Word: slurringly
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...turned comic (think Michael Richards) shoulda stayed the hell clear of the word--they all help mark the ascension of black America through the cultural landscape. In art and letters and theater and comedy, this one word, this mangle of Latin and French and Spanish, has been description and slur and salutation, and in each incarnation a curio of our society...
Should we also toss on the fire Dick Gregory's autobiography, written for cross-consumption as a harsh accounting of the racial indignities heaped upon a young black as he travels from boy to man? The book's ultimate satirical trick was to flip the slur into a sales tool. Its title: Nigger! "Whenever you hear the word 'nigger,'" Gregory wrote in the introduction, "you'll know they're advertising my book." Call a man a nigger, earn a brother a dollar...
That last is actually the more interesting question, though not for business reasons. After Richards' slur, the analysis emphasized how "lovable" his character Kramer was. But Seinfeld wasn't universally loved. The most popular show among white viewers, it was a distant runner-up among blacks, and minorities criticized it for having all white stars and portraying people of color as stereotypes or buffoons (the Johnnie Cochran--like lawyer; Babu, the Pakistani restaurateur). Did the critics have a point? It's going to be hard to look the same way, say, at the episode in which Kramer inadvertently dresses...
...Sept. 17, murdered the nun in Somalia. Over the course of a month, Benedict issued a series of partial apologies and corrections unprecedented in the papacy. He expressed regret to those offended, summoned a group of Muslim notables to make the point personally and disowned the "evil and inhuman" slur on Muhammad as Manuel's sentiment but not his own. He even issued a second version of the speech to reflect those sentiments...
...might have fire in his belly, but he also had a foot in his mouth. Allen's infamous "macaca" gaffe was followed by a series of muddled apologies and non-apologies that elevated the obscure racial slur into headline status. Then, amid speculation about Allen's possible Jewish heritage, Allen told a reporter that questions about that heritage amounted to "aspersions" on his character. Never mind that the chatter turned out to have a concrete source: Allen's mother was, in fact, Jewish, though Allen took pains to emphasize he was not raised in the faith. "I still...