“Radio-Canada blamed for its use of the n-word” headlined The duty, on June 30. The article in question summarizes an ill-founded decision by the CRTC, blaming the host and columnist of a radio program for having mentioned the title of the controversial work white niggers of america following a controversy at the University of Ottawa. Clearly, the host and columnist were not using the title of the book in question to offend the African-Canadian community. But the use of the word in question, regardless of the context, is extraordinarily emotionally charged and may, in some cases, lead to unwanted censorship. That said, what about the expression “the n-word”, now used by all the media and commentators when they have to deal with the thorny subject? What word comes to mind when you read or hear the expression “the n-word”? Unless you’re cut off from the world, you’ll automatically think of the word nigger. This expression, borrowed from English, not to say from the American “ n word », shouldn’t it also be banished from our vocabulary since each time it is used, we know exactly what word it refers to? I don’t know how the African-Canadian community perceives the expression “the n-word”. But it seems to me that this expression is a clumsy and condescending subterfuge, and I am surprised that it is so easily put up with. Wouldn’t it be better to use the right word to which the expression refers while limiting its use to precise and restrictive contexts, of an academic or literary nature?
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