Ragtime and coded slurs in the Chicago Tribune

[Barbara Need]

Wilmette, IL (a Chicago suburb) has decided not to stage _Ragtime_ in
one of the town's parks, having just discovered the plethora of
offensive words in the script (most notably the N-word)--they were
concerned that people in the park who were not attending the play
would be offended. The production has been under way since January.
(http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-ragtime-28-both-
jun28,0,795774.story and http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/
columnists/chi-trice_30jun30,0,7176019.column).

And there was an article on today's front page about "coded slurs".
i..e., ways of being offensive without (!?) being obvious. The
article referenced _reggin" (read it backwards), the reference by Fox
to Michelle Obama as Barack's "baby mama" (discussed here) and a
situation in which an Indian was attacked by a co-worker with
learning disabilities because the latter believed the former was
Osama bin Laden's brother! (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/
nationworld/chi-race-codewordsjun30,0,7093296.story)

Barbara

Barbara Need
Chicago

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