19 Comments

But can you Get Down? While shaking it up a little?

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Fortunately, this will soon be legal, at least in Texas.

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As an aside, I've also had a lot of fun in the South with people who comfortably use kike and Jewboy and the ever-charming phrase "Jewing him down on the price" because it does not occur to them that a visitor might be a Jew. Embarrassing the fuck out of them in public is always enjoyable, and usually involves a gratuitous mention of Auschwitz.

Kid, think of the fun you will have for the rest of high school honing the skill of shaming assholes in front of their friends and teachers. This talent will stand you in good stead in many future life situations.

Here's my favorite Richard Pryor comment on the subject, describing his epiphany in a hotel lobby in Africa: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watc..." target="_blank">" rel="nofollow noopener" title="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzl7G9XhLxc">http://www.youtube.com/watc...

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...Amanda Bines or maybe pre-sobriety Lindsey Lohan?

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Maybe it's a generational thing. As a kid growing up in the '50s and '60s, I always heard plenty about it whenever I did something wrong, and I became familiar with the words, "No" and "You're grounded" quite early on. I don't know if growing up is any different for kids today that it was for me because I don't have any.

My parents never tolerated the "N" word and I never heard them utter it publicly or in private. They grew up in the 1920s and '30s, but both were quite dismissive of overt racists as well as those who were more subtle about it. I heard it plenty of times from my schoolmates though, and it always left me wondering "Why? Why that? Why the hate?" This was back in the '60s, when casual, thoughtless bigotry was much more commonly heard in everyday conversation. It always struck me as weird and unnecessary whenever I heard it growing up.

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I don't care how many rappers or black stand-up comedians say it. It is the most vile word in the English language that a white person, especially an American, can ever say, and even a passing acquaintance with US history ought to be enough to explain why. Regardless of when or in what context they say it, the "N" word only means one thing when white people utter it, and they/we all know it. No white American of any age can truthfully claim otherwise.

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Both comments have me scratching my head. I guess I must be a little slow on the uptake.

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I'll have to take your word for it that the two previous comments made some kind of sense.

No disrespect to either commenter though. It's not you, it's me. Really.

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I hate to use that euphemism too. But then, I hate that the whole odious matter still persists.

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I got into a cab around then with a friend, and the cabbie had a bunch of Pryor clips on cassette tape. We listened, roaring with laughter all the way across town, and stayed in the cab after we got to our address so we could hear the end. I still remember the silence that fell on all three of us when Pryor said, "You know why? Cause there aren't any." A transcendent moment, to be sure.

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"What a silly negro!"

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We must say neigh to oppression.

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My grad school advisor would say that you are the thinking kind of doctor rather than the cutting kind of doctor.

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Some of us are trying to change that. My daughter heard it in kindergarten and when she told us, we about went ballistic.

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Will you make hay of your detractors?

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Then we must hoof it to the nearest ballot box so that we may spur on change and not be saddled with slavery.

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