I usually don’t self-censor and would normally just say the word as if I were citing from the American novel English profs know as “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” by the esteemed Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, who wrote famously of the character we would now have to call “N-word Jim.”
But such is the world we live in today when people fear the First Amendment, especially if it involves words that rhyme to a dance beat.
So for your sanitized protection, “N-word” it is.
Unless you are a courageous, heartfelt, shaved head, African-American male comedian named Larry Wilmore and then, by all means, say it, my brother.
And at the White House Correspondents Dinner this weekend, Wilmore did.
“When I was a kid I lived in a country where people couldn’t accept a black quarterback,” Wilmore said. “Now think about that: A black man was thought by his mere color not good enough to lead a football team. And now to live in your time, Mr. President, when a black man can lead the entire free world. Words alone do me no justice. So, Mr. President, I’m going to keep it a hundred. Yo Barry, you did it, my n—a.”
And with a fist-thump to the chest, it was “peace out” to the president, who responded in kind.
