is allegedly what, according to Fox News, the Rev. Jesse Jackson called those he criticized Barack Obama for talking down to during his recent “hot mike” faux pas.
Allegedly, I hasten to repeat, not only because we haven’t yet heard the snippet, but because Fox has only accused Jackson of “using the N-word”. In point of fact, Jackson may have instead sinned only by viciously corrupting the pronunciation of “nuclear” into its well known, utterly vulgar and debased alternative “nucular”—but of course we can’t be sure.
It’s clear that Fox would like us to believe that Jackson said “nigger”, but of course to claim so directly, though unequivocal, would be offensive, so they have elected to exercise the better part of valor by only alluding to his offensively saying “nigger” without allowing themselves to become mired in the offense of the saying of “nigger” by actually saying he did so.
You said it. I didn’t say it. I said you said it, but I didn’t say it myself. I could have said it in making the gains I hope to have made by using it to say you said it, but I didn’t say it myself. I didn’t have to. I can just say you said it, without actually saying it, leaving you to be the only one having actually said it, while I can take the credit for using it to say you said it. Even though I myself didn’t say it. You said it. By saying something alluding to it to say you said it without saying it myself, I win, you lose.
I like that weapon. It’s like that gun used in The Fifth Element, where the bullets seek and find their target on their own without the user actually having to aim it. Or like the internecine wars between four-year-olds.
For my part, I’m going to give Jackson the benefit of the doubt and assume he only referred to his fellow blacks by the casually in-group acceptable “niggers” and did not gratuitously assail us with yet another instance of that patently offensive N-word “nucular”.
Reminds me of another quote from The Fifth Element, apropropriate to the language reference:
Corbin Dallas: Lady, I only speak two languages: English and bad English.
I’ll concede that one, Franklin. I feel like I owe Red here (wherever she is), who used to teach the language, a standing weekly apology just for all too often serving up the rhetorical equivalent of a flock of grackles attacking a fresh acne outbreak. ;-)
My excuse (read: conditioning), Robert, is growing up the child of immigrants, both fluent in several languages (my father was a polyglot), both sticklers for “proper language”. My mother’s favorite parent-teacher meeting occurred after I had corrected the teacher’s grammar during class, and I was right.
I have to say, though, considering the proclivities of my peer groups growing up, that by necessity I became fluent in Bad English, and to this day I can use it with the (ahem) best of them. :-)
One more thing: being the unrepentent punster that I am, I thoroughly enjoy the turns of phrase you and Scott foist upon the readers of this forum. [F]lock of grackles attacking a fresh acne outbreak nearly caused an ad hoc dowsing of my monitor. ;-D
Door-to-door seller: Young man, may I speak to the lady of the house?
Junior: She ain’t here.
Dtds: Young man – where’s your grammar?
J: She ain’t here either.
Reminds me of a friends daughter getting off the school bus all upset. He asked what was wrong. She said one of the older boys called her BFF the F word. Just before he headed over to talk with parents of said hooligan, he thought to ask what the F word was. Her response was “Fat”.
I suspect we wont be seeing Jesse running for president anymore.
Steve
Robert, you owe me no apology. Even the people who say “nucular” owe me no apology, because “nuculus” would have been the proper diminutive of the Latin “nux” (meaning nut) except that the Romans apparently couldn’t pronounce it, so instead it kept coming out “nucleus,” leading to the current state of affairs. And they tried to convince me that classics was a useless field of endeavor!