.png)
WaPo: 'N' Word More Prevalent Than Ever
Dave Sheinin and Krissah Thompson, Nov. 9, 2014, Washington Post
This season, the National Football League is attempting the impossible, a reasoned but dubious mission that has already tripped up an institution as venerable as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, municipalities as large as New York City and countless parents of teenagers across the land. The goal: banning the n-word within the chalk-lined borders of its purview.
As with the previous attempts, the NFL’s “zero tolerance” policy — which gives referees leeway to issue a 15-yard penalty for a first offense and ejection for a second — comes with good intentions: to establish a field of play free of the most racially charged word in American history.
Read more: www.washingtonpost.com
This season, the National Football League is attempting the impossible, a reasoned but dubious mission that has already tripped up an institution as venerable as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, municipalities as large as New York City and countless parents of teenagers across the land. The goal: banning the n-word within the chalk-lined borders of its purview.
As with the previous attempts, the NFL’s “zero tolerance” policy — which gives referees leeway to issue a 15-yard penalty for a first offense and ejection for a second — comes with good intentions: to establish a field of play free of the most racially charged word in American history.
Read more: www.washingtonpost.com
Follow Larry Elder on Twitter
"Like" Larry Elder on Facebook
Both Blacks and Whites use this term, and I find it offensive, period. I've heard from young Black people who say they've made the "N" word a term of endearment, or taken the negative connotations out of it, but get angry if a White person uses the "N" word, because then it is an insult. That logic is tortured. I know that the meaning of words change over time, but I grew up during a time, (1965) when a White neighbor patiently explained to me that we could not play together because her parents didn't let her play with "N----ers". As for Whites who say Blacks should not be insulted by the use of the word by others, because, after all, it's used so ubiquitously in the Black community, I say, out of respect for those of us who think the "N" word is a horrible racial slur, please don't use it. It's offensive. Certainly having influential organizations like the NFL ban its use will help to stigmatize it, but it's a free country where boorish behavior continues to saturate the culture.
ReplyDelete