[Ads-l] n-word update

[Laurence Horn]

> On Jun 23, 2015, at 10:42 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> The talking heads are still discussing it.
> 
> The assertion may be gaining ground that it's OK for Obama to "use" the
> word because he's black, but no white person should ever be "permitted" to
> utter it - presumably even in reporting on what the President of the United
> States actually said.
> 
> One white anchor called it "a word most of us haven't used in over a
> decade."
> 
> Presumably "use" means "mention" here as well.

I noted that on the first page of today's Times, Obama is said to have "invoked" the word in question.   I think Quine would have accepted that as a near-synonym for "mentioned" rather than "used". But I concede the distinction isn't usually made.  I'd have expected the talking heads to have enlisted the services of Randall Kennedy, author of the mostly well-received _Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word_ (Pantheon, 2002),  hasn't been interviewed--unless he has been. 

LH
> 
> Meanwhile, certain members of a rival political party are accusing Obama of
> borderline hypocrisy for "using" the word even as he supposedly condemns
> racism.
> 
> Another topic of growing controversy is whether the flags of seven Southern
> states should be replaced because of some historical connection or visual
> resemblance to one or another Confederate flag. (The Mississippi flag
> actually includes the rebel flag in its canton.)
> 
> JL
> 
> On Tue, Jun 23, 2015 at 1:30 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: n-word update
>> 
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>> "That old black magic / Has them in its spell," I reckon.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Mon, Jun 22, 2015 at 5:12 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Subject:      Re: n-word update
>>> 
>>> 
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> 
>>> NPR found it necessary to "warn" listeners that they would actually hear
>>> the word spoken by the President.
>>> 
>>> In an unrelated development, CNN reports that at least three prominent
>>> newscasters (Megyn Kelly of Fox and Jake Tappert and Anderson Cooper of
>>> CNN) have announced their resolve no longer to utter the name (or even
>> the
>>> initials) of D----- R---.
>>> 
>>> I seem to recall an interviewee after the Newtown massacre telling a
>>> journalist she would not utter the name of killer-suicide Adam Lanza
>>> because "It gives him power."
>>> 
>>> JL
>>> 
>>> On Mon, Jun 22, 2015 at 3:56 PM, Jonathan Lighter <
>> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>>> -----------------------
>>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>>>> Subject:      n-word update
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>> 
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> 
>>>> 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."
>>>> 
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> The American Dialect Society - https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=AwIBaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=W1abXozX0ONeIpXwTsww9ve2OYBA5Z2zZi1kszctSTM&s=BfrtL3i5tf45f3NFz0HTWM78Gj4OtbJLF2HwiwgeTMM&e= 
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --
>>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>> truth."
>>> 
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=AwIBaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=W1abXozX0ONeIpXwTsww9ve2OYBA5Z2zZi1kszctSTM&s=BfrtL3i5tf45f3NFz0HTWM78Gj4OtbJLF2HwiwgeTMM&e= 
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> -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
>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=AwIBaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=W1abXozX0ONeIpXwTsww9ve2OYBA5Z2zZi1kszctSTM&s=BfrtL3i5tf45f3NFz0HTWM78Gj4OtbJLF2HwiwgeTMM&e= 
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.americandialect.org&d=AwIBaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=wFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=W1abXozX0ONeIpXwTsww9ve2OYBA5Z2zZi1kszctSTM&s=BfrtL3i5tf45f3NFz0HTWM78Gj4OtbJLF2HwiwgeTMM&e= 

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org