Just saying nigger is not in and of itself racist, Rabbi Sol. It is perfectly legitimate to equate the use of hate language toward one group of people such as the use of the word "nigger" against American Blacks and the use of the word "nigger lover" toward people like my mother, to the use of other hate language toward other groups of people, if it helps people recognize that what they are engaging in is hate language. And that is what I was attempting to do here on this thread.

I never heard the "k" word as I was growing up, and I never knew what it was supposed to mean until I was in my twenties. Same goes for all other racial and ethnic slurs. I did know about the word, "nigger" because my parents prepared me for the possibility that I might hear it being used against my mother's Black civil rights worker friends, and the phrase "nigger-lover" because it might be used against my mother. I think they were correct in preparing me for this possibility.