Dr. Laura's "N word" Rant

[saveliberty]

WHy are you guys using the word, if it is so offensive? Why is it okay for you to use in a discussion, but Dr. Laura is just a bigot? Sounds like a double standard, AGAIN.

I don't know if she's really a bigot. There are just a few things that should never be said when behind an open mic with millions listening. The word ****** is one of them.

But saying/singing/rapping it twenty-five times in a song is just fine. I understand what your saying Elvis, it just should apply to everyone for true equality.

 

[CurveLight]

WHy are you guys using the word, if it is so offensive? Why is it okay for you to use in a discussion, but Dr. Laura is just a bigot? Sounds like a double standard, AGAIN.

I don't know if she's really a bigot. There are just a few things that should never be said when behind an open mic with millions listening. The word ****** is one of them.

But it's okay to write it on the 'net where tens of millions have access. Stoopid fucker.

It's unbelievably hyper-sensitive to say that the word should never be stated. PC bitches like you are a joke and a reason why progress gets obturated.

 

[CurveLight]

WHy are you guys using the word, if it is so offensive? Why is it okay for you to use in a discussion, but Dr. Laura is just a bigot? Sounds like a double standard, AGAIN.

I don't know if she's really a bigot. There are just a few things that should never be said when behind an open mic with millions listening. The word ****** is one of them.

But saying/singing/rapping it twenty-five times in a song is just fine. I understand what your saying Elvis, it just should apply to everyone for true equality.

We all live in context so this "true equality" line is bullshit. You know damn well there are people in your life you will say something about but if someone else says it you cry foul.

 

[Foxfyre]

And, as I said earlier, I knew I was going to regret wading in on this one. People who WANT to see racism in anything and everything won't be able to see this particular incident objectively and those who demand that others agree with them in order to be acceptable aren't likely to even understand what the issue actually is. But sometimes I'm a glutton for punishment.

I still think that anybody who can't find the irony, humor, and substance in that "All in the Family" clip have no sense of humor at all. I think mature grown ups, black and white, are most likely to laugh at demonstrating absurdity with absurdity and will be able to appreciate the dynamics at play and won't feel personally offended in the least. There are no doubt exceptions.

the dr Laura show is not a sitcom nor a comedy.

Aren't you seeing racism in the black woman? She's hypersensitive? She claimed her neighbor and her husband's friends and family repeatedly made remarks around her that bothered her and that the n-word was thrown about.

How is she hypersensitive? Because she's black?

Ravi, can you really sit there and type with a straight face that if the 'n' word was being thrown about in her home, that she would not have used that as her FIRST example? She didn't. She used a much less noxious and a much less offensive example as the first one that came to mind. She tossed out the 'n' word being thrown about comment only after she couldn't get Dr. Laura to bite 'appropriately' on the example she used.

Transcript

CALLER: How about the N-word? So, the N-word’s been thrown around –

SCHLESSINGER: Black guys use it all the time. Turn on HBO, listen to a black comic, and all you hear is nig*er, nig*er, nig*er.

CALLER: That isn’t –

SCHLESSINGER: I don’t get it. If anybody without enough melanin says it, it’s a horrible thing; but when black people say it, it’s affectionate. It’s very confusing. Don’t hang up, I want to talk to you some more. Don’t go away.

Madeline gently chastises me for not appreciating how hurtful the 'n' word is to black people. I appreciate it. And I appreciate how hurtful 'retard' is said to or about a mentally challenged person, or how 'fat' is hurtful to a person who is sensitive about his or her weight or how 'stupid' is hurtful to the child that just isn't understanding the assignment or whatever. Hurt is hurt no matter who is hurt.

Some members here on USMB use such hateful language it has no ability to hurt. One hateful phrase is no different than another and pretty soon it is just noise. I just shake my head at those folks who I can count on to say something insulting in almost every post and I respect their opinions pretty much not at all. There are members on USMB though that I would be hurt if they directed such insults at me because I have accepted them as better people than that.

And that was the point Dr. Laura was making whether or not you agree with her? How is it NOT racist to condemn a white person who says '******' when black people refer to themselves by that word so often? On radio. On television. In rap songs. Etc. etc. etc. Either the word is bad or it isn't. Don't you think it smacks of racism to say that one race can use that word but another race cannot? You don't see the absurdity in that? And doesn't it ring less than honest to think that the word doesn't hurt when a rapper uses it and does hurt when somebody white you don't even know uses it? That isn't hurt. That's just resentment of white people.

