[DcifrThs]

that phone callw as a lot more innocuous than i thought it would be.

the real problem here is that he called his son's girlfriend a n******

personally i don't use the word at all. my brother does in the context of rap lyrics. if i'm singing along or reciting a verse i use "jigger" as a replacement so as not to have to say the word. he thinks its just a word in that context and i asked him "if you were hanging out with [name of one of his close black friends], telling him about a line you heard w/ the word in it, would you say n****?" and he said no...

anyways, the point of that is to say that the use of the word is not a sufficient condition to identify a racist. nor is it a necessary condition. the attitude and prejudices a person has identifies him/her as a racist.

i don't think that there is enough information in that phone call to clearly state w/o doubt that dog is a racist.

the problem for him though, is that he sure SOUNDS like a racist w/ the "i don't want some n***** hearing me say the word n*****" so instead of simply NOT SAYING THE WORD, he chooses to remove the girl from the picture?? thats kinda odd but possibly not racist.

odds are definitely long against him being not racist, but use of the word doesn't automatically classify him as such.

sharpton i'm sure will require kissing of his ass as repentance though.

Barron

PS- while getting my MBA in st.louis 4 of my closest friends and those i hung out w/ the most were black from varying backgrounds (midwest and southern religious guys, and 2 senegalese guys). i asked what they thought about the word and they all basically said "it is an offensive word, i typically wouldn't be friends w/ somebody i heard use it in an offensive manner." the 2 senegalese wouldn't ever even use the word and the southerner would use it only w/ his black friends and the midwest calls all of his friends his n*****s (including me)...so go figure.