[Ads-l] RES: n-word update

Tue Jun 23 16:13:30 UTC 2015

Yes, he can only say it every other day.
DAD

Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:       David Barnhart <dbarnhart at HIGHLANDS.COM>
Subject:      Re: n-word update
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True, President Obama is black.  But isn't he also white?

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jun 23, 2015, at 10:56 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
wrote=
-----
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: n-word update
>
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-----
>=20
>>> On Jun 23, 2015, at 10:42 AM, Jonathan Lighter =3D
>> <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>> =3D20
>> The talking heads are still discussing it.
>> =3D20
>> The assertion may be gaining ground that it's OK for Obama to "use" =3D
> the
>> word because he's black, but no white person should ever be =3D
> "permitted" to
>> utter it - presumably even in reporting on what the President of the =3D
> United
>> States actually said.
>> =3D20
>> One white anchor called it "a word most of us haven't used in over a
>> decade."
>> =3D20
>> Presumably "use" means "mention" here as well.
>=20
> I noted that on the first page of today's Times, Obama is said to have
=3D=

> "invoked" the word in question.   I think Quine would have accepted that
=3D=

> as a near-synonym for "mentioned" rather than "used". But I concede the
=3D=

> distinction isn't usually made.  I'd have expected the talking heads to
=3D=

> have enlisted the services of Randall Kennedy, author of the mostly =3D
> well-received _Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word_ =3D
> (Pantheon, 2002),  hasn't been interviewed--unless he has been.=3D20
>=20
> LH
>> =3D20
>> Meanwhile, certain members of a rival political party are accusing =3D
> Obama of
>> borderline hypocrisy for "using" the word even as he supposedly =3D
> condemns
>> racism.
>> =3D20
>> Another topic of growing controversy is whether the flags of seven =3D
> Southern
>> states should be replaced because of some historical connection or =3D
> visual
>> resemblance to one or another Confederate flag. (The Mississippi flag
>> actually includes the rebel flag in its canton.)
>> =3D20
>> JL
>> =3D20
>>> On Tue, Jun 23, 2015 at 1:30 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>>> Subject:      Re: n-word update
>>> =3D20
>>> =3D
>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------=
=3D
> -----
>>> =3D20
>>> "That old black magic / Has them in its spell," I reckon.
>>> =3D20
>>> =3D20
>>> =3D20
>>> On Mon, Jun 22, 2015 at 5:12 PM, Jonathan Lighter =3D
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
>>>> -----------------------
>>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>>>> Subject:      Re: n-word update
>>>> =3D20
>>>> =3D20
>>> =3D
>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------=
=3D
> -----
>>>> =3D20
>>>> NPR found it necessary to "warn" listeners that they would actually
=3D=

> hear
>>>> the word spoken by the President.
>>>> =3D20
>>>> In an unrelated development, CNN reports that at least three =3D
> prominent
>>>> newscasters (Megyn Kelly of Fox and Jake Tappert and Anderson Cooper
=3D=

> of
>>>> CNN) have announced their resolve no longer to utter the name (or =3D
> even
>>> the
>>>> initials) of D----- R---.
>>>> =3D20
>>>> 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."
>>>> =3D20
>>>> JL
>>>> =3D20
>>>> On Mon, Jun 22, 2015 at 3:56 PM, Jonathan Lighter <
>>> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>> =3D20
>>>>> ---------------------- 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
>>>>> =3D20
>>>>> =3D20
>>>> =3D20
>>> =3D
>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------=
=3D
> -----
>>>>> =3D20
>>>>> Even the BBC World News crawl carried the headline, "Obama Uses
>>> N-Word."
>>>>> =3D20
>>>>> CNN has already devoted many minutes to a discussion of the =3D
> President's
>>>>> utterance. At one point the question was raised of whether it's
>>>> appropriate
>>>>> for white journalists to report it.
>>>>> =3D20
>>>>> The journalists' answer was yes, but that doesn't make the question
=3D=

> any
>>>>> less dumb
>>>>> =3D20
>>>>> And just now, Professor Cornel West has heatedly declared Mr. Obama
>>> "the
>>>>> first niggerized President."
>>>>> =3D20
>>>>> A black person is "niggerized," he explained (again heatedly), if
>>> they're
>>>>> too afraid to speak the truth about racism.
>>>>> =3D20
>>>>> JL
>>>>> =3D20
>>>>> --
>>>>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>>>> truth."
>>>>> =3D20
>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> The American Dialect Society - =3D
>
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> i5tf45f3NFz0HTWM78Gj4OtbJLF2HwiwgeTMM&e=3D3D=3D20
>>>>> =3D20
>>>> =3D20
>>>> =3D20
>>>> =3D20
>>>> --
>>>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
>>> truth."
>>>> =3D20
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> The American Dialect Society - =3D
>
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>>>> =3D20
>>> =3D20
>>> =3D20
>>> =3D20
>>> --
>>> -Wilson
>>> -----
>>> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
=3D=

> to
>>> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>>> -Mark Twain
>>> =3D20
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - =3D
>
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>>> =3D20
>> =3D20
>> =3D20
>> =3D20
>> --=3D20
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the =3D
> truth."
>> =3D20
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - =3D
>
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> i5tf45f3NFz0HTWM78Gj4OtbJLF2HwiwgeTMM&e=3D3D=3D20
>=20
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