I'm sure if she had it to do all over again, Dr. Laura would not have blundered into this volatile area. But to accuse her of being racist or intentional hatefulness or whatever she is being accused of here is nothing short of silly. She was making a point in good faith and made the mistake of treating a hypersensitive black woman the same as she would have treated a hypersentive white woman or Asian woman or Native American woman or Hispanic woman or whatever.

All I'm saying if you want her hung, at least hang her for a crime she actually committed.

And no, I do not use the 'n' word nor condone anybody, black or white, using it to refer to anybody.

 

[elvis]

WHy are you guys using the word, if it is so offensive? Why is it okay for you to use in a discussion, but Dr. Laura is just a bigot? Sounds like a double standard, AGAIN.

I don't know if she's really a bigot. There are just a few things that should never be said when behind an open mic with millions listening. The word ****** is one of them.

But it's okay to write it on the 'net where tens of millions have access. Stoopid fucker.

It's unbelievably hyper-sensitive to say that the word should never be stated. PC bitches like you are a joke and a reason why progress gets obturated.

I'm the furthest thing from PC. I'm saying if someone has a talkshow like doctor laura, and they want to continue having the show without a fallout from advertisers, they should avoid talking about the word ******. simple as that.

 

[Foxfyre]

I don't know if she's really a bigot. There are just a few things that should never be said when behind an open mic with millions listening. The word ****** is one of them.

But it's okay to write it on the 'net where tens of millions have access. Stoopid fucker.

It's unbelievably hyper-sensitive to say that the word should never be stated. PC bitches like you are a joke and a reason why progress gets obturated.

I'm the furthest thing from PC. I'm saying if someone has a talkshow like doctor laura, and they want to continue having the show without a fallout from advertisers, they should avoid talking about the word ******. simple as that.

Well she found that out. But then she didn't bring up the word either. Her caller did. God, I pray for the day when we can get past all this P.C. crap and simply treat everybody as people instead of having to figure out what you can say to this person, but not that one, or who is allowed to say what to whom. It's freaking ridiculous.

 

[JakeStarkey]

WHy are you guys using the word, if it is so offensive? Why is it okay for you to use in a discussion, but Dr. Laura is just a bigot? Sounds like a double standard, AGAIN.

I don't know if she's really a bigot. There are just a few things that should never be said when behind an open mic with millions listening. The word ****** is one of them.

But saying/singing/rapping it twenty-five times in a song is just fine. I understand what your saying Elvis, it just should apply to everyone for true equality.

Yes, 100% correct, SL: left, right, center, up, down, and on the moon. Civilized, decent people don't use words like that.

 

[saveliberty]

I don't know if she's really a bigot. There are just a few things that should never be said when behind an open mic with millions listening. The word ****** is one of them.

But it's okay to write it on the 'net where tens of millions have access. Stoopid fucker.

It's unbelievably hyper-sensitive to say that the word should never be stated. PC bitches like you are a joke and a reason why progress gets obturated.

I'm the furthest thing from PC. I'm saying if someone has a talkshow like doctor laura, and they want to continue having the show without a fallout from advertisers, they should avoid talking about the word ******. simple as that.

The fallout should come from the advertisers? The fallout is coming from liberal media. You have a double standard here my friend. Until you resolve that, I withhold my full support of your position.

 

[JakeStarkey]

<snip> And no, I do not use the 'n' word nor condone anybody, black or white, using it to refer to anybody.

This is the only words of worth you have used, Foxfyre. No nuance or sophistication or satire or irony has anything to do with such words in a public forum. You pick up manure, it sticks to you. I will leave it at that.

 

[CurveLight]

I don't know if she's really a bigot. There are just a few things that should never be said when behind an open mic with millions listening. The word ****** is one of them.

But it's okay to write it on the 'net where tens of millions have access. Stoopid fucker.

It's unbelievably hyper-sensitive to say that the word should never be stated. PC bitches like you are a joke and a reason why progress gets obturated.

I'm the furthest thing from PC. I'm saying if someone has a talkshow like doctor laura, and they want to continue having the show without a fallout from advertisers, they should avoid talking about the word ******. simple as that.

Your own words prove you are not the "furthest thing from PC."

 

[elvis]

But it's okay to write it on the 'net where tens of millions have access. Stoopid fucker.

It's unbelievably hyper-sensitive to say that the word should never be stated. PC bitches like you are a joke and a reason why progress gets obturated.

I'm the furthest thing from PC. I'm saying if someone has a talkshow like doctor laura, and they want to continue having the show without a fallout from advertisers, they should avoid talking about the word ******. simple as that.

The fallout should come from the advertisers? The fallout is coming from liberal media. You have a double standard here my friend. Until you resolve that, I withhold my full support of your position.

I am not saying it "should". I am saying it could. al sharpton has already contacted advertisers, asking them to reconsider their support for Dr. Laura. If you're running a talk show, do you want this?

