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Eddie Griffin's show halted because he said "nigger" during his stand-up routine.

Yay, the home of the free and the land of the brave now has an actual list of BANNED WORDS. See kids, it's not just right wing fundie fanatics crapping on the spirit of the Constitution, that's a game we all can play!

Even better, now we'll have to put up with weeks of apologies and Oprah because of this, just wait.

Technorati Tags: Fear, TEH STOOPUD

Comments

Yeah, they were stupid in that they really should of known that Eddie Griffin is likely to use such language.

But by the same token, if the word, "Nigger" is going to be a social taboo, it should be a social taboo for everyone. I never liked the idea that blacks could use it exclusively, it defeated the purpose of the taboo. Instead of just condemning hateful speech, its use became a wedge to further divide.

So I find it reassuring that it's use is being discouraged in a broader sense.

Posted by: Shawn Levasseur | September 6, 2007 10:15 AM

I would have expected the public to revolt when he was silenced, but no. Mind control?

Posted by: Planeten Paultje | September 6, 2007 10:28 AM

The whole concept of a "bad word" makes zero sense, and Sharpton's efforts in "getting rid of the 'N' word." are doomed to failure.

Can the word be used in a hurtful manner? Sure, but it is the intent of the person doing the speaking that causes the hurt, not the word itself. The mere existence of a word is only hurtful to those who are too stupid to realize this.

On the other hand, people who use "curse" words to hurt others are simply too stupid to find more efficient ways of hurting. :)

Posted by: Clark Cox | September 7, 2007 12:52 PM

Shawn, the problem is, that by reacting that strongly to the word, they've given it MORE power. Used to be that eddie griffin's routine would have amuse some, pissed others off, and so forth. Now, all someone has to do is say "Nigger" and bam, you can completely fuck up an entire audience's night.

That's not "better", that's actually worse, and it still does nothing to fix the root cause, of which "nigger is only a lame symptom. I mean, my god, you cannot say that word in an analytical sense. It's effectively FORBIDDEN.

There's one N-word, one C-word, a B-word, and two F-words. Pretty soon, you're going to be able to have entire conversations that consist of nothing but *-word.

Stupidity applied consistently does not become smart.

I really want to do a second podcast, that would be nothing but racial and other slurs jammed together, done to "Flight of the Bumblebee", just to show how stupid the idea that a word can cause harm regardless of context.

This is getting WAY out of hand.

Posted by: John C. Welch | September 7, 2007 1:23 PM