NY Times: "In Bid to Ban Racial Slur, Blacks Are on Both Sides"

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No one reads the OED? No reporter can call? Do high schools really have  
programs on the origins of just this one word?
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_http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/nyregion/25nword.html?pagewanted=1&ref=nyre
gion_ 
(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/nyregion/25nword.html?pagewanted=1&ref=nyregion)         
In Bid to Ban Racial Slur, Blacks Are on Both Sides
 
By _ANAHAD O’CONNOR_ 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/anahad_oconnor/index.html?inline=nyt-per) 
Published: February 25, 2007
(...)

 
Web sites like _abolishthenword.com_ (http://abolishthenword.com/) , founded 
by Brooklyn natives Jill  and Kovon Flowers, and _theunitedvoices.org_ 
(http://theunitedvoices.org/)  are devoted to eliminating it, and  some high schools 
in New York and New Jersey have created programs to teach the  origins of the 
word and make students pledge not to say it.  
Most of these efforts explain that the word was coined by slave traders 400  
years ago to degrade blacks. The programs also tell of its deep associations  
with violence, segregation laws and injustice.  
(...)
The word, in all its variations, stems from “niger,” which is Latin for  
black. One of the earliest recorded instances of its use in North America was in  
1619, when a Jamestown colonist, John Rolfe, noted in his diary the arrival 
of a  Dutch man-of-war with 20 African captives, or “negars,” according to 
Jabari  Asim, author of a new book, “The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn’t, 
and Why”  (Houghton Mifflin).  
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(OED)
1555 _R. EDEN_ (http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-e.html#r-eden)   tr. 
Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe  Worlde f. 239v, They are not 
accustomed to  eate such meates as doo the Ethiopians or Negros.
1568  _T. HACKET_ (http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-h.html#t-hacket)   
tr. A. Thevet New Found Worlde xxiii. 38 Also ye Neigers eat these Lezards, 
so do the Indians  of America.  
 
1574  _E. HELLOWES_ 
(http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-h2.html#e-hellowes)   tr. A. de Guevara Familiar Epist. (1584) 389 The Massgets  bordering 
upon the Indians, and the Nigers of Aethiop [Sp. los negros en  Ethiopia], 
bearing witnes. 1584  _R.  SCOT_ 
(http://dictionary.oed.com/help/bib/oed2-s.html#r-scot)  Discouerie Witchcraft  VII. xv.  153 A skin like a Niger. 1608  A. 
MARLOWE  Let. 22 June in E. India Co.  Factory Rec. (1896) I. 10 The King and 
People [of  ‘Serro Leona’] Niggers, simple and  harmless.

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