 

[elvis]

But it's okay to write it on the 'net where tens of millions have access. Stoopid fucker.

It's unbelievably hyper-sensitive to say that the word should never be stated. PC bitches like you are a joke and a reason why progress gets obturated.

I'm the furthest thing from PC. I'm saying if someone has a talkshow like doctor laura, and they want to continue having the show without a fallout from advertisers, they should avoid talking about the word ******. simple as that.

Your own words prove you are not the "furthest thing from PC."

No they don't, you two-dollar trash-whore. but thanks for playing.

 

[saveliberty]

I'm the furthest thing from PC. I'm saying if someone has a talkshow like doctor laura, and they want to continue having the show without a fallout from advertisers, they should avoid talking about the word ******. simple as that.

The fallout should come from the advertisers? The fallout is coming from liberal media. You have a double standard here my friend. Until you resolve that, I withhold my full support of your position.

I am not saying it "should". I am saying it could. al sharpton has already contacted advertisers, asking them to reconsider their support for Dr. Laura. If you're running a talk show, do you want this?

Dr. Laura is already ending her show over this issue. She wants to say what she thinks without offending advertisers. Shock radio is not new.

I notice you are avoiding the double standard comments I have made. Are you supportive of blacks using the term? Rappers?

 

[CurveLight]

And, as I said earlier, I knew I was going to regret wading in on this one. People who WANT to see racism in anything and everything won't be able to see this particular incident objectively and those who demand that others agree with them in order to be acceptable aren't likely to even understand what the issue actually is. But sometimes I'm a glutton for punishment.

I still think that anybody who can't find the irony, humor, and substance in that "All in the Family" clip have no sense of humor at all. I think mature grown ups, black and white, are most likely to laugh at demonstrating absurdity with absurdity and will be able to appreciate the dynamics at play and won't feel personally offended in the least. There are no doubt exceptions.

the dr Laura show is not a sitcom nor a comedy.

Aren't you seeing racism in the black woman? She's hypersensitive? She claimed her neighbor and her husband's friends and family repeatedly made remarks around her that bothered her and that the n-word was thrown about.

How is she hypersensitive? Because she's black?

Ravi, can you really sit there and type with a straight face that if the 'n' word was being thrown about in her home, that she would not have used that as her FIRST example? She didn't. She used a much less noxious and a much less offensive example as the first one that came to mind. She tossed out the 'n' word being thrown about comment only after she couldn't get Dr. Laura to bite 'appropriately' on the example she used.

Transcript

CALLER: How about the N-word? So, the N-word’s been thrown around –

SCHLESSINGER: Black guys use it all the time. Turn on HBO, listen to a black comic, and all you hear is nig*er, nig*er, nig*er.

CALLER: That isn’t –

SCHLESSINGER: I don’t get it. If anybody without enough melanin says it, it’s a horrible thing; but when black people say it, it’s affectionate. It’s very confusing. Don’t hang up, I want to talk to you some more. Don’t go away.

Madeline gently chastises me for not appreciating how hurtful the 'n' word is to black people. I appreciate it. And I appreciate how hurtful 'retard' is said to or about a mentally challenged person, or how 'fat' is hurtful to a person who is sensitive about his or her weight or how 'stupid' is hurtful to the child that just isn't understanding the assignment or whatever. Hurt is hurt no matter who is hurt.

Some members here on USMB use such hateful language it has no ability to hurt. One hateful phrase is no different than another and pretty soon it is just noise. I just shake my head at those folks who I can count on to say something insulting in almost every post and I respect their opinions pretty much not at all. There are members on USMB though that I would be hurt if they directed such insults at me because I have accepted them as better people than that.

And that was the point Dr. Laura was making whether or not you agree with her? How is it NOT racist to condemn a white person who says '******' when black people refer to themselves by that word so often? On radio. On television. In rap songs. Etc. etc. etc. Either the word is bad or it isn't. Don't you think it smacks of racism to say that one race can use that word but another race cannot? You don't see the absurdity in that? And doesn't it ring less than honest to think that the word doesn't hurt when a rapper uses it and does hurt when somebody white you don't even know uses it? That isn't hurt. That's just resentment of white people.

I'm sure if she had it to do all over again, Dr. Laura would not have blundered into this volatile area. But to accuse her of being racist or intentional hatefulness or whatever she is being accused of here is nothing short of silly. She was making a point in good faith and made the mistake of treating a hypersensitive black woman the same as she would have treated a hypersentive white woman or Asian woman or Native American woman or Hispanic woman or whatever.

All I'm saying if you want her hung, at least hang her for a crime she actually committed.

