Who Can Say "Nigger" and Other Considerations

Who Can Say "Nigger" and Other Considerations: Many%20observers%20make%20strong%20claims%20on%20behalf%20of%20the%20special%20status%20of%20nigger%20as%20a%20racial%20insult.%20The%20journalist%20Farai%20Chideya%20describes%20nigger%20as%20%u201Cthe%20all-American%20tromp%20card%2C%20the%20nuclear%20bomb%20of%20racial%20epithets.%u201D%20The%20Ninth%20Circuit%20Court%20of%20Appeals%20recently%20concurred%20in%20a%20case%20that%20involved%20the%20authority%20of%20a%20school%20district%20to%20assign%20to%20high%20school%20students%20Mark%20Twain%u2019s%20Huckleberry%20Finn.%20A%20parent%20of%20one%20of%20the%20few%20black%20children%20in%20the%20school%20objected%20to%20the%20assignment%20on%20the%20grounds%20that%20nigger%20appears%20in%20that%20novel%20215%20times%20and%20that%20the%20presence%20of%20that%20book%20in%20the%20curriculum%20distressed%20black%20students%20and%20prompted%20white%20ones%20to%20engage%20in%20acts%20of%20racial%20harassment.%20In%20the%20course%20of%20dismissing%20the%20parent%u2019s%20complaint%20on%20First%20Amendment%20grounds%2C%20the%20Ninth%20Circuit%20described%20nigger%20as%20%u201Cthe%20most%20noxious%20racial%20epithet%20in%20the%20contemporary%20American%20lexicon.%u201D%20Elaborating%2C%20Judge%20Stephen%20Reinhardt%20asserted%20that%20%u201Cthe%20word%20nigger%20as%20applied%20to%20blacks%20is%20uniquely%20provocative%20and%20demeaning%20and%20that%20there%20is%20probably%20no%20word%20or%20phrase%20that%20could%20be%20directed%20at%20any%20other%20group%20that%20could%20cause%20comparable%20injury.%u201D%0A%0AAnother%20assertion%20of%20the%20unique%20status%20of%20nigger%20was%20voiced%20in%20the%20midst%20of%20the%20infamous%20O.J.%20Simpson%20murder%20trial%20in%20the%20most%20highly%20publicized%20discussion%20of%20a%20racial%20epithet%20in%20American%20history.%20%u201CNigger%2C%u201D%20prosecutor%20Christopher%20Darden%20maintained%20in%20a%20heated%20exchange%20with%20defense%20attorney%20Johnny%20Cochran%2C%20is%20the%20%u201Cfilthiest%2C%20dirtiest%2C%20nastiest%20word%20in%20the%20English%20language.