[Ads-l] n-word update

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Tue Jun 23 03:22:21 UTC 2015


Neither the BBC nor (I noticed tonight) NBC has learned the difference between *using* a word and *mentioning* a word.  Broadcasters obviously need a remedial philosophy of language course.

LH

> On Jun 22, 2015, at 3:56 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Even the BBC World News crawl carried the headline, "Obama Uses N-Word."
> 
> CNN has already devoted many minutes to a discussion of the President's
> utterance. At one point the question was raised of whether it's appropriate
> for white journalists to report it.
> 
> The journalists' answer was yes, but that doesn't make the question any
> less dumb
> 
> And just now, Professor Cornel West has heatedly declared Mr. Obama "the
> first niggerized President."
> 
> A black person is "niggerized," he explained (again heatedly), if they're
> too afraid to speak the truth about racism.
> 
> JL
> 
> -- 
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> 
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