No! A Thousand Times NO!

When is a word not a word? When have you not said a word when you clearly communicated that your intent was to say the word? Yes, you've phrased it in a politically correct manner so as not to actually say it, but there is no doubt that you meant that word because if a doubt remained you would have failed to communicate what you intended to. You know what I'm talking about here, don't you?

How can actual adults engage in a discussion; mature, rational discourse on a topic of controversy, when they resort to circumlocutions like "the N-word"? Are we not saying it when everyone who hears the phrase knows what we meant? If we say "the F-bomb" are we blissfully spared information about what Anglo-Saxon crudity has be referenced? She's a "C-word" is somehow less offensive? I doubt it. He's a "P-word" is not a slur?

As a society we've become considerably cruder. The nation that was appalled at Clark Gable's utterance to Scarlett O'Hara on film now finds it exceptionally rare to view a movie or cable TV presentation which doesn't rely on that special "F-bomb" as noun, verb, adjective, pronoun, adverb and conjunction. I've got students who can't speak two sentences in class without stumbling into scatological references inadvertently. That of course leads to what the Bamster likes to call a "teachable moment."

So then, what to make of this:

Mark Twain Spinning at High RPM

This deserves a public outcry! The very point of the language is to typify the time. It is real! It is the language of the period. The very point of the language is to highlight that despite what we currently may think of the terminology, during the period of the novel that was the way people spoke. It is particularly noteworthy when we contrast the strength, loyalty and friendship of Jim, the slave, to the venality, corruption and deceit of the whites who pursue and threaten Huck.

Those who have read Palace Cobra may recall that there is a poem at the beginning of the book. It is a contrast between intellectuality and schoolboy mentality that typifies what makes a fighter pilot. It is about pulling little girl's pants down but much more is between the lines.

One of the key factors in my departure from Smithsonian Institution Press which was contracted to publish the book was the deletion of that poem as "inappropriate."

"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names can never hurt me."

"What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

"N-word" my ass!