Dr. Laura and the N-word; etymology and the N-word

[Jonathan Lighter]

Dr. Laura Schlessinger suffers weird on-air psychoracial episode:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUdCk4AV5ag
She's mad about something, and it ain't just the N-word. You have to hear
the tape to tell just how mad: she barely lets the caller speak. Even by Dr.
Laura standards. (There may have been longer excerpts on CNN this morning.)

Note too how the YouTube commenters move quickly into antisemitic mode, like
Laura's a secret spokeswoman for the Elders. Nothing post-racial about the
blogosphere.

This morning,  CNN's  Tony Holmes asked an academic guest (sorry, I missed
his name) about the origin of the N-word. The etymological part of the
reply, the flaw in an otherwise informative commentary, was, "It's a
corruption of the word _Negro_."

JL



--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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