A Matter of a Word

Those who have seen “The Butler,” a slightly fictionalized account based on a real person, are treated to an encapsulated history of the modern American civil rights movement.  It does not mean we have shared the experience.  White people, especially the young, who use the word “nigger” in any context, let alone casually, are guilty of the most appalling historical and sociological ignorance.  While the less unaware may believe they are doing a Lenny Bruce on the word by taking away its significance, they are mistaken.  And the clueless who view it as a “term of endearment and friendship” are pathetically delusional.  While it MAY sometimes be those things BETWEEN African-Americans, the time is FAR off when it can be so used generally by whites, whose skin color being associated with historical and occasional contemporary oppressions of the worst kind, means that time might NEVER come.