On the use of the n-word...

Much ado has been made in the headlines about Paula Deen getting shit-canned by the Food Network for using the n-word. Here are my two bits:

One upon a time, it may have been acceptable to use the n-word. Then again, it was also acceptable to publicly burn people alive just because somebody decided that they might be a witch...

But times and society have changed. We no longer have public Autos da Fe in the town square. And slavery is no longer practiced. The n-word is no longer an acceptable weird to use. Period. It might have been okay when you were growing up to use it, but not anymore. I think what has happened here is a failure to adapt. Now if she did happen to use it back on a time when it was politically ok to use it & and she hasn't used it since, then I can be ok with that (people can change). However, at age 66, she had spent most of her adult life in the civil rights era, and should've known better. As harsh as it may sound, I would've shit-canned Paula Deen as well.

Once upon a time in some parts of the country, you could be denied fundamental civil rights just on the color of your skin. And to this day, there are people who would still do so. I've seen out both ways. I've been called the n-word myself (and I'm a stereotypical white guy...), and I've seen people play the race card just because things weren't going there way, or they were caught red-handed. But I try to be colorblind in my speech. I try to avoid even mentioning one's race (to paraphrase Martin Luther King, it should be about the content of one's character, not one's skin color).

No one should use the n-word. Ever. It doesn't matter who you are, how you were brought up, or what color your skin is.