Ed, sorry about the girl who got beat up over a white using the N-word. Come on, the black people use it 50 times an hour. It’s the white people who push not to use it. I hear the N-word more from African-Americans than anyone else. Have you listened to rap music? It’s a shame, it’s a bad word, but everybody uses it and it’s never going to stop. It only comes out when somebody black is offended by it. Everybody has been to school, everybody has been on the street. It’s you people in the media who play it up. It’s a joke. Same with using Nazi — now it’s a law you can’t draw a swastika in school.

Language Barrier

I would guess it is still a big deal to any person of color who has lived in a time and a place where the word was directly tied to oppressive hatred backed by acts of lethal violence. I guess if we’re looking for a ruling on all this I’d rather hear from elders — and not base widespread sensibilities on the modern rapper lexicon. —Ed. Note