Part 1: There is a case of assault (register to read) in New York City in which one young man, "white", is accused of hitting another young man, "black", with a baseball bat. It is being tried as a hate crime because the alleged assaulter called his victim a "nigger" in the process. The defense has been quoted as saying that is "is expected to suggest that a young man growing up in a mixed neighborhood in New York City uses "the N word" as a matter of course and that the word no longer carries the racially charged overtones it has historically."

Part 2: Last week we were visited by a relative from Salt Lake who said that she couldn't get into an educational program that she was interested in because "the niggers and the Mormons are getting all of the slots". I went absolutely ballistic, which isn't at all my personal style.

I am pushing 60, and was raised with the understanding that this was an extremely rude word, akin to kike, sheeny, spic and others, and was absolutely not to be used, under any circumstances. And I am entirely aware that at least some urban "blacks"/African-Americans use it toward each other, and it appears in blacksploitation movies, but I see that as a different issue. So my question. Admittedly the Mudcat is a restricted sample, but have times changed to the extent that this word has, or should, return to normal use?