Posted by
Gene on Tuesday, March 17, 2009 3:21:02 PM
The word “racism” seems to be bandied about with such frequency in America that it’s as if at least every third word emanating from some communities is either the charge of racism or the epithet, racist. I think that since it’s almost as commonplace as the use of the N-word in rap lyrics and since it’s so often misused, racism should be banished like the N-word has been from the American lexicon, even in rap lyrics.
To my knowledge, no other word but that N-word has ever been deemed so repulsive that it was deemed necessary to forbid its use, under penalty of law in some jurisdictions, and to dispatch it to the depths of a new Dantesque circle of Hell.
Granted, n****r isn’t a very pleasant word, nor are flatulence, vomit, and thousands of other English words. The terms ”AOL” and “politics” are almost equivalently unpleasant to millions of people, to students the initials ”SAT’s” can evoke tremors of disgust and trepidation, and to the Irish the word “British” can have comparable effects.
The preceding excursion into reductio ad absurdam is meant to accent the absurdity of overreaction to the N-word and to emphasize the overuse and selective use of the charge of racism in our society. Very often it is applied to crimes committed against Hispanics by Whites which cannot be termed racism since both Whites and (most) Hispanics are Caucasians. If anything, it could be called, “ethnicism.”
As kids, we used to chant, “Sticks and stones can break my bones but names will never harm me,” in a lame response to verbal harassment. Today, the school harasser would be accused of bullying or worse and probably be consigned to detention or sent home on suspension. More absurdity.
The banning of the N-word is made conspicuously more ridiculous by virtue of the fact that equally mean-spirited and derogatory terms such as spic, kike, mick, guinea, chink, slope et al., which I am permitted to use without fear of legal repercussions, are permissible even if not condoned. They certainly do not raise hackles like the use of “n****r” does.
While I don’t endorse or advocate the use of any such terms in writing or in social discourse, I also don’t endorse or advocate the actions of today’s PC mentality which makes their use tantamount to screaming, “Fire!” in a crowded movie theater when there is no fire and when the results could be catastrophic.
We Americans of Irish descent have gotten over being treated like dirt and being avoided like the plague by “polite” society. We ignored the ubiquitous warning signs that “Irish Need Not Apply” 
and we applied anyway and when we were rejected as unfit we moved on and secured other jobs, sometimes better jobs, sometimes worse, but our forebears knew that bitching was counterproductive so they just worked harder.
We elected an Irish-American president in 1960 
and, if we ever had any doubts, we forever abandoned any thoughts that we were second class, or permanently steerage class, American citizens.
I understand the emotional baggage associated with the word n****r which conjures up within the Black community visions of slavery, discrimination, Jim Crow Laws, etc. 
However, slavery is long gone in our world, except in Black Muslim Sudan and in a rare few other places outside the U.S, and systemic, legalized racism has been legislated out of existence for generations in America thanks to, literally, thousands of federal, state, and local statutes which make it a criminal act.
When Barack Hussein Obama was elected President of the United States last November 4th, millions of Americans assumed that would be the final nail in the coffin of alleged racism against Blacks. Forty three percent of White Americans voted for him, which was proof positive that Jim Crow was dead and America could finally move on as a racially unified nation.
That was not to be, mainly because almost 100% of Black Americans effectively voted for racism by casting their ballots against the White candidate, John McCain. Our new Black Attorney General later made it vividly clear that he believed if Joe Six-Pack didn’t invite Tyrone-Ripple to his next family bbq then Joe was evidently a racist, and a coward to boot: http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=847
The latest example of Black racism run amok are the protests against White, Jewish comedian Jackie Mason’s use of the yiddish word, “schwartza,” in reference to Blacks, http://www.popeater.com/movies/article/jackie-mason-racism-charges/383621: ”Mason. 
(Read the rest at http://genelalor.com/.)