Dr Laura's N-word Rant

[BavarianWheels]

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I heard this rant on YouTube last night. I don't think she has any reason to quit her show over this. She stood for something and now she's substanciated the opposite by stepping down? She's Dr Laura! Controversy is her gig!

I'm going to look for a YouTube of the Larry King interview last night that I missed.
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[cslewislover]

Did you have a link to that? Did you mean you were going to try and find it?

[Gabrielman]

Hm.... well I would like to know what you are talking about, lol as there is not link. Was this just on youtube, or was it taken from a news station and then put on youtube? Wait, I just found something on yahoo about it hold on.... Ah! Here is a censored version of part of it, and cometary http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/ ... l=21429358

[BavarianWheels]

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I'll look for it this evening...well, after the Dodger game.
(seats three rows behind the Dodger dugout which include free food, drinks (non-alcoholic), and waiter service) Can't wait!
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[cslewislover]

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I'll look for it this evening...well, after the Dodger game.
(seats three rows behind the Dodger dugout which include free food, drinks (non-alcoholic), and waiter service) Can't wait!
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Wow, well have fun!

Gab found a little thing on it, and it sounded like she apologized because she had to, and that she's resigning because she wants to be able to say what she wants. That's the little I've gathered, I think, so far. She said she was making a point by using that word; I'm sure she was. I don't see why it is wrong to use that word when we use it in the same sense as the Blacks that use it. We're censored for saying it even in that way; it's weird. The 1st amendment is like for only certain classes or groups of people any more.

[BavarianWheels]

Gab found a little thing on it, and it sounded like she apologized because she had to, and that she's resigning because she wants to be able to say what she wants. That's the little I've gathered, I think, so far. She said she was making a point by using that word; I'm sure she was. I don't see why it is wrong to use that word when we use it in the same sense as the Blacks that use it. We're censored for saying it even in that way; it's weird. The 1st amendment is like for only certain classes or groups of people any more.

My feelings too.

I didn't hear her reasoning for resigning, but initially I had thought that she was scared to continue on that path. If she's resigning to stick to her guns, then good for her.
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[tidalforce]

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I'll look for it this evening...well, after the Dodger game.
(seats three rows behind the Dodger dugout which include free food, drinks (non-alcoholic), and waiter service) Can't wait!
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Wow, well have fun!

Gab found a little thing on it, and it sounded like she apologized because she had to, and that she's resigning because she wants to be able to say what she wants. That's the little I've gathered, I think, so far. She said she was making a point by using that word; I'm sure she was. I don't see why it is wrong to use that word when we use it in the same sense as the Blacks that use it. We're censored for saying it even in that way; it's weird. The 1st amendment is like for only certain classes or groups of people any more.

She ended the rant by saying "don't marry outside of your race". That's perhaps not indicative of someone using it "in the same sense as the blacks that use it", i.e. as a colloquial term between friends rather than a pejorative. It's also not indicative of someone using the word as an etymologist might.

She came across as incredibly ignorant.

[BavarianWheels]

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I listened to a segment of her interview with Larry King, but the segement was only 6 minutes. Didn't have time to look for another or the whole.

What I did hear her saying is that she apologized for getting everybody up in arms and upsetting the sponsors of the show. She's definitely apologetic, but not for her ideas, but rather how her ideas made everyone else feel. I support this. She is quitting the radio business and will continue to write books, her website, and an online presence probably much like her radio show, but without the restrictions or censorship she says is present doing her radio show. I don't necessarily suppport everything she says, however I am in agreement with her on this issue. Namely, that if the N word is so bad and offensive, why does it lose this trait when passing the lips of another black person? Never in the history of the N word has it passed the lips of a black person except as a term of endearment? I find that hard to believe.

I need to hear the rest of the interview. Maybe I'll find it tonight.
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[tidalforce]

Namely, that if the N word is so bad and offensive, why does it lose this trait when passing the lips of another black person?

No word is offensive in itself. Not one.

The offence is in the sentiment, and her sentiment seemed to have offence and ignorance by the bucketload.

What makes you think that the word nigger gains any special status solely as a consequence of passing through a black person's lips?

[BavarianWheels]

Namely, that if the N word is so bad and offensive, why does it lose this trait when passing the lips of another black person?

No word is offensive in itself. Not one.

The offence is in the sentiment, and her sentiment seemed to have offence and ignorance by the bucketload.

Maybe so, but ignorance, as I see it, in not understanding why there would be so much sensitivity when it is used often and in public ALL the time by many.

What makes you think that the word nigger gains any special status solely as a consequence of passing through a black person's lips?

I don't...my point exactly. It's a racial epithet, no doubt in my mind, so if so, why not make it so for ANY one to use, regardless of race? Whether it is used ON PURPOSE as an racial epithet or as a term of endearment within a race, in my mind, does not change its hostile basis. It remains a word that IS a racial epithet.
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[tidalforce]

But it isn't inherently racist for a person who isn't black to use the word nigger. It's an epithet only when used as one - no matter the ethnicity of the person using it.

[BavarianWheels]

But it isn't inherently racist for a person who isn't black to use the word nigger. It's an epithet only when used as one - no matter the ethnicity of the person using it.

And that's exactly the point Dr Laura was trying to make. If it's racially hostile, it's ALWAYS racially hostile.
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[Canuckster1127]

But it isn't inherently racist for a person who isn't black to use the word nigger. It's an epithet only when used as one - no matter the ethnicity of the person using it.

It's often an epithet when it is perceived as one regardless of the intent of the one using it.

[cslewislover]

@ Tidalforce. Really, she said don't marry outside of your race? I wonder why. I don't have any vested interest in Dr. Laura - it's been a long time since I've listened to her - it just surprised me, knowing what I'd known from the past. Did it seem that there was some reason why she said that?

Bav, maybe you were able to see the rest of the interview . . .

[zoegirl]

Is this Laura SChelssinger? I must confess I got tired of here rants. Her style was something that personally ended up grating on my nerves.