What’s in a name?

A University of Virginia Medical Center employee is in hot water over use of the N-word. The N-word (delicately referred to as a “racial epithet”) is, in the interest of reporting honesty, “Nigger.” (I know it’s okay to use the word in a reporting context because the university student paper did so. Phew!)

So, you might ask, did this Neanderthal call someone a Nigger? Did he refer to co-workers as Niggers, or students, or some other group? Was he one of any of a number black people who refer to each other joshingly as “Nigger”?

No. He was condemning racially insensitive terms. And, in so doing, used “Nigger” as an example. And so is now himself condemned as racially insensitive.

Each person interviewed recounted a conversation between employees about football teams they each favored, Howell said. The conversation later turned to a discussion of controversial team names, including the Washington Redskins.
Howell reported that the offender “said something like this: ‘I can’t believe in this day and age that there’s a sports team in our nation’s capital named the Redskins. That is as derogatory to Indians as having a team called Niggers would be to blacks.'”
Though Howell said no staff members said they were personally offended by the remark, they said they would have preferred if the word had not been used.

I’ll bet. They knew that once word got out, there’d be a huge foofoorah.

I mean, has the whole world gone mad?

Here’s a guy talking about how words can hurt people. He’s hopped up on the bandwagon against naming sports teams after Native Americans, especially in a slang fashion. And he’s the one being crucified for being “offensive” and “insulting” because of the word he used as an example. Nobody seems to be upset that he used the word “Redskin.” And no Native American groups have come to his defense in defending their sensibilities.

Instead, the campus seems to have gone bonkers.

In response to the alleged remark, the Staff Union at U.Va. is sponsoring a “Protest Against Racism at U.Va. and the U.Va. Medical Center After a Recent Racial Incident” today at noon.

One guy uses one word, not as an epithet, but as an example of epithets people find upsetting — and that constitutes racism and a “racial incident?”

“It doesn’t really matter in what context this word was used,” Staff Union President Jan Cornell said in a statement, adding that employees have reported other similar incidents.
“I will continue to inform the U.Va. administration about racism, discrimination, mistreatment of employees by managers and retaliation issues until U.Va. is a safe place to work for everyone of every race,” she said.

Never mind this incident had nothing to do with discrmination, mistreatment of employees, or retaliation issues. Oh, wait, except for retaliation against the poor schmuck who uttered the Most Profane of Terms.

And why, one wonders, isn’t the student newspaper being lambasted for printing the word, even as a quotation? If it makes no difference the context the word is used (and there’s an assertion that should have everyone in the English Dept. pitching a fit, conservative as well liberal), then printing it in the paper should be at least as verboten.

In an e-mail sent to a black faculty e-mail list, History Prof. Julian Bond, national chair of the NAACP, called for the employee to make a public apology and take sensitivity training.

He was frickin’ complaining about how insensitive others are. Yeesh. It sounds like he’s plenty sensitive.

(We’ll leave aside the question of whether there’s a white faculty e-mail list. I suppose that would be considered de facto racist, while a black faculty e-mail list is merely considered group solidarity against The Man. But I digress.)

“My first impulse is that this should be a dismissible infraction — but free speech protections I hold dear tell me that shouldn’t be so,” Bond wrote …

Yeah — a real booster for free speech you are, Julian. The word wasn’t used in malice, nor even in negligence — it was, in fact, picked because it is a hurtful (in context) word, and was used in comparison to another word some consider hurtful. But I guess some hurtful words are considered more equal than others.

“The University expects all members of the University community to be alert to the rights and dignity of all our people and also alert to racial and other insults,” [Casteen] said, adding that all members of the community should feel comfortable in reporting any “demeaning” incidents.

Nobody reported being offended or demeaned. I guess everyone should feel comfortable about reporting any possibly demeaning incidents, then. If in doubt, assume someone could feel demeaned and report it.

“We share and ought to welcome the responsibility for making the University community a welcoming environment for everyone,” he said.

Including, I guess, “redskins.”

I repeat: Yeesh.

(via David Bernstein, who notes the similarity to a Life of Brian routine.)