"critter"

[Wilson Gray]

On Sat, Aug 27, 2011 at 1:39 PM, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net> wrote:
> There is one instance in which a race-restrictive sense is superficially
> apparent: _"These critters an't like white folks …."_, but I have the
> impression that the word itself is still nonspecific here.

Even if it could be shown that, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the cited
instance was meant as a racist slur against the innocent colored, how
could that possibly be in the way of demonstrating that, as used
TODAY, the word _critter_ is a "racist" slur?

Well, if _moist_ can be made into an obscenity merely as the
consequence of The Man's deciding that it is, what can prevent
_critter_ from in like manner being made into a "racist" slur, e.g. "a
derogatory term used in the United States by Americans of European
ancestry in spite or in contempt of the American Negro."

To paraphrase Pryor, "Is that 'lexicographic' enough for your ass?"

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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