Keeping the Niggers Down

New York City has, in a symbolic gesture, banned the use of the "...most offensive word in the English language."

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2825447720070228

This means, among other things, that showing the excellent movie, Pulp Fiction, is now strictly proscribed.

David Allan Coe can not perform his great song, "If That A'int Country" in NYC. ("Trying like the devil to find the lord/Working like a nigger for my room and board.")

Elvis Costello can not perform "Oliver's Army" in the Big Apple. ("One more widow/One less white nigger.")

Randy Newman is screwed if he wants to play "Rednecks." ("Gathering them up/from miles around./Keeping the niggers down.")

Senator Robert Byrd (D-KKK) is banned, too. It seems that the Klan tends to use the "most offensive word in the English language" on a rather frequent basis; and, in the not-so-distant past, the good senator used that word, without a bit of remorse...and not a shred of complaint from the media.

What a joke. A symbolic ban on a word, just to make people feel better.

On one level, it is funny, that people are so caught up in things that they get offended by a word that is so overused that it has lost all pejorative meaning.

On another plane, it is outright discrimination against the very people who claim to be offended by the frequent use of the word. I hear it on a near daily basis, used as a greeting (e.g., "What's up, my nigga?").

On another, it is a clear violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America. Maybe the idiots in New York City should give it a read. Then, listen to some David Allan Coe, Elvis Costello, and Randy Newman.

Ed. Note: Reading this post in the City of New York, and its Burroughs, may cause you to be subjected to symbolic punishment, to the fullest extent of the law.