And no, I do not use the 'n' word nor condone anybody, black or white, using it to refer to anybody.

It's not a double standard in any way. The term "******" used affectionately, is a cultural process of linguistic reclamation through recognized autonomy. A current analogy is the word "Cougar" for describing older women. The term was initially used as an insult but many women immediately turned it around to where now it is not only not an insult, but often a compliment and a marketing term. The reason I do not criticize african americans who use "******" in a positive tone is out of respect of their shared history of racism in the US. As a white guy, my White Skin Privileges have afforded me doors opened closed to african americans and I've literally lived out that scenario many times when hanging out with friends who were told they could not come into a place I was just given access. Those experiences gave me but a whisper glimpse into the hell it has been for people of dark skin to be dehumanized due to racism. I stand with them in their earned right to use "******" as they see fit because they have and continue to pay the price for its origins.

 

[Foxfyre]

<snip> And no, I do not use the 'n' word nor condone anybody, black or white, using it to refer to anybody.

This is the only words of worth you have used, Foxfyre. No nuance or sophistication or satire or irony has anything to do with such words in a public forum. You pick up manure, it sticks to you.

Well good. Then if you truly believe that you will believe that the woman caller who threw it out there was more wrong than Dr. Laura who only responded to it. The woman, I believe WAS race baiting. I do not believe Dr. Laura's response was racist. It wasn't well received, obviously, but it was not racist. And she should not be punished for it.

But P.C. is ALWAYS an issue for the left when violated by somebody on the right. I wish some of the more 'sensitive' types on U.S.M.B. would condemn more of that.

 

[elvis]

The fallout should come from the advertisers? The fallout is coming from liberal media. You have a double standard here my friend. Until you resolve that, I withhold my full support of your position.

I am not saying it "should". I am saying it could. al sharpton has already contacted advertisers, asking them to reconsider their support for Dr. Laura. If you're running a talk show, do you want this?

Dr. Laura is already ending her show over this issue. She wants to say what she thinks without offending advertisers. Shock radio is not new.

I notice you are avoiding the double standard comments I have made. Are you supportive of blacks using the term? Rappers?

No. They make themselves sound stupid when they use it. I didn't mean to avoid that issue. I think there is a double standard. I think everyone in the media should quit using it. I do not, however, think it should be banned.

 

[Ravi]

WHy are you guys using the word, if it is so offensive? Why is it okay for you to use in a discussion, but Dr. Laura is just a bigot? Sounds like a double standard, AGAIN.

I don't know if she's really a bigot. There are just a few things that should never be said when behind an open mic with millions listening. The word ****** is one of them.

But it's okay to write it on the 'net where tens of millions have access. Stoopid fucker.

It's unbelievably hyper-sensitive to say that the word should never be stated. PC bitches like you are a joke and a reason why progress gets obturated.

That's not what he said.

 

[MikeK]

I think the caller realized she was unable to get sound advice from Dr Laura because Dr Laura was using her to make political points about double standards.

I'm sorry that you feel the need to avoid black people rather than learn racial tolerance.

"Racial tolerance?" That seems a rather flexible state of mind. I'll tell you what I believe racial tolerance is. The following is one of the so-called "rap" poems I've posted earlier in this thread:

"Niggas in the church say: kill ****** all night long. . . . the white man is the devil. . . . the CRIPS and Bloods are soldiers I'm recruiting with no dispute; drive-by shooting on this white genetic mutant. . . . let's go and kill some rednecks. . . . Menace Clan ain't afraid. . . . I got the .380; the homies think I'm crazy because I shot a white baby; I said; I said; I said: kill ****** all night long. . . a nigga dumping on your white ass; fuck this rap shit, nigga, I'm gonna blast. . . . I beat a white boy to the motherfucking ground." (Kill ******; Menace Clan, Da Hood, Rap-A-Lot Records.)

Those are words (thoughts) from recordings which are commercially available today, thanks to the First Amendment. That is racial tolerance. So if the Constitution says it's okay to pronounce this kind of murderously inciteful rhetoric, where is the justification for criticizing a radio broadcaster for using a controversial word in a purely academic context?

 

[CurveLight]

I'm the furthest thing from PC. I'm saying if someone has a talkshow like doctor laura, and they want to continue having the show without a fallout from advertisers, they should avoid talking about the word ******. simple as that.

Your own words prove you are not the "furthest thing from PC."

No they don't, you two-dollar trash-whore. but thanks for playing.

Convincing.

 

[elvis]

Your own words prove you are not the "furthest thing from PC."

No they don't, you two-dollar trash-whore. but thanks for playing.

Convincing.

I take it back. You are less PC than I am. Congratulations.