Murder by Metaphor

[Jefferson23]

**Warning: This column contains language and images that many people will find deeply offensive. Many people, but not enough.





Just so we're clear: The word is "Nigger."

That's the word that was launched last weekend at fellow human beings -- and, incidentally, members of the United States Congress -- as the voting neared on reforming the nation's health-care system.

The same word that's been shouted, whispered, hissed and hurled for generations -- a word that dehumanizes and intimidates. A word that's intended to dehumanize and intimidate. A word as vile, as hate-filled, as any the English language has excreted over the many centuries.

And still, somehow, alive and well in ours.

I mention the actual word, the word itself, because the current substitute doesn't come near to capturing the noxiousness of the original. "The N-word" -- that's how we in polite society are expected to refer to it, when we're obliged to refer to it.

"He said 'the N-word,'" we're supposed to say. "He called him 'the N-word'!"

Not good enough. Which is to say, not bad enough. Not nearly bad enough. It makes the word sound childlike, like something from a schoolyard. Poopy-head. Stinky-pants.

"Mustn't say 'the N-word,' boys and girls."

But the poison's been extracted. The word has been cute-ified.

remainder in full: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rick-horowitz/murder-by-metaphor_b_513004.html

[tavalon]

1. When I was thirteen, I went to live with my grandparents in Florida

When I was 14, my grandfather referred to the black people who lived down the road as "them niggers". I may have been young and completely reliant on my grandparents to keep a roof over my head but that didn't stop me from telling my grandfather I never wanted to hear him say that word again. And you know what? At least in front of me, he never again used that word.

[Jefferson23]

2. That is the reaction that is necessary to confront those who use

the word, and how great that you drew a line in the sand. Otherwise, the reference becomes tolerable

The Republican politicians who are tolerating the use of racism in order to gain a perceived political advantage
need to be confronted. Sadly, I too often hear on the MSM the excuse that "both side" are doing it.