Old Habits Die Hard

I am from the southern part of the United States. Growing up in the sixties and seventies I know people used what are now considered deplorable words for people's ethnic origins. The "N" word to be one of them. I heard it growing up and believe me; older people are not going to give up that word no matter how many times you tell them it's wrong to use it- I've tried too many times myself to stop them. Now I won't say 'I never used that word.' There probably isn't anyone who grew up then in that atmosphere who didn't. Some of us just learned not to use it. I didn't like that word anymore than I liked the derogatory phrase for poor white people (questionable morals or not)- 'white trash'. I heard that a lot and not just from the African American community- by the way they called us 'crackers'*. I haven't heard that lately though. I remember knowing even before I started school (for some reason I can't explain) that if I dropped the 'N' word, I probably would have the ever living crap beat out of me and not by my parents. Someone once yelled it across the playground at school, and because it was in my general vicinity, even though it wasn't me, I got accused of it, and back then corporal punishment was the way they handled things, and I got clobbered. It reinforced my innate intuition that its use was not acceptable.  

Now, fast forward to the issue with Paula Deen, renowned cook, cookbook writer, restaurateur, and host of three television cooking shows on the Food Network.  Because she has used it in the past, she is now out of her hosting position. She'll probably lose her cookware line and possibly any publishing deals. Her restaurant may suffer as well. Whether the person who accused her of using that word while planning a wedding reception was telling the truth or not, those of us who were not there have no idea of the veracity of the allegations. It is he said/ she said. As she said, it is just something everyone from the south back then used as everyday language. We can understand that part. Does that make it okay to use it? No, of course not. It wasn't okay then either, but the wheels of civility, they do turn slow. The best we can hope for is that the younger generations teach that it is not alright to use racial slurs (any of them) so that it is not part of the culture any longer. Will you answer that challenge?

*I once looked up the term 'cracker' when I was a kid. I turns out it refers to the Spanish and/or Seminole cattle drovers who used whips and cracked them to get the cattle to go where they wanted them. It probably also spread to the plantation owners and managers who used whips on the slaves, but they left that part out of the definition. Imagine that.