Obligatory Trayvon Martin Verdict Post

Rachel Jeantel, the improbable anti-media darling of the Trayvon Martin trial, recently gave America a linguistic seminar:

Jeantel explained to Morgan that “the whole world say it’s a racist word” but the version of the word that she testified Martin had used in reference to Zimmerman, spelled “n-i-g-g-a” doesn’t mean what most people think it means. It doesn’t mean a “black male” as Morgan assumed, she said, but rather any kind of man, including “Chinese” for example. Morgan helpfully pointed out that that’s the version rappers use in their music.

“But nigger,” Jeantel said, stressing the “-er.,” is a “racist word.” She said “I’d advise you not to be by black people” when you say that word, Jeantel explained, “because they’re not going to have it like that.”

"...they're not going to have it like that." Are you threatening me, Master Jedi?

Honestly, I don't know if she's speaking the truth here. One is tempted to give her the benefit of a doubt, but it would strike me as unfathomably audacious to call a black man "nigga," even if I knew him well. I'd probably get my white ass whooped (deservedly so, I think). And while I agree that "nigger" is more offensive, I really don't think there's a whole lot of difference, at least when one gets down to the nitty-gritty of things.

For some reason this odd semantical justification got Rush Limbaugh all hot and bothered:

“So, ‘nigga,’ with an ‘a’ on the end — well I think I can [say it] now. Isn’t that the point — because it’s not racist? That’s the point. I could be talking about a male, I could be — a Chinese male, a guy at the laundromat — I could be talking about a man. That’s what she said it means."

Seriously, a Chinese guy at the laundromat? I'm not one for political correctness, but that seems a bit much.

Anyways, I got an e-mail from MoveOn yesterday (yes, dear readers, I subscribe to their mailing list---all for you, all the time). "Tell AARP to stop advertising on the Rush Limbaugh Show," it implored me. Petitioner Carol Wallin stated breathlessly:

AARP advertising is filling dead air on the Rush Limbaugh Show. Limbaugh calls women "feminazis," "infobabes," "sexretaries," and, worst of all, "sluts" and "prostitutes." Limbaugh calls Latinos "weak," "lazy," and "unskilled."

And, in the wake of the Trayvon Martin murder trial, Limbaugh even used the "n-word" and claimed it was not racist.

Emphasis not added! I'm no fan of Limbaugh (though I do find the term "feminazi" to be inexhaustibly hilarious), but come on. Limbaugh did not "use" the "n-word" in the "wake" of the Martin murder trial; he spoke it in response to a woman's discussing it on a nationwide, widely-viewed news broadcast. And it was not he who claimed it was not racist---it was Jeantel! MoveOn can't get its facts right, let alone spell out a simple slang word; they not only have to resort to a pitiful genteelism, but they even couch the euphemism itself in scare quotes. So apparently MoveOn "won't have it like that," either.