The N Word

Now I'm not talking about that show on the Showtime which I've yet to see and know that I'll be bitterly disappointed in but rather the word Dr. Laura threw out a number of times on her show this week.

Now Dr. Laura's point was that 'black guys use it all the time' and asked rhetorically if the caller who had brought up the point in the first place had ever heard a black comedian.   Now granted Dr. Laura is probably the whitest looking chick in the entire world so she might be better off avoiding all words that sound like it although she'd have a hard time doing her job if somebody calls about their gold-digger wife who is complaining about the rigor of him not being bigger and has threatened to pull the trigger with tons of vigor.

 Now I'm sure we've all had this discussion with friends and acquaintances and I had a friend in college explain that if it ended in "gger" it was offensive but if it ended in "gga" it was sort of acceptable.   Now granted this friend was black so I'm not exactly sure he was talking about being comfortable with me using either version and when I tried in vain at a short-lived hip-hop career I have to admit that I used the 2^nd version a few times.      I would say that in college I had no interest in using the 'gger' version and only mild interest in using the 'gga' version so except for sending raps to my idiot friends it's really was no skin off my back.  Now I also realize it's a double standard and being OK with one race using it but not another stings off racism in itself but this is the kind of society we live in and I'm too old and too lazy to cause much of a fuss.

But my issue has always been the following:  what happens if you are trying to quote a movie or lyrics in some crappy hip-hop song what the hell are you supposed to do?  

For example if I'm quoting Samuel L. Jackson in any Tarantino flick what am I supposed to do?  Just substitute it for another non-offensive word like peppercorn or salt-shaker or have that uncomfortable silence during that word like I'm bleeping something out or when quoting something it can be acceptable