Racist v Racial

Too many words for my half-asleep brain, so, didn't read thoroughly. Will try again after the other eye is open.

But my 2¢ anyway: a word I don't see in the article is "racial." One can argue that racial traits and tendencies exist, and acknowledge differences, without being exactly racist in the bigoted sense.

Now, a story.

In college, in Wisconsin, I, fresh from Oklahoma, was talking to a guy from Detroit. Somehow the N word came up. I have never on my life called anyone a Ni@@er, but I have stories that employ the word. Like, the reason a nearby road used to be called Ni@@er's Gap. (Because blacks fled through that passage fleeing the 1920 Tulsa race riot.)

My Detroit friend heard me utter the forbidden word. He demanded, say that again. I stupidly said, what? He said, say Ni@@er. I did. Repeat several times. He concludes, "Sure sounds hateful when you say it!" Bob later told me he had me pegged for a racist Southern bigot. Ear of the beholder. I obviously have no fear of language (and mask the word here only for Ace's sake.)

Bob told me the house he lived in was the only one on the block not damaged in the Detroit riots, because Bob's family, black, were upstairs, and a white family lived downstairs. That was his native culture.

That was considerably different from my upbringing! Our town was racially divided and unequal, and the only blacks I knew as a kid were folks who worked at white people's homes. However, they were some of the finest, most decent Christian folks of my experience. Culture can be tricky like that.

Oops - sorry for putting out too many words myself.