Anti-Gay Slurs: What a Laugh

[RockHard]

Charles Isherwood has a piece in today's NY Times, "Anti-Gay Slurs: The Latest in Hilarity." It's an interesting read relevant to many discussions/arguments partaken on this board.

 

A paragraph that stood out for me:

 

Lenny Bruce was the first comic to start a conversation about “those words” on the nightclub stage. In one of his most famous, and controversial, routines, he asked if there were any African-Americans in the house — using the usual offensive term. He went on to run down a litany of bigoted epithets. His point was that by keeping the words taboo, we unwittingly preserve their power to hurt. He ended the bit by suggesting that if they were allowed to fully enter the cultural conversation, their batteries would go dead.

 

http://select.nytimes.com/preview/2006/12/17/theater/1154657417670.html?8tpf&emc=tpf

 

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