DR. LAURA'S N-WORD RANT

Here we go again. Another conservative complaining about Black people calling society out on its racist invectives. And it is always those conservatives who are good for screwing with people of color in the first place. This time we are really pulling someone out of the mothballs, because when was the last time you have heard anything from the harpy known as Dr. Laura Schlessinger? Still partying like it’s 1999 – the time she was at the peak of her right-wing infamy – Dr. Laura tried to do the usual rationalizations about white people who make jokes out of racial stereotypes, expecting her African American caller who was married to a white man to just lighten up when he does it. The caveat? She peppers it with the N-Word. 11 times. In five minutes. And it’s the typical logic: Black comedians use the N-Word all the time, so it should be perfectly fine for her to do so. One of those comedians is Chris Rock, and a few years back he made the point that white people basically abused the privilage by their usage of it being a flat-out insult, much like other racial slurs. Coming from the mouth of Dr. Laura, that exactly what it is going to be, and the fact that the bulk of her rant was even more racist than the use of the N-Word illustrates that perfectly. Never mind declaring that what her caller’s husband is doing isn’t racist. We’re used to that kind of dismissal. Saying to her caller just before she hangs up that  “If you’re that hypersensitive about color and don’t have a sense of humor, don’t marry outside of your race” is straight up BS. Dr. Laura knows it too. She didn’t finish that show on Tuesday, scrubbed the rant from her website and apologized. Look, messing around is fine so long as there is a understanding and relationship behind doing so. The cartoon South Park gets away with a lot because folks know that there isn’t anything malicious to it. Same went for Dave Chapelle. Michael Richards didn’t because he was pissed off the time he tried to go off on a heckler that (much like the rest of the room in the first place) didn’t think he was funny. Don Imus didn’t get away with it because he had a history of screwing with black people, and after a while it got so old and tiresome that when he decided to zing the well-respected Rutgers Women’s Basketball Team as “nappy-headed hos”, folks were like, “Who the hell is he?” And Dr. Laura? The woman who usually reserves most of her hatemongering to the gay community (she once had to backtrack when she pissed off people after calling homosexuals “biological errors” and homosexuality “deviant”)? Let’s see how people take to this. If she shows up on one of Sean Hannity’s “Whitewash the White Racist” episodes, you know there’s a problem.

Huffington Post

Dr. Laura Schlessinger has apologized after a shocking rant on her radio show this week during which she said the n-word 11 times over the course of five minutes.

In conversation Tuesday with a black female caller who was complaining about her white husband’s racist friends and their use of the word, Schlessinger said:

Black guys use it all the time. Turn on HBO and listen to a black comic, and all you hear is n****, n*****, n*****. I don’t get it. If anybody without enough melanin says it, it’s a horrible thing. But when black people say it, it’s affectionate. It’s very confusing.

After a break, the caller said she was appalled by Schlessinger’s use of the word.

“Oh, then I guess you don’t watch HBO or listen to any black comedians,” she said. “My dear, the point I am trying to make…we’ve got a black man as president and we’ve got more complaining about racism than ever. I think that’s hilarious.”

Schlessinger and the caller then got into an exchange about the use of the word:

CALLER: Is it OK to say that word? Is it ever OK to say that word?
DR. LAURA: It depends how it’s said. Black guys talking to each other seem to think it’s ok.
CALLER: But you’re not black, they’re not black, my husband is white.
DR. LAURA: Oh, I see, so a word is restricted to race. Got it. Can’t do much about that.
CALLER: I can’t believe someone like you is on the radio spewing out the n***** word, and I hope everybody heard it.
DR. LAURA: I didn’t spew out the n***** word!
CALLER: You said “n*****, n*****, n*****” and I hope everybody heard it.
DR. LAURA: Yes they did, and I’ll say it again: n*****, n*****, n***** is what you hear on HBO.
[Crosstalk]
DR. LAURA: Why don’t you let me finish a sentence? Don’t take things out of context. Don’t NAACP me, leave them in context.

“If you’re that hypersensitive about color and don’t have a sense of humor, don’t marry outside of your race,” Schlessinger said after hanging up with the caller.