As an aside, I believe the slang term "n!gg@r" is actually a bastardization of "negro," evolved over time. I don't think it was even necessarily a derogatory epthet until American blacks began to object to it, after which some people would use it spitefully, just because blacks didn't like it.
Before that, it was just a lower class southern dialectic mispronunciation of the noun "negro," which in itself carried no more hostile meaning than calling someone a "black person."
But I could be wrong.
"And I want to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that there’s not enough troops in the Army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the nigger race into our theatres, into our swimming pools, into our homes and into our churches."
That speech was made July 17, 1948, as Thurmond championed his platform of racial segregation. At the time, he was accepting the presidential nomination of the State’s Rights Party, more accurately called Dixiecrats.
Hey "T"! Still saying that Thurmond didn't run as a segregationist?
The author is right in criticizing...but he should also point out that for some...it carried the same meaning as "African American" does today...
To draw parrallels across generations is trepidatious at best...
Question for the Author: What was the politically correct term to describe Americans of African ancestory in 1948?
I was at my self-storage facility in the Bronx, and heard (couldn't help it due to the decibel level) some fine gentleman yelling "Hurry up, nigger...c'mon you lazy ass n!gger piece of sh*t". The other gentleman responded "F**k you n!gger, I'll kick your black n!gger ass" The forbidden word was used perhaps another 200 times again in the subsequent 15 minutes.
How can blacks feign such outrage at the "N" word, when they themselves use it constantly in ordinary conversation, contrary to Julian Bond's belief?
I have never heard Jews calling each other "k!kes" or Hispanics calling each other "sp!cs" in ordinary conversation. This idea that the "N" word is so "horrible, hateful and destructive" is absurd. Just put on any Rap CD track and wait 15 seconds. What a double standard, as usual.