chanter" of the bagpipes - fiddles, concertinas and accordions are bad enough to keep in shape at sea, a set of pipes is impossible - believe me, I've tried it!

-snip-

That article includes this statement:
"There is no proof one way or the other whether French "to sing" or Negro huts were the origins of the word - probably never will be "proven".