[Vigilanteman]

Are they trying to top the stupidity of a university board for firing a guy who used the word "niggardly"? I forget the details, but the outcome was that the ignorance of the administration in failing to understand the meaning of a perfectly good word did not excuse how it made them feeeeeeeeel.

[TheBattman]

You would think that the administration of an institution of “higher learning” would be somewhat more intelligent thatn demonstrated.

[peyton randolph]

Are they trying to top the stupidity of a university board for firing a guy who used the word "niggardly"?

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Actually, he was the diversity guy for Washington, D.C...and, IIRC, he qualified as "diverse" because he was gay but not diverse enough after using  the term "niggardly."

[KPfromDerryNH]

Niggardly is a Norwegian word. So is ombudsman but it is being changed to ombuds-person so as not to offend all Americans except for those of Norwegian descent. Who should “my peoples” complain to now to make this grave injustice right? I’ve written a song about this and the words we can’t say anymore. I really let it out about all sorts of stuff, like being warned by an NPR host I was listening to last week that the word fag was coming up. It was ok for the homosexual author to use it in his essay, he told us, but we should be warned because we may not want out kids think it was ok. Just before that the host called himself a “grown ass man” Now kids all over America are talking about what they want to be when they become “grown ass” woman and men too.
I really express myself, tell it like it is in my song, it’s a sort of auditory memorial to the first ammendment. It’s an instrumental piece. I say all the words in the privacy,freedom and safety of my head as I play it on the baritone sax. Does anybody know if NPR accepts those kinds of contributions for their show “This American Life”?

[Enchante]

It was DC city govt. and the guy resigned quickly because there was such a firestorm from ignorant morons who don’t know that the word “niggardly” has absolutely no etymological connection with that “other” word .....

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“I used the word ‘niggardly’ in reference to my administration of a fund,” Howard said in a written statement yesterday. “Although the word, which is defined as miserly, does not have any racial connotations, I realize that staff members present were offended by the word.

“I immediately apologized,” Howard said. “ . . . I would never think of making a racist remark. I regret that the word I did use offended anyone.”

When Howard, who is white, noticed the reaction to his use of the word, he apologized to his three-member staff, which is made up of two blacks and another white. It is unclear which two employees he was addressing when he used the word.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/daily/jan99/district27.htm