Clinton 'Grateful' for Black Award, Mum on 'N'-word Charges

Ex-President Bill Clinton said Saturday he was 'grateful' to be the first white man to be inducted into Arkansas' Black Hall of Fame - but said nothing about a recording of his brother using the 'N'-word, or the accounts from associates that he himself repeatedly used the anti-black racial slur.

In an interview taped before the awards ceremony, Clinton told Sunday's NBC "Today Show" he wanted to thank black Arkansans for giving him "a lifetime of education in the importance of mutual respect, reconciliation and recognizing our common humanity."

The ex-president said the lessons in racial tolerance he learned as a small boy in Arkansas were responsible for "a lot of what I was able to do as president for peace in Africa and Northern Ireland and the Middle East," as well as other peace accords that have recently come unraveled.

"They looked beyond the color of my skin into the content of my heart," Clinton added, without making comment on allegations that he repeatedly used a racial slur as governor of Arkansas to describe a Little Rock civil rights activist.

"He didn't just use the 'N' word. He took the Lord's name in vain, condemned the man to hell, and, if you get my drift, said 'G - D - N', not just the 'N' word," alleged Dallas, Tx., attorney Dolly Kyle Browning in an Oct. 1999 interview with Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes."

"He would just start out a conversation by saying, 'That G - D - N....' And I knew exactly who he was talking about," she added.

Browning had a long term extramarital affair with Clinton that lasted until just before he became president. Her account was corroborated by Arkansas state trooper Larry Patterson, who served as Clinton's bodyguard from 1986 through 1992.

"There's a gentleman who lives here in Little Rock, Arkansas by the name of 'Say' McIntosh," Patterson told "Hannity & Colmes." "He's a black activist."

"And anytime Bill Clinton was in and around Little Rock Mr. McIntosh would show up and put out leaflets on every car within a five block area. He would have face-to-face confrontations with Gov. Clinton. And many times after those confrontations we would be in the car leaving and he would refer to Mr. McIntosh using the 'N' word."

Adding substance to the charges, an audio recording that surfaced in the mid-1990's suggests that racial slurs were a regular part of Clinton family conversations.

On the tape, Clinton's brother Roger discusses an altercation between one of his friends and a local Little Rock African-American teen.

"Some junior high n- - - -r kicked Steve's ass while he was trying to help his brothers out; junior high or sophomore in high school. Whatever it was, Steve had the n- - - -r down. However it was, it was Steve's fault. He had the n- - - -r down, he let him up. The n- - - -r blindsided him."

The Clinton racial slur allegations have been covered by the Fox News Channel, talk radio and the Internet, but have otherwise been ignored by the establishment press.

[I have found that, as a rule, if one child in a family uses the "N" word (esp. with the apparent ease that Roger shows), the rest of the family was probably NOT raised up with lessons of racial tolerance...my BS detector is twitchin' big time over this story !]

This is not in defense of Clinton, just to disagree with your statement of not being raised with lessons of racial tolerance.

There are many many of us who had that word used regularly around us while growing up and used it ourselves who would have had been in big trouble had we shown any 'racial intolerance'. Believe me, for some people, the two do not equate. This is something the PC crowd has thought up. It is just a word, signifying nothing to many people.

So, no using 'the n-word' doesn't translate to racial intolerance. It has been twisted that way for some to use as a weapon. Tolerance, racial or otherwise, is not taught with words, but actions.

By the way does anyone else get tired of say 'the n'word' like we were kindergarten children?

We're not talking "literature" here right? (I have read older books that used the word in a way it would have been spoken or how it was used in the portrayed time). And I know that some black people will use the word towards each other, in a "kidding" way, but a white (or perceived as white) person using it, is NOT the same. I know that it's "just a word"...and that mere "words" should not have power over us, but I was taught from a very young age that it was not "proper" to use it, or other racial slurs (in any situation). I was also taught not to cuss or talk about people behind their back (with varying success). I did have a couple of Uncles who used these slurs quite often...and remember my mother asking them to NOT speak that way around the children...perhaps we were more sensitive to the "slurs" because we are part Native American and some of our family had been called names too...and words can and do hurt...sticks and stones notwithstanding.

[, but a white (or perceived as white) person using it, is NOT the same. I know that it's "just a word"...and that mere "words" should not have]

Well, I will concede that blacks and whites using it today have a different meaning.

But believe me, I don't know your age or where you live, but in my younger years, it's use by whites was just as benign - it was no more than calling them blacks, and I have heard people use the word 'blacks' as a slur.

My husband, too, is part Indian. He takes people at face value until they prove differently, and he uses the word - certainly not as a slur. He is the only truly color-blind person I have ever known. It is just a word - just a word. Now some people have put conotations on it, but for some people it is just a word. I repeat, you teach tolerance by actions, not words. You can say all the right words and still be a horrible person, or you can use all the non-pc words and be a wonderful person. Oh, and he cusses too, even does my cussing when I need it. I'm not good at it. But he does not talk behind ones back, he would never say anything behind someone's back he would not say to their face. So racist? I would defy you to find any black person he has ever met that would describe him as one - just won't happen.

I also remember recently my husband and I were lost and saw a group of black teens outside a building. My husband stopped and said, "Hey, do any of you boys know where so and so is?" Of course, one of them decided to be really offended and asked my husband, "Who are you calling 'boy'." My husband said, "Well, you're not men are y ou?" They laughed and gave us directions. It's the person and what they feel - not what they say. We put too much emphasize on words and not on actions. Anyone can use the right words. Many of the people who would never use 'gulp' the 'n-word' really believe they totally superior to blacks.

As children, we were taught to call them colored - that was a very respectful thing then, now it is explosive.

I probably can't convince you of that ( and really it doesn't matter)

I still think it is ridiculous that the PC people have reduced us to speaking like a 3 year old - 'the N-word' - doesn't that bother you